Globalization and its impact on agriculture and industry?

What is Globalization? Factors that have led to globalization in the 21st century Effects of globalization on the Indian farming sector both positive and negative Effects on Indian industry WTO and Globalization Globalization and the future of the Indian economy. 5 years ago Report Abuse

by sensekon... Member since: March 13, 2007 Total points: 49,512 (Level 7) Add Contact Block

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Globalization (or Globalisation) refers to increasing global connectivity and integration in the economic, social, technological, cultural, political, and ecological spheres.In economics, globalization is the convergence of prices, products, wages, rates of interest and profits towards developed country norms.[2] Globalization of the economy depends on the role of human migration, international trade, movement of capital, and integration of financial markets. The International Monetary Fund notes the growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions, free international capital flows, and more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology. Theodore Levitt is usually credited with globalization's first use in an economic context.Looking specifically at economic globalization, it can be measured in different ways. These centre around the four main economic flows that characterize globalization: Goods and services, e.g. exports plus imports as a proportion of national income or per capita of population Labor/people, e.g. net migration rates; inward or outward migration flows, weighted by population Capital, e.g. inward or outward direct investment as a proportion of national income or per head of population Technology, e.g. international research & development flows; proportion of populations (and rates of change thereof) using particular inventions (especially 'factor-neutral' technological advances such as the telephone, motorcar, broadband) Globalisation (n) is the "process enabling financial and investment markets to operate internationally, largely as a result of deregulation and improved communications" - to "make worldwide in scope or application" (Webster). The financial markets, however, are where the story begins. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the business model termed the "globalised" financial market came to be seen as an entity that could have more than just an economic impact on the parts of the world it touched. Globalisation came to be seen as more than simply a way of doing business, or running financial markets - it became a process. From then on the word took on a life of its own. Centuries earlier, in a similar manner, the techniques of industrial manufacturing led to the

changes associated with the process of industrialisation, as former country dwellers migrated to the cramped but booming industrial cities to tend the new machines. It is modern communications that make it possible; for the British service sector to deal with its customers through a call centre in India, or for a sportswear manufacturer to design its products in Europe, make them in south-east Asia and sell them in north America. But this is where the antiglobalisation side gets stuck in. If these practices replace domestic economic life with an economy that is heavily influenced or controlled from overseas, then the creation of a globalised economic model and the process of globalisation can also be seen as a surrender of power to the corporations, or a means of keeping poorer nations in their place. Low-paid sweatshop workers, GM seed pressed on developing world farmers, selling off state-owned industry to qualify for IMF and World Bank loans and the increasing dominance of US and European corporate culture across the globe have come to symbolise globalisation for some of its critics. Not everyone agrees that globalisation is necessarily evil, or that globalised corporations are running the lives of individuals or are more powerful than nations. Some say that the spread of globalisation, free markets and free trade into the developing world is the best way to beat poverty - the only problem is that free markets and free trade do not yet truly exist. Globalisation can be seen as a positive, negative or even marginal process. And regardless of whether it works for good or ill, globalisation's exact meaning will continue to be the subject of debate among those who oppose, support or simply observe it. Globalization has various aspects which affect the world in several different ways such as: Industrial (alias trans nationalization) - emergence of worldwide production markets and broader access to a range of foreign products for consumers and companies Financial - emergence of worldwide financial markets and better access to external financing for corporate, national and subnational borrowers Economic - realization of a global common market, based on the freedom of exchange of goods and capital. Political - political globalization is the creation of a world government which regulates the relationships among nations and guarantees the rights arising from social and economic globalization. [48] Informational - increase in information flows between geographically remote locations Cultural - growth of cross-cultural contacts; advent of new categories of consciousness and identities such as Globalism - which embodies cultural diffusion, the desire to consume and enjoy foreign products and ideas, adopt new technology and practices, and participate in a "world culture" Ecological- the advent of global environmental challenges that can not be solved without international cooperation, such as climate change, cross-boundary water and air pollution, overfishing of the ocean, and the spread of invasive species. Many factories are built in developing countries where they can pollute freely. Social - the achievement of free circulation by people of all nations Transportation - fewer and fewer European cars on European roads each year (the same can also be said about American cars on American roads) and the death of distance through the incorporation of technology to decrease travel time. Greater international cultural exchange Spreading of multiculturalism, and better individual access to cultural diversity (e.g. through the export of Hollywood and Bollywood movies). However, the imported culture can easily supplant the local culture, causing reduction in diversity through hybridization or even assimilation. The most prominent form of this is Westernization, but Sinicization of cultures has taken place over most of Asia for many centuries. Greater international travel and tourism Greater immigration, including illegal immigration Spread of local consumer products (e.g. food) to other countries (often adapted to their culture) World-wide fads and pop culture such as Pokmon, Sudoku, Numa Numa, Origami, Idol series, YouTube, Orkut, Facebook, and MySpace. World-wide sporting events such as FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. Formation or development of a set of universal values Technical/legal

