Globalization Introduction

Since 1991 the word Globalization has been an very important one in the global scenario and as well in the individual lives of people. This popularity and importance to this word can be traced back to several centuries and its various facets can be explored by various points of view and its various approaches. But before we move on we must know the basic definition of Globalization that is used around the world globally and on which the public opinion is based upon. Globalization (or Globalisation) refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people, and economic activity. It is generally used to refer to economic globalization: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import quotas. Globalization contributes to economic growth in developed and developing countries through increased specialization and the principle of comparative advantage. In early 1990s the Indian economy had witnessed dramatic policy changes. The idea behind the new economic model known as Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization in India (LPG), was to make the Indian economy one of the fastest growing economies in the world. An array of reforms was initiated with regard to industrial, trade and social sector to make the economy more competitive. The economic changes initiated have had a dramatic effect on the overall growth of the economy. It also heralded the integration of the Indian economy into the global economy. The Indian economy was in major crisis in 1991 when foreign currency reserves went down to $1 billion and inflation was as high as 17%. Fiscal deficit was also high and NRI's were not interested in investing in India. India gained highly from the LPG model as its GDP increased to 9.7% in 2007-2008. In respect of market capitalization, India ranks fourth in the world. But even after globalization, condition of agriculture has not improved. The share of agriculture in the GDP is only 17%. The number of landless families has increased and farmers are still committing suicide. But seeing the positive effects of globalization, it can be said that very soon India will overcome these hurdles too and march strongly on its path of development.
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Laws, economies and social movements have become international in nature and not only the Globalization of the Economy but also the Globalization of Politics, Culture and Law is the order of the day. The formation of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), International Monetary Fund and the concept of free trade has boosted globalization. In this study paper let us see the various positive and negative facets of Globalization and its implicated impact on not just the economy but also the socio-cultural impact it has created.

Definitions of Globalization
1. Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990), p. 64. Globalization can thus be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa. 2. Robert Cox, Multilateralism and the Democratization of World Order, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 15. The characteristics of the globalization trend include the internationalizing of production, the new international division of labor, new migratory movements from South to North, the new competitive environment that accelerates these processes, and the internationalizing of the statemaking states into agencies of the globalizing world.

3. Mike Featherstone, Undoing Culture, Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity (London: Sage, 1995), pp. 6-7 The process of globalization suggests simultaneously two images of culture. The first image entails the extension outwards of a particular culture to its limit, the globe. Heterogeneous cultures become incorporated and integrated into a dominant culture which eventually covers the whole world. The second image points to the compression of cultures. Things formerly held apart are now brought into contact and juxtaposition.

4. Richard L. Harris, The Global Context of Contemporary Latin American Affairs, in S. Halebsky and R. L. Harris (eds.), Capital, Power, and Inequality in Latin America (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), p. 279 and 80, Globalization refers in general to the worldwide integration of humanity and the compression of both the temporal and spatial dimensions of planetwide human interaction. It has aggravated many of the region's most chronic problems--such as the pronounced degree of economic exploitation and social inequality that have characterized Latin America since it came under European colonial domination in the sixteenth century.

5. M. Albrow, The Global Age, 1996, p. 88 The historical transformation constituted by the sum of particular forms and instances of... [m]aking or being made global (i) by the active dissemination of practices, values, technology and other human products throughout the globe (ii) when global practices and so on exercise an increasing influence over peoples lives (iii) when the globe serves as a focus for, or a premise in shaping, human activities.

6. Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: The Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), p. 4, Globalization is a world of things that have different speeds, axes, points of origin and termination, and varied relationships to institutional structures in different regions, nations, or societies. 7. Charles Oman, The Policy Challenges of Globalisation and Regionalisation, OECD Development Centre, Policy Brief No. 11, 1996, p. 5. Globalisation is the growth, or more precisely the accelerated growth, of economic activity across national and regional political boundaries. It finds expression in the increased movement of tangible and intangible goods and services, including ownership rights, via trade and investment, and often of people, via migration. It can be and often is facilitated by a lowering of
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government impediments to that movement, and/or by technological progress, notably in transportation and communications. The actions of individual economic actors, firms, banks, people, drive it, usually in the pursuit of profit, often spurred by the pressures of competition. Globalisation is thus a centrifugal process, a process of economic outreach, and a microeconomic phenomenon. 8. International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook, A Survey by the Staff of the International Monetary Fund, Meeting the Challenges of Globalization in the Advanced Economies, in the World Economic and Financial Surveys, 1997, p. 45, http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/WEOMAY/Weocon.htm Globalization refers to the growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through the increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions in goods and services and of international capital flows, and also through the more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology.

