GLOBALIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT : SOME ISSUES AND EMPIRICAL FACTS

EMPIRICAL FACTS Somesh K.Mathur 1 1.0 INTRODUCTION It is being increasingly recognized that development is about the quality of people's lives and expansion of their ability to shape their own futures. This generally calls for higher per-capita income via economic growth. Moreover, it involves more equitable education and job opportunities, greater gender equality, better health and nutrition, cleaner and more sustainable natural environment and expansion of civil liberties (World Bank Report on Quality of Growth, 2000). Globalization has been defined as the process "by which markets and production in different countries are becoming increasingly interdependent due to dynamics of trade in goods and service and the flows of capital and technology"(OECD report, page 7). The growing interdependence is revealed not only by the rising ratio of trade to output, but also by increased foreign investment, international joint ventures, inter-firm agreements, reduced trade barriers, emergence of a relatively open international trading system and liberal trading policy climate created by the various multilateral trading rounds and unilateral and regional liberalization efforts. Information and communication revolution in the 1990s is a major contributor towards rising world trade to output ratio. Rising ratio of world trade to world output can be viewed as an indicator of globalization. If the question of the definition of both the terms is resolved the much more pertinent question is to study their inter-relationship and examine whether the two are mutually compatible. The events of the last two years in the global economy indicates as a main challenge, the seizing the opportunities open by globalization while at the same time managing the tensions and problems it poses. The main objective of this paper is to discuss the opportunities and the constraints imposed by globalization on the ability to undertake autonomous national development and articulate ways and means to manage the tensions and problems of globalization and to seize the opportunities of globalization. Our objective will be also to examine two long-term goals of equal importance: Environmental sustainability and Socio-economic equality. These goals often stand in contradiction to each other but strategically seen, they are nevertheless interdependent. A partial or total a renunciation of any one of these goals would endanger achieving any of the others. Globalization, then, is a process which has to be structured quickly and in a positive way. If this is to be systematically achieved, the population of the world will have to assume a high degree of responsibility for a common future. Humanity’s future will only be secured if our intercourse with nature becomes more respectful, sparing, and sustainable. This will require not only all of our efforts to make use of technical advances to increase efficiency, but will also demand that we develop new sustainable life-styles which, at least, in part will require some material renunciation. It is against this background that the rest of this paper is divided into seven sections. Section two looks at the concept of globalization.Section three and four looks at the opportunities and tensions and dilemmas of globalization The inequality and unsustainability problems are respectively the focus of sections fifth and sixth. The digitalization process as a potential for global solution is presented in section seven while section eight concludes the paper.