Development of a global telecommunications infrastructure and greater transborder data flow, using such technologies as the Internet, communication satellites, submarine fiber optic cable, and wireless telephones Increase in the number of standards applied globally; e.g. copyright laws, patents and world trade agreements. The push by many advocates for an international criminal court and international justice movements. Since World War II, barriers to international trade have been considerably lowered through international agreements - General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Particular initiatives carried out as a result of GATT and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), for which GATT is the foundation, have included: Promotion of free trade: Reduction or elimination of tariffs; construction of free trade zones with small or no tariffs Reduced transportation costs, especially from development of containerization for ocean shipping. Reduction or elimination of capital controls Reduction, elimination, or harmonization of subsidies for local businesses Restriction of free trade: Harmonization of intellectual property laws across the majority of states, with more restrictions. Supranational recognition of intellectual property restrictions. Globalization is also defined as the internationalization of everything related to different countries [Internationalization however, is a contrasted phenomenon to that of Globalization] It is only because of opening the hitherto closed, oppressive economy to globalisation that has helped Indian economy to grow rapidly in the last 10-12 years, India's economic growth has been high, exports have boomed, incidence of poverty has been reduced, India's companies are setting up companies abroad, India has better technological development for the benefit of the common man ( mobiles, road transport, cheap clothes, etc_only because of globalisation. Effect of globalisation on Indian industry has been very positive, though some industrial firms with the baggage of high cost, inefficient plants and processes inherited from the past because of closed economy's government dictated industrial policies and priorities had to face serious problems in the beginning. But soon most of the industries have become more and more efficient, customer focussed and improved their international competetiveness in terma of costs, prices, product quality and variety. Industrial growth has been very high and strong during the past decade because of globalisation. Exports have increased tremendously. Induan industries are also expanding abroad. Foreign companies have substantially increased their investments in Indian industries. Wages of industrial labour has increased substantially as they have become very productive. Lock out and strikes have declined to insignificantly low levels because industrial labor is happy. Those who cannot be efficient and past their prime age tio retrain themselves in modern methods and processes have been retired with very attractive voluntary retirement schemes. The trade unions are finding it difficult to influence industrial workers into agitation because labor has started benefiting from the positive fallout of globalisation on the prosperity and growth of the industrial sector. Talented and merited labor is commanding premium compensation in the labor market. Several new type of industries have also come up. Small scale industries of the past has fast grown into medium scale companies. Incidence of industrial sickness has gone done drastically. However, the communists will not agree to this view because with industrial workers becoming richer following increasing demand for and the wages of industrial labour.resulting from liberalisation and globalisation. 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 ben 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 offtake. In many areas of the country, tomatoe growers, potato farmers and fruit growersfarmers 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 have 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.. For more information of both positive and negative aspects visit http://www.aciar.gov.au/project/ADP/1994 www.navdanya.org/publications/women-ag www.aciar.gov.au/project/ADP/1994/026 www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-118598611.htm For research work, trash writings without logical analysis and superficial knowledge may also be required for that visit http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt= or www.navdanya.org/news/03jan3.htm or aifo.it/english/resources/online/.../3-1 But these are useless trash and these superficial knowledge is hindering Indian Farmers' prospertity. However to get good marks in India you must write some such trash The World Trade Organization (WTO), ( is an international organization designed to supervise and liberalize international trade. The WTO came into being on January 1, 1995, and is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was created in 1947, and continued to operate for almost five decades as a de facto international organization. WTO deals with the rules of trade between nations at a near-global level; it is responsible for negotiating and implementing new trade agreements, and is in charge of policing member countries' adherence to all the WTO agreements, signed by the bulk of the world's trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. Doha round was to make globalisation more inclusive and help the world's poor, particularly by slashing barriers and subsidies in farming. The initial agenda comprised both further trade liberalization and new rule-making, underpinned by commitments to strengthen substantially assistance to developing countries.The talks have been highly contentious and agreement has not been reached, despite the intense negotiations . Nevertheless, in his report to the WTO General Council on February 7, 2007, Lamy said that "political conditions are now more favorable for the conclusion of the Round than they have been for a long time".The WTO is too often misunderstood, sometimes genuinely, often wilfully. At the moment, we are working on a package to help the world's poorest countries reap greater benefits from the world trading system. This package includes better access to rich-country markets, increased technical assistance, and closer co-operation between the WTO and other global institutions that promote development, notably the World Bank. And we are trying to make the WTO's work even more accessible to the man and woman in the street. We are constantly improving our website, www.wto.org, so that it offers an even greater wealth of

