Globalisation

What Is Globalization?

Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people,

companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by

international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This

process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on

economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in

societies around the world.

Globalization is not new, though. For thousands of years, peopleand, later,

corporationshave been buying from and selling to each other in lands at great

distances, such as through the famed Silk Road across Central Asia that

connected China and Europe during the Middle Ages.

As globalization continues to bring places and people closer together, the

economies of the regions involved become a part of economic globalization.

Economic globalization is the economic interdependence of national economies

across the world. This interconnected economy helps to move goods,

technology, and capital across borders.

Challenges to globalization
Rise of nationalism

the rise of nationalism in many western countries and India has greatly impacted

many companies and countries. The rise of nationalistic tendencies led to the
cancellation of American company carriers move to Mexico to set up a new

manufacturing unit there.

Indias recent political and military stand off against china at Doklam also

resulted in India placing anti-dumping duties against Chinese products (93 of

them)

Scrapping of free trade agreements

cancellation of free trade agreements and free movement of people is also

against the spirit of globalisation. The globalization of the worlds economies

does have its barriers. Some economies dont participate in the global economy

because of government limitations, lack of economic or technological resources,

or other barriers. There is, however, a movement that includes more economies

in this global market place. To combat the trade barriers that exist, free trade

zones (FTZ) have been established around the world, usually near seaports,

international airports, or locations with geographic advantages for trade. The

zones are also established to reduce poverty while providing jobs and

stimulating the local economy. Many multinational companies are established in

these areas. The benefits of free trade agreement are that it reduces tariffs,

thereby reducing the cost of the product for the customer. It also provides an

incentive to many organisation to relocate and start trading goods at the free

zones. This often stimulates the economy. Recently however, many of the free

trade agreements have come under scrutiny. North American Free Trade

Agreement (NAFTA) which is a free trade agreement signed by the United States

of America, Canada and Mexico to promote trade and globalization, is now being
renegotiated. Trans pacific partnership (TPP) an agreement between the United

States of American and 12 other pacific countries to promote trade has now seen

the United States backing off and exiting the agreement. The transatlantic trade

and investment partnership (TTIP) which was a trade agreement between the

United states of America and the European Union is also cancelled. This was

because of the resentment for such trade deals by the citizens of the both sides.

Restriction on free movement of people and free flow of information are also a

part of globalisation. Free movement of people has been promoted widely in

Europe with the creation of European Union (EU), but the rising nationalistic

views of many of United kingdoms citizen led to UK initiating a process of

disengagement from European Union. This affects a lot of organisations who

benefit from the free movement of people and goods in the EU and are based in

the UK. The world trade organisation was set up with the intention of improving

global trade and creation of a framework for trade settlements. China is one of

the nations that has reaped the benefits of globalisation.

Free movement of information is also restricted by governments imposing bans

or strictly regulating the Internet. China is one of those countries where the

citizens can access information that is approved and authorised by the Chinese

government.

Foreign direct investment has become perhaps the single most powerful force

behind global economic integration. In 1992, the worldwide sales of foreign

affiliates of multinational companies reached an estimated $5.3 trillion dollars,

over $700 billion more than total global exports of goods and services that year.

Foreign direct investment has also spread new technologies and improved skill

levels, especially in developing countries.

In today's global marketplace, trade often follows investment, so host

government regulations on foreign investment can have a major impact on trade

flows.

We have to stress the need to invest in training and education to ensure that

workers have the skills needed to succeed in the new global market. The future

impact of globalization will vary from country to country and within countries.

But efforts to resist the powerful technological and economic forces behind

globalization by appealing to protectionism are misguided, and in the long run,

futile. Rather than fear the future, we must redouble our efforts at international

economic cooperation. We must strengthen the architecture of global and

regional institutions to promote open trade and investment and prosperity for

all. This is the best way to ensure that the benefits of globalization will spread to

all corners of the world and to all sectors of society.

References

http://www.globalization101.org/what-is-globalization/

https://www.texasgateway.org/node/10086

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-china-trade-war-looming-doklam-

standoff-sikkim-arunachal-pradesh-4796337/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Trade_and_Investment_Partnershi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/spero.htm
Technology

Advances in technology are one of the main reasons that globalisation has

escalated in the past decade. In information and communication technology,

innovations have become smaller in size, more efficient and often more

affordable. In transport technology, vehicles have tended to become larger and

faster, as well as becoming more environmentally friendly and cheaper to run.

Whether for personal use or for business, technology has made the world seem

a smaller place and assisted in the rise of globalisation.

Technologys impact is present in various fields like Information and

communication technology

Developments have changed our way of life, whether it is at home, at work, at

school or at leisure. The internet and the development of digital technology

(computer-based technology) in particular, have made the most significant

impact in the field of information and communication technology in the past

decade.

The internet is essentially a network of computers across the world which is

linked through global telecommunications. Although it was originally only used

by defence personnel in the United States, easy access to computers and related

technology have made using the internet a common activity in more recent

times.

The World Wide Web (www) is a collection of interconnected documents which

are accessible using the internet. It enables people from almost anywhere in the
world to access information on almost any topic from shopping to weather

forecasts; and from research to downloading music and movies.

Transport technology

Developments in transport technology have played a major role in globalisation.

Over 100 years ago, the Industrial Revolution changed the nature of transport

with the invention of the steam engine and the combustion engine. Since then,

technological development in the transportation industry has affected

transformation in road, rail, sea and air travel.

Transport for personal use has improved dramatically. Cars are now built to be

faster, safer, more fuel efficient and therefore cheaper to run, as well as being

more environmentally friendly and costing less to purchase.

Airline transport has also enabled the expansion of tourism and trade across

continents. Although passenger planes only began to move groups of people

around half a century ago, they have dramatically improved within that time.

Airline travel has not only become more affordable in the last 20 years but it has

also become faster. In the mid-1930s, eleven people could fit into an aircraft on

a flight from London to Bangkok which took eight days, now the same journey

takes just ten hours.

Before advent of technology in banking, banking and