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THE GLOBALISATION OF INDIAN

ECONOMY

The early 1990s was a wake-up time for Indian economy. Having followed the
Soviet Union in a socialist-style economy since independence, things were changing
rapidly indeed. The Soviet Union had broken down, or rather was going to break down
and it looked as if its allies too would go the same way. With the policies of glasnost and
perestroika coming into being, the power of the Soviet Union was stuttering. Perestroika
was a program instituted in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s to
restructure Soviet political and economic policy. Gorbachev proposed reducing the direct
involvement of the Communist Party leadership in the country's governance and
increasing the local governments' authority. Seeking to bring the Soviet Union up to
economic par with capitalist countries such as Germany, Japan, and the U.S., he
decentralized economic controls and encouraged enterprises to become self-financing.
The economic bureaucracy, fearing loss of its power and privileges, obstructed much of
his program.

With all this happening in the Soviet Union, it was only going to be a matter of
time before India did the same thing. During that time, our present Prime Minster, Dr.
Manmohan Singh was the Finance Minister and he decided that steps will have to be
taken to avert this. With Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, he brought about changes
in the Indian economy that resound even today. These changes all-in-all amounted to
opening up the Indian economy.

Globalization has brought about several changes for the good as any one can see.
Technology, business, development of infrastructure and an umpteen number of other
things have been introduced to us by the West. Undeniable. Apart from these, changes
have also been made on the social front. Globalization has improved the lives of many a
people in our country. Globalization has brought about invaluable changes in the field of
science and technology-changes that have changed our world. On the other hand,
Globalization also has had a multitude of bad impacts on India. Development has led to
pollution and it has also led to the loss of several cultural values. The values associated
with one culture i.e. the west has spread all over the world and the culture of several other
countries has been lost. An undesirable effect as one can see.

An old rule of nature is that variety must be present for any person or group of
people to develop, to evolve to become stronger and stronger. Without variety, as I said
earlier, the contents on the plate become bland. A variety of genes allows organisms to
adapt-that is the key word. What holds for a single individual must hold for a group of
individuals. A singular lifestyle every where I must say will be detrimental to the world at
large. But the biggest problem that I think globalization has been responsible for is
pollution, a phenomenon that threatens to destroy our world.

The Indian economy has certainly developed over the last few years. It has been
often said that our entrepreneurs are extremely good and our population is extremely
young and so India will probably be able to advance forward, with great strides. A
heartening thought indeed! It is expected that the Indian workforce will increase heavily
over the next few years and by 2020, it is expected that one in four workers in the world
will be Indian. China however has an aging population and will probably not have so
many workers in the young range. This is mainly due to the birth control measures taken
by Chinese leaders earlier which are finally taking effect. Our burgeoning population is
thus seen to be no impediment at all. Another fortunate coincidence is the fact that many
of these workers are English educated. With the prevalence of English in trade and
political circles, it looks as if it will work to India’s advantage in the end. So we find that
India’s occupation by England had its advantages too, big though its disadvantages were.
Every cloud has a silver lining, you see.
India has survived the onslaught of the economic recession that hit the world
quite hard. While the developed countries reeled rather badly, India and China were able
to weather the economic crisis and go on. Even now, some countries have not recovered
from the effects of the crisis, but India and China are doing quite well, as we can see.
This shows that India’s economy will probably grow rather fitfully for many years yet to
come. However, we have to make haste, as infrastructure in India is in a very bad state.
The education system in India is usually considered to be quite bad and this can be a big
handicap in future. According to most sources, India will loose the ‘young workforce’
advantage by around 2050. In that short interval of time, India will have to somehow take
advantage of its educated workforce and convert it to tangible advantages.

Now, this time, this era is the time for globalization. Countries are improving
relations with each other and forming organizations in order to make their respective
economies stronger and provide security to their citizens. The time of waging war on
each other is over, exiled to the farthest realms of our misty past. Now, more than ever is
the time in which we will have to confine ourselves to peace and try to attain prosperity.
With the advent of time, we have become so good in killing each other that a mistake by
a country can wipe out the whole world if we are not careful. The shadow of nuclear
weapons hangs low and dark on all of us. On the other hand, indulging in currency wars
as some countries are doing is also not good, as economic wars may spill over and
become political wars and so on.

Globalization is happening everywhere. It is best not to fight it. Rather we must


join it and grow stronger with it. This is what India began to do just before the beginning
of the new millennium and it has provided rich dividends to its people. There is already
talk of India becoming an economic superpower in future and it looks as if it is not just
talk. India certainly has got potential. That has been seen by the way it was able to handle
the economic recession that laid low many other economically strong countries. Another
thing is that India has been able to achieve so much in so less time. We should remember
that it has been less than two decades since India’s economy truly opened up. In
economic and political parlance this is but a pittance. India has got quite some amount of
time, but not too much in which it can regain its place in the firmament, rising up from
ground. Quite a dramatic statement, I must admit, but true in its way. India has got a
golden chance right now. With the weakening of the United States and the rise of
organizations such as the EU and others, it looks as if a multi-polar world will still come
into being and it looks as if India will be well-placed to play an important role in it.

PRATHEEK PRAVEEN KUMAR

prytheek@yahoo.com

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