information. WTO's mandate of opening up markets represents an essential contribution to the development of so many human beings on our planet. The impact of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), established in 1995, has gone largely unnoticed by the majority of politicians, NGOs and citizens. Trade, however, is an important aspect of the current wave of globalisation and its influence is felt from the global level to peoples' daily practices. WTO has to cooperate with the World Bank and the IMF 'with a view to achieving greater coherence in global economic policy-making'. Cooperation agreements between the WTO, the World Bank and the IMF have been signed but there is no high level macro-economic coordinating mechanism to deal with debt, trade imbalances and budget deficits - all obstacles to weaker economies benefiting from world trade. Co-operation seems to occur mostly at the operational and country level such as exchanging information and expertise at meetings and among officials (e.g. on balance of payment problems of a particular country). Recently, the World Bank and the IMF have been involved in efforts to coordinate technical assistance for each of the LLDCs (see below). Such co-operation increases the danger of joint conditionality towards total free trade in developing countries. The ministers at their Conference in Singapore envisaged 'a world where trade flows freely'. The WTO is considered instrumental for furthering globalisation, a process which the ministers and trade officials claim has the capacity to increase economic growth and employment... and 'help put a telephone in every village - something that can make the difference between life and death' (WTO Director General's opening speech in Singapore).The preamble of the WTO states that trade relations should contribute to raising standards of living, ensuring full employment, increasing income, and expanding production and trade while respecting the environment and the different needs of the member countries at different levels of economic development. New agreements are being pushed through, such as on liberalising information technology products, in the interest of the US and the EU on the assumption that cheaper prices increase economic growth, without an assessment of the impact on employment and on developing countries. The WTO's Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) does not evaluate the impact of its rules on workers, consumers, peoples lives and sustainable development. TPRM is biased towards ensuring implementation of WTO rules, trade liberalisation and enhancing trade. Furthermore, trade policy-makers and WTO staff lack the capacity and interest to incorporate gender analysis in the TPRM. The WTO's basic assumption is that its rules contribute to trade and investment liberalisation which leads to more competition, better allocation of resources, economic growth, more employment and better living standards, including environmental conservation. Although the WTO, and GATT in the past, have incorporated special measures for weaker economies, there are many pitfalls in the current system. The WTO considers the distribution of the benefits of trade to be not a matter for the WTO but for each country individually. Many facts and figures show, however, that the current global economic and trade system incorporates an unequal distribution of benefits. Trade figures need to give information on the actual trade operators, the companies, especially those which have been pushing for globalisation and lobbying hard for the Uruguay Round to finish. These multinationals cover most of the world's commodity trade, investment and intellectual property rights (see TRIPs below). 40% of world trade concerns trade within multinationals and around a third of world trade relates to trade among multinationals. More information on workers, consumers and companies might help the WTO meet its original aims. At the Singapore Ministerial conference many euphoric statements were made about the achievements of globalisation and the WTO's contribution to this process. Globalisation is not only the result of technical innovations, capital concentration, the geographic spread of production processes and other company strategies to improve profit-making worldwide 24 hours a day. Political decisions by governments to remove institutional barriers to international trade and capital flows and to provide incentives for companies have also supported the globalisation process: at national level through unilateral liberalisation and structural adjustment for export-led growth, and through labour and social policy reform; at regional and multilateral levels, through agreements on trade and investment liberalisation.

