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Computer as a Buffalo: Systemic Consequences of Opening the Windows to Globalization in India

Computer as a Buffalo: Systemic Consequences of Opening the Windows to Globalization in India. Shyam Sunder Yale Forum on South Asia and Globalization February 28, 2004. Opening the Windows. Globalization of South Asia, or elsewhere, is not a new phenomenon

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Computer as a Buffalo: Systemic Consequences of Opening the Windows to Globalization in India

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  1. Computer as a Buffalo: Systemic Consequences of Opening the Windows to Globalization in India Shyam Sunder Yale Forum on South Asia and Globalization February 28, 2004

  2. Opening the Windows • Globalization of South Asia, or elsewhere, is not a new phenomenon • Many epochs of intense globalization in recorded history • Indian fabrics in Egyptian mummies • Alexander, Indo-Hellenic cultures, Gandhar • Indo-China trade, 7th-15th Century AD • Guests from India at Medici wedding (15th C.) • Indian textiles in Europe until invention of powered looms • Why is the world’s best collection of emeralds in the Iranian treasury • There is little that is fundamentally new about today’s “globalization” • Societies open and shut their windows to the world for their own reasons, and bear the consequences

  3. When You Open the Windows • Sitting in a closed house is safe, autarchy • Opening the windows means flow of view, air, information, models of behavior, organization, technology, ideas, goods, services, friendships and threats, in both directions • Whether one should live in an open or closed house depends on one’s values and perspectives • Let us just talk about some consequences • I shall talk for 20 minutes, show you a DVD, so we can have at least 20 minutes for discussion

  4. Social • Spending more of the income on living, not saving • Unmarried women living away from home • Women working night shifts in offices • Change in aspirations of the young • “I want to be like Bill Gates,” a 13 year old. • Impact on caste system: wages attracting higher cast people to jobs shunned earlier • What is in the suitcases of people entering India at Santa Cruz airport: DVD players or diapers?

  5. Economic • “A computer is like a buffalo, even better. It does not eat, and makes more money than 5 liters of milk per day” (a semiliterate member of SEWA in Gujarat) • Reduction in poverty

  6. Education • New focus on primary education in villages • Demand for English medium education (“convent) in villages (DPS policy) • Almost universal criticism of the government decision to LOWER the tuition fees at IIMs from Rs.150,000 to 30,000 per year, including from students • Rise in the number and quality of private schools and colleges with the willingness to pay for quality education • Wilson’s greatest achievement: open university in U.K.

  7. Consumer Society • Unwillingness of consumers to accept shoddy goods • Rise in quality of products and services

  8. Political • E-government • Organized protests about the murder of Dubey • Tolerance and expectation of corruption • Globalization as the second independence • Nehru used the windows metaphor but could not take it to its logical conclusion

  9. Internal “Globalization” • Construction workers in a house in Bangalore cannot speak to each other—five languages • Railway reservations

  10. Management and Business • Improvement in management practices • Thinking of salary as compensation in exchange for services rendered, not a right • New global benchmarks for efficiency

  11. Agriculture • The wheat being grown in India till 1960 was the same as found in Mohenjodaro (2500 BC) • Green revolution, high yield varieties, fertilizers, irrigation, and degradation of land • PL 480 Wheat  Congress weed • Impact of Australian fresh fruit on quality and packaging of fruit in India • Wasted fruits and vegetables in India = total production in EU • Rise of food processing and storage industries

  12. Environment • Public interest law suits • Supreme court activism • Shut down of factories in Delhi and Agra to improve air quality • Increasing congestion—no parking or driving spaces for newly acquired cars

  13. Trade • $105 billion reserves (Problem: what to do with them) • 1970: Allowed $10 for students going out of India • Import of computers, designs, equipment, software, capital • 24/7 Customer Call Center in Bangalore has Compaq computers, Microsoft software, Lucent phones, Carrier airconditioning, Coca Cola bottled water, and 90 percent owned by US investors • JadooWorks:U.S. scriptwriter for Krishna story, American voices, US and British game designers • Most trade in the world takes place among rich nations, not between rich and poor nations

  14. Nepal

  15. Bangladesh

  16. India

  17. Back to Ground • An example of globalization in South Asia • World Computer Exchange • Working with Yale Recycling, Asha Yale, Vichaar and other organizations

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