Globalization in India: The Key Issues

According to Anthony Giddens, “Globalization refers to the fact that we all live in one world, so that individuals, groups and nations become interdependent.” Globalization is associated with a particular ideology, namely neo-liberalism. Neo-Liberalism asserts the primacy of the market and opening up of the economy of all nations to free trade, privatization and withdrawal of the state from regulation of economic activities. Globalization in India started in 1981 when India took a massive loan of 5 billion SDRs from the IMF.But it is in the second phase, when India took another massive loan of $2.5 billion in 1991 to cope with the balance of payments crisis that globalization in India actually started. In line with the neo-liberal philosophy, India started economic reforms. The state started withdrawing from economic activities, some PSUs were disinvested and more are in the pipeline, import substitution was substituted for a liberalized trade regime, the country’s resources in spectrum, coal etc., were thrown open to be exploited foreign business houses and so on. In this lecture, I will discuss some key contemporary issues regarding globalization in India, namely, (1) Globalization & Employment (2) Globalization & Higher Education (3) Globalization & Industrial Unrest (4) Globalization & FDI in retail (5) Globalization & Corruptio