Is There A New World Order
Coming…..
The emergence of 2 BIG economies in Asia and an old challenger
from Europe, want their respective places under the sun.Is it about
time…
The game changing event , to an earlier prevailing world order,was
the first world war.How are events shaping out today ???
Is the concept of globalization getting threatened again ?? My two bit
on this please…
What comes to your mind when you hear the word “pizza”?
Domino’s Pizza, right?
What about mobile phones?
Apple or Samsung, isn’t it?
But what if these companies had never entered India? How different
would our world be?
And what if such foreign companies never get to enter India in the
future?
The Benefits of Globalisation
Globalisation has served India well. When India finally embraced it in
1991, our GDP improved massively,and our exports also grew by 20%
But the current scenario is threatening to overturn it.
US’ favourite weapon of war has been trade sanctions. It is the most
common move that is there in the playbook. And it’s not a new one.
During the first World War major countries were fighting each other and
the best way to win was to limit supplies. Countries which were spread
across the world had a distinct advantage.
The UK where most major businesses were located could simply stop
companies from supplying goods to enemy nations.
And something similar is happening right now. Major US and UK-based
companies are boycotting Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
But this is not the only thing threatening globalisation.
World trade has been impacted majorly since the 2007 US housing crisis
Since the world economy was so interconnected, the whole world felt
financial shockwaves from the crisis.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the various trade wars (like that between
US and China) have just highlighted the problems of globalisation.
So, many countries like Russia and China have worked hard to
become self-reliant. And now India is also moving towards the
same path of “aatmanirbharta.”
Though this concept has never been at odds with globalisation, it could
help safeguard our national interests in case of future wars and
pandemics.
But is self-reliance the ultimate solution?
Well, no. If it was, countries would never have agreed to forget all their
differences and come together to trade.
Self-reliance comes with its own set of problems- the most alarming
being stagnation of development.
Globalisation leads to exchange of innovation and ideas. The world as
we know it today, wouldn’t be so without globalisation.
So, what is the solution?
Well, one solution could be that companies separate business and
politics at least when it comes to international matters. But this is
becoming increasingly more difficult for businesses as customers and
stakeholders only want to support companies that are involved in social
matters.
A second solution could be building better supply chains so that
countries don’t have to opt for self-reliance just out of the fear of another
pandemic.
However, these solutions are weak and depend a lot on countries’
mutual cooperation. Something that doesn’t seem to be on the cards
right now.
Methinks,the world will have to wait till the geopolitical event around
Ukraine-Russia pans out to its logical conclusion.The new world order
which emerges after that,will lay foundations to the next leg of
globalisation.There will have to be some more players in the game &
rightly so.