9. The World Bank Group Globalization the growing integration of economies and societies around the world. 10. Melba Cuddy-Keane, Modernism, Geopolitics, Globalization, Modernism/Modernity, Vol. 10, No. 3, 2003, pp. 539-558, p. 553. Cultural globalization is distinguished by a consciousness of dwelling in the world, and a conception of that world as a fluid, interconnected, conflicted, and dynamic whole.

Popular Myths about Globalization

A very popular myth about globalization is that Globalization widens the gap between rich and poor. In the 1950s, the people of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea lived in typical developing-country poverty. But as other developing nations closed their doors to global markets, these four took the opposite approach. Today, and Im quoting from a magazine called The World and I: by deregulating their domestic economies and opening up to global markets, (these) Four Tigershave achieved standards of living equivalent to that of industrialized nationswith per-capita incomes in Hong Kong and Singapore rivaling those of the wealthiest Western nations. Thanks largely to globalization, the United Nations Human Development Index, which measures education, income and life expectancy around the world, shows steady improvement. Even so, the gap between rich and poor is increasing. Between countries. And within countries. This is an issue we must all be concerned about. But the cause is not globalization. The causes include population growthAIDSundeveloped social institutionsand governments that try to shut out the outside world. So globalization is not one of the problems, but one of the solutions.

Another popular myth about Globalization is destroying the environment. The ICC is about to release a report that makes an interesting point: It is the countries which have embraced and promoted globalization the industrialized democracies that have done the most to protect the environment.Granted, some of that has been complying with government regulation. Granted, there are those who think we should do more. But the point is: It is under democracy that environmental protection has flourished -- either because companies made the enlightened choice to protect their resources and communities, or because groups with stricter goals have, through a democratic government, put rules in place. Protecting the environment is a global matter that needs to be addressed at the global level and has been, through several international summits. More are scheduled. Meanwhile, what we accomplish globally is the sum of what we accomplish locally. And its the industrialized democracies that are accomplishing the most. That ICC report notes that Polands most difficult and costly task in joining the European Union will be to adopt and implement EU standards of environmental protection. Im all for preserving precious places. But as Edward M. Graham says his new book, Fighting the Wrong

Enemy Antiglobal Activists and Multinational Enterprises: a worldwide return to simple, organic, rural lifestyles is no answer at all. Three-quarters of Chinas population already has this lifestyleand most of them are desperate to escape. The answer is raising incomes and living standards, which brings a social commitment to clean air, clean water, and the other amenities that are both advanced and environmentally friendly.

A misunderstanding about globalization is the belief that MNEs develop homogeneous products for the world market and through their efficient production techniques are able to dominate local markets everywhere. In truth, multinationals have to adapt their products for the local market. For example, there is no worldwide, global car. Rather, there are regionally-based American, European, and Japanese factories that are supported by local regional suppliers who provide steel, plastic, paint, and other necessary inputs for producing autos for that geographic triad region. Another misunderstanding about globalization is the belief that MNEs are globally monolithic and excessively powerful in political terms. Research shows this is not so. MNEs are not monolithic; in fact, the largest 500 multinationals are spread across the triad economies of NAFTA, the EU, and Japan/Asia. Recent research shows that of these 500, there are 198 headquartered in NAFTA countries, 156 in the EU, and 125 in Japan/Asia.Additionally, these triad-based MNEs compete for global market shares and profits across a wide variety of industrial sectors and trade services. And this process of regional competition erodes the

possibility of sustainable long-term profits and the possibility of building strong, sustainable political advantage.

