NT Bureau

There is a perceptible shift from foreign-dependent mindset to India-centric approach to handle globalisation due to geopolitical reasons.

The intellectual Indians initially failed to grasp the fact that instead of welcoming and advocating globalisation, the nation had to face this new trade war designed by the West as a strategic game-plan to sustain its dominance in the world economy. But now, even elite Indians are trying to benchmark this global phenomenon from Indian standards, said S Gurumurthy, chartered accountant and convener of Swadeshi Jagran Manch, an economic forum that supports native enterprise.
He was speaking on 'What Price Globalisation' at a meet hosted by The Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the city yesterday. 'Indian economy is driven by community and family entrepreneurship, unlike in America where individuals run big corporations. So, when the West has conceived something like WTO, it is primarily for its own benefit and not for the rest of the world,' he said.
It is rather immature to talk of globalisation driven by world trade. 'For every bit of world trade is managed by the West. There are powerful civilisational and religious influences that have a say in the evolving globalisation,' he said. Citing the recent studies of Francis Fukuyama and Alvin Toffler, well-know authors in geopolitics, he said that even as technology would be a determinant in world economy, the market dynamics will be managed by the private sector and the governments of the West to keep America on its consumerist binge.