Globalization is the unification of the economies across the world beyond the barriers forged by the geographies, so as to to stimulate wealth generation, exchange of goods and services and mutual inclusive growth through an division of labor across nations characterized by efficiencies arising from international relations, specialization and competition. Typically the forces of globalization are driven primarily by economic, sociocultural, political, and technological factors although other factors have also played a significant role in the process.
Although the empirical evidence on the benefits of globalization on inclusive development is not very clear, the share in aggregate world exports and in world output of the developing countries has definitely increased due to this phenomenon. The emergence of global markets which has triggered a much wider access to a range of products both for consumers and firms has definitely triggered a kind of major industrial revolution. There has also been a stimulated growth triggered by access to better financial resources due to the liberalization of economies and thus the increased liquidity of financial resources.
A major impact of the globalization has been the stimulation of the Green Revolution, which has managed to address the needs of the burst in population globally. It is felt that without the green revolution, stimulated by the exchange of information, agro-products, fertilizers, seeds, bio-technology and expertise, much of the sudden burst of population growth would have suffered severely from lack of access to food, clothes and medicines. The development of agriculture and agro-based industries has had a major positive effect on the lives of billions of people on this planet directly and even more so indirectly.
The realization of a global market, based on the freedom of exchange of goods, information and capital, and thus setting up the preconditions for perfect market conditions has been one of the major benefits of globalization. This has actually stimulated a shift of monopolistic economic power from the United States (and European nations) to fast developing economies like China, India, Brazil and other similar countries, which are growing at a rate exceeding 8% year on year. The emergence of China and the Eastern tigers (Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore) as a manufacturing super-power and the emergence of India and Brazil as a services hub has been extremely significant in this shift of political power.
A major trigger in the impact of globalization has been the adoption of internet based products and services. This has triggered a substantial increase in information flows between geographically dispersed locations and stimulated the formation of global markets. Today, consumers of lesser developed economies have access to all the products of developed economies through the establishment of e-markets like Amazon and e-Bay.
The social effects have been significant too in the context of globalization. English, although the third most popular language in the world, after Mandarin and Spanish, has become the Lingua Franca (official language) of the global economies. The access to global information, products and services has triggered the growth of cross-cultural relationships and facilitated the development of a new order consciousness and life-style stimulated from cultural diffusion, improved standards of living and access to foreign products, services and ideas. This development of “World culture” has been most significant among the Netizens triggered by fraternity shared on online forums which has stimulated the exchange and diffusion of ideas.
However, globalization has also triggered the brain drain from developing economies to developed economies to access better employment opportunities and also the formation of Sweatshops by the advanced economies in developing economies to take the benefits of cheap labor. The globalization of the jobs has a negative impact in developed countries where many of the jobs (especially the low knowledge centric ones like BPOs and KPOs) have been outsourced to economies where labor is comparatively much cheaper. Also, many argue that globalization has actually a negative impact on inclusive development of backward economies and the rich gets richer by taking advantage of the resources in the disposal of the poor by utilizing it better. Also, globalization has triggered many illicit trade activities involving drugs and trafficking and this has added to the woes of under-developed economies.