Globalization in India
India opened up the economy in the early nineties following a major crisis that led by a foreign exchange crunch that dragged the economy close to defaulting on loans. The response was a slew of Domestic and external sector policy measures partly prompted by the immediate needs and partly by the demand of the multilateral organisations. The new policy regime radically pushed forward in favour of a more open and market oriented economy. Major measures initiated as a part of the liberalisation and globalisation strategy in the early nineties included scrapping of the industrial licensing regime, reduction in the number of areas
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reserved for the public sector, amendment of the monopolies and the restrictive trade practices act, start of the privatisation programme, reduction in tariff rates and change over to market determined exchange rates. Over the years there has been a steady liberalisation of the current account transactions, more and more sectors opened up for foreign direct investments and portfolio investments facilitating entry of foreign investors in telecom, roads, ports, airports, insurance and other major sectors. The Indian tariff rates reduced sharply over the decade from a weighted average of 72.5% in 1991-92 to 24.6 in 1996-97.Though tariff rates went up slowly in the late nineties it touched 35.1% in 2001-02. India is committed to reduced tariff rates. Peak tariff rates are to be reduced to be reduced to the minimum with a peak rate of 20%, in another 2 years most non-tariff barriers have been dismantled by march 2002, including almost all quantitative restrictions. The implications of globalisation for a national economy are many. Globalisation has intensified interdependence and competition between economies in the world market. This is reflected in Interdependence in regard to trading in goods and services and in movement of capital. As a result domestic economic developments are not determined entirely by domestic policies and market conditions. Rather, they are influenced by both domestic and international policies and economic conditions. It is thus clear that a globalising economy, while formulating and evaluating its domestic policy cannot afford to ignore the possible actions and reactions of policies and developments in the rest of the world. This constrained the policy option available to the government which implies loss of policy autonomy to some extent, in decision-making at the national level.

Effect on Indian Agriculture

India has done very little reforms in agriculture to enable private and individual economic initiative that would help harness the benefits of globalisation. Despite this govt. created hurdles to globalisation, Indian agriculture has benefited substantially from whatever little globalisation that has been allowed in Indian agriculture. The farmers that got the exposure to global links of markets, technology and investment, benefited in terms of improving their yields, getting better prices and secured off take. In many areas of the country, tomatoes growers, potato farmers and
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fruit growers farmers benefited from tie-up and collaborations with ketchup, potato chips, fruit juices, etc. Indian agricultural exports have grown where Indian farmers in selected pockets are competitive: these include spices made from agricultural produce, flowers, mangoes, other fruitsrice, vegetables, pickels, papads, tobacco, etc. The e-choupals network created by an Indian company and the spread of mobile telephones have provided on line market price and climatic information on on-line real-time basis and helped them to get the best prices and sell to the most attractive buyers and brought them freedom from the clutches of the middlemen and traders. Because of the resistance from the traders and the politicians, more and more farmers are not getting the benefits of globalisation: vested interests are stopping the entry of more professional and honest buyers of agricultural produce of high quality for supply to urban areas through network of malls. Fishermen in Kerala have increased their incomes using mobile phones to find out the best mandis where the prices are the highest on each day. There has not been any negative effect of globalisation on Indian farming. But faulty and restrictive policies of Indian politicians have made it difficult for farmers to consolidate their holdings for larger scale commercial farming, acess to large, high paying buyers with retail chains, support of wellorganised transparent mandis not ruled by traders. As a result in many areas farmers have committed suicides because of crop failuers and high indebtedness. Using the old British Indian laws of land acquisition, the state govts. are forcing farmers to sell their lands for industries at prices they consider justified rather than asking industrialists and companies to bid for agricultural land which will increase the market prices of land,. Once these policy impediments are removed, globalisation will proceed in Agriculture and farming in the proper way and benefit Indin agriculture and farming throughout the country. India does not need all the land under agriculture now for agricultural use: much less area would suffice to feed the nation and export if agricultural productivity can be raise substantially through private investment in agriculture by companies that need agricultural produce for their business growth and India's economic growth. Globalisation has also had an adverse effect on our food security. Export oriented agriculture is gradually reducing the area of food cultivation, as more and more land is being used for cash crop production. This is helping the rich farmers who get all help from the government and increase their income by exporting their products. A continuation of this policy will only make us more and more dependent on food imports, and this thing may prove fatal for our country, as it has proved for many African countries.
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Moreover, even though our godowns have a stock of about 6 crore metric tonnes of food grains; people are starving all over the country. The government has failed to use the food grains it has for various food-for-work programmes; it is also refusing to sell these grains to the poor at cheaper rates through the public distribution system. Nor are there vigorous steps to effectively fight the drought and flood situations in different parts of the country. Thus the impact of globalisation on our agrarian sector has worsened the plight of agricultural workers to an alarming degree. The share of agriculture in our gross domestic product (GDP) has declined from 54.56 per cent in 1951-52 to 27.87 per cent in 1999-2000 --- almost a 50 per cent reduction. But the shift of labour force from agriculture to other sectors, as projected by the followers of the World Bank-IMF model, has not taken place. For, as much as 65 per cent of our workforce is still engaged in agriculture. These limitations are severely affecting the capacity of Indian agriculture to compete in the global market. Characterised by low and stagnating yields, a very large proportion of marginal, small and semi-medium holdings, a high proportion of landless labour households, and highly concentrated and food-oriented cropping system, Indian agriculture would therefore be facing serious challenges, both internal and external, in the process of fulfilling WTO commitments.

