Globalisation: Advantages and Disadvantages

Globalisation is the process of international integration through acceptance and exchange of each other’s goods, services, culture among others. Thus, virtually , it is a process of vanishing of the borders between various countries.

However, this phenomenon is a twin-faced one, thus having both advantages and disadvantages. Let us have an insight on them:

Advantages:

• With better exchanges of goods and services, each and everything is now available everywhere in the world.
• The North(refers to the developed world) merges with the South(developing and Least-developed), thus leading to an era of overall technological advancement which in turn has its huge advantages on literally every aspect including health, education, poverty among others.
• Better relations between various nations who provide a jig-saw fit for each other. For example. India provides a bulk of resources, both natural and human but it lacks the required technology for a particular task which is possessed by Japan. The latter is lacking young population. So , it would invest in India for good returns. This way they provide a jig-saw fit for each other.
• Cultural exchange is the best way to establish strong people-to-people links. This is facilitated by globalisation.
• Joint efforts on common problems like climate change, terrorism, trade etc.
• Economic exchange in the form of trade and investment, which is a major component of this process, is a good method of calming down the tensions between any two countries.
• Flow of information and ideas from those who have it to those who don’t. For example from the U.S to South Africa. Internet, in general and Social Media in particular has played a huge role here.

Disadvantages:

• This process is leading to an era of Neo-colonialism, as the developed nations are trying to assert their dominance in the name of globalisation.
• This has led to global lobbying by the developed nations in the developing ones so that the latter does not overtake the former. For example, a report of IB, India revealed that Greenpeace International of the U.S is hindering the progress of the major Indian development projects.
• Cultural exchanges though tie people together, are leading to overshadowing of one culture by another. For example. overshadowing of western culture on the Indian culture. This way even the pros of one’s own culture are subdued.
• Particularly, in value-rich countries like India, where family life used to be its forte, globalisation has caused devastation. Now, the process of NUCLEARisation is soaring with families getting divided. This is also leading to a scenario where the old age dependents are pushed into pitiable conditions by their children.
• Developing countries like India is facing a phenomenon called “brain-drain”, where a huge chunk of India’s youth is preferring jobs/education in the developed countries than their own. This will leave lesser scope of tapping the demographic potential of the country.
• Terrorism has soared in the globalised world. This is due to multiple reasons:
  • Developed nations’ tendency to interfere in the affairs of other nations to fulfil their greed leads to upraising of some rebellion forces which later on turn to become a terrorist group.
  • Social Media which has facilitated the flow in info and also eased the people-to-people contacts has become a facilitator of the terrorist activities as it eases the radicalisation process across the globe.
  • Cyber crimes are on a rise which has grave consequences when it comes to security of a country.
• Globalisation helps in an global technological advancement .
  • But this advancement has negative consequences for the environment due to increasing emissions and climate change.
  • Also, with technological development decreases the dependency on manual labour, which cuts down the employment opportunities leading to poverty and crime as well.
  • With dependence of technology for day-to-day things, health problems are increasing.
• It leads to increasing urbanisation, a phenomenon where migration from rural to urban areas increases. This is due to the perception of increased opportunities in urban areas due to globalisation. Urbanisation has a grave impact on standard of living, ecology, human indicators among others.

Thus, the process of globalisation is a mixed blessing for the world.