GLOBALISATION

The process of Globalisation has always been used in economic terms though it has always taken the political and cultural dimensions. Once economic

changes occur it has several socio-political manifestations.23 Globalisation is generally termed as ‘an increase in economic integration among nations’.24 Even before several nation-states were not even born, the countries around the world had gone for globalisation, i.e., ‘a closer integration of their economies’.25 This globalisation lasted from 1800 to almost 1930, interrupted by the Great Depression and the two Wars which led to retrenchment and several trade barriers were erected since early 1930s.26‌‌‌

The concept was popularised by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the mid-1980s again after the Wars. In its earlier deliberatization, the organisation had defined globalisation in a very narrow and business-like sense—‘any cross-border investment by an OECD company outside its country of origin for its benefit is globalisation’. After this summit of the OECD, proposals for replacing the GATT by the WTO were pushed by the developed economies of the world, better known as the starting of the Uruguay Round of GATT deliberations which ends in Marrakesh (1994) with the birth of WTO. In the meantime, the OECD had defined globalisation officially, (1995) too— “a shift from a world of distinct national economies to a global economy in which production is internationalised and financial capital flows freely and instantly between countries.”27

The official meaning of globalisation for the WTO is movement of the economies of the world towards “unrestricted cross border movements of goods and services, capital and the labour force”. It simply means that the economies who are signatories to the process of globalisation (i.e., signatories to the WTO) for them there will be nothing like foreign or indigenous goods and services, capital and labour. The world becoming a flat and level-playing field emerging in the due process of time.28

For many political scientists (which is today a very dominant force in the world), globalisation is the emergence of a situation when our lives are increasingly shaped by the events that occur at a great distance from us about which the decisions are not taken by our conscious self. One section of experts believe that globalisation subordinates the state, while the other section argues that the local, national and global events constantly interact

under it without any subordination of one by the other. Rather, globalisation highlights the deepening as well as broadening of the political process in this sense.29

India became one of the founding members of the WTO and was obliged to promote the process of globalisation, though its economic reforms started with no such obligations. It is a different thing that India started the process of globalisation right after the reforms 1991.30

Now we may connect the three simultaneous processes—the LPG with which India launched its reform programme. The process of liberalisation shows movement of the economy towards the market economy, privatisation is the path/route through which it will travel to realise the ultimate ‘goal’, i.e., globalisation.

It should be noted here that the Indian idea of globalisation is deeply and frequently inclined towards the concept of welfare state, which keeps coming in the day to day public policy as an emphatic reference. The world, including the IMF, the WB and the developed nations have now increasingly shown their recognition to the fact that the official goal of globalisation of the world economies would not take place without giving the poor of the world a better standard of living. Even if globalisation is complete without including almost one-fifth of the world population, i.e. the poor, will it be called development of the world?