Socio Cultural Impacts of Globalization

Globalizations most profound impact is changing gender roles and securing womens place in the workplace. The empowerment of women in turn changes the hierarchical role distribution that works against women both in the family and in society at large. Increasing the need for higher education puts more women to school and upgrades the quality of mens professional training. Todays jobs are much more skill-intensive, and many educational systems around the world are ill prepared to provide more functional training to students for the types of new jobs available. One of the most interesting phenomena of globalization is the shaping of online communities. This process has led to the evolution of new identities for people around the world while disregarding where they live and what their nationality is. This is a new phase of acculturation.
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New ideas, new methods of work and good life and governance are being shared worldwide even in the most secluded places of the globe. All of these changes have substantial impacts on the family because the family is the strategic social unit where division of labor, social role play, collective decisions for members and their future, their movements and development are decided on. Such decisions define the identities of family members and their interaction with the larger society. Moreover, all of these decisions may change, be debated, be renegotiated and their conflicts resolved. In other words, not only societal but intra-familial issues are affected by globalization, now more than ever. Needless to say, the impact of globalization on families is differential, depending on many factors, but specifically depending on where the family lives and the social class it belongs to. Women may get out of the family circle to join the workforce in traditional-conservative environments. But to denote that they belong to a cultural environment that is morally different, they may dress differently and cover their heads. Hence two culturally different worlds meet to be permanently changed.

Conclusion
As the world gets increasingly interconnected through globalization, a sundry of changes are taking place, some of which evade our attention mainly because we are more concerned about the economic and political impacts of the phenomenon. Life as we know it is changing. Changes enter our lives through technology, consumer products, new thoughts, lifestyles and visions of others. In this sense, globalization is a social and cultural process in which individuals of different cultural backgrounds interact with each other in all spheres of life more intensively than before. This integration is increasingly exposing people to different ways of thinking, cultural values and new forms of family life. Women are getting out of the family home; children are educated to partake in a world other than that of their parents. Globalization shouldnt be seen from a global perspective but from rather a Individuals perspective as Individual Life dynamics are more meaningful than global figures
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2. Contesting global governance : multilateral economic institutions and global social movements, Robert O'Brien et al., 337, Cambridge UP(UK), 2000

Connemara Public Library, Egmore, Chennai

1. Globalization and Agricultural Crisis in India, ALAGH ( Y K ), Deep and Deep Publications

Private Limited, 338.954 ALA, 2004

2. Human Development and Globalisation, INAKSHI CHATURVEDI, Ed., Deep and deep

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Web References
http://www.sustainablehistory.com/articles/definitions-of-globalization.pdf http://www.aciar.gov.au/project/ADP/1994.html www.navdanya.org/publications/women-agriculture.pdf www.aciar.gov.au/project/ADP/1994/026 www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-118598611.htm

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