The WTO is the most important regulator of trade at international level and also sets the terms within which regional agreements can be signed. In this way, globalisation is managed at world level from a trade perspective. The significance of the WTO for globalisation is that more than 130 countries must jointly open up their economies to each other and abide by common rules making it easier to trade and invest. The WTO also brings a wide range of economic sectors into the ambit of the global economy. WTO members have to implement a series of agreements and obligations which they negotiated in the Uruguay Round: the agreement on trade in goods: tariff cuts and liberalisation of industrial products; liberalisation of textile and clothing imports in the industrialised countries over 10 years; reform of trade and domestic policies in agriculture with some reduction in government export subsidies; prohibition of conditionality on investment measures that restrict trade (Trade Related Investment Measures-TRIMs); tightened rules on subsidies, safeguard measures (which allow a country to halt imports if an industry is in danger) and anti-dumping (against sales below production cost). the agreement on trade in services (GATS): a series of obligations such as making information on laws that concern services easily accessible (transparency); market access and application of the GATS obligations to foreign companies in the service sectors selected by a given country from a list. the agreement on trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPs): inforcement in all WTO member countries, during a specified period, of copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs, patents, trade secrets, etc. registered in one of the member countries. The WTO continues to broaden its reach as a forum for continuing negotiations on liberalisation and rule-making. Many of the above agreements included the timing for new negotiations: Agreements were reached in Singapore to eliminate duties on information technology products (e.g. computers, fax machines) and to give an additional 400 pharmaceutical products duty free access in some countries. Negotiations to liberalise trade in basic telecommunications were concluded early 1997. Further liberalisation of financial services (e.g. banking, insurance companies) is to be decided by the end of 1997. New WTO working groups are exploring future multilateral agreements on investment and competition policy. The WTO makes an important contribution to globalisation by covering so many sectors and allowing greater interaction of national economies, foreign direct investment and capital markets. The WTO is a small governance system where we already have a few elements in place: we have a multilateral system that recognizes different values, including a consensus on the benefits resulting from market opening, but also other values such as the need to respect religion or the right to protect the environment and it is now clearly recognized that non-trade values can supersede trade considerations in some circumstances. We have a system that is based on state and government but which has been able to adapt to take into account new actors on the international scene; and we have a system that has a powerful mechanism to solve disputes. But the international trade system and the WTO are far from being perfect and many things could be improved. For the opening up of markets to produce real benefits in the everyday lives in the countries concerned we need rules that provide for a level playing field, that ensure capacity building, and that enable Members to improve their domestic governance. But while the opening up of markets stimulated by the WTO has the potential to produce benefits for many, it also has its costs, whose distribution is largely beyond the WTO's control. We cannot ignore the costs of adjustment, particularly for the developing countries, and the problems that can arise with the opening up of markets. These adjustments must not be relegated to the future: they must be an integral part of the opening-up agenda. We must create a new Geneva consensus: a new basis for the opening up of trade that takes into account the resultant cost of adjustment. Trade opening is necessary, but it is not sufficient in itself. It also implies assistance: to help the least-developed countries to build up their stocks and therefore adequate

productive and logistical capacity; to increase their capacity to negotiate and to implement the commitments undertaken in the international trading system; and to deal with the imbalances created between winners and losers from trade opening imbalances that are the more dangerous to the more fragile economies, societies or countries. Building the capacity they need to take advantage of open markets or helping developing countries to adjust is now part of our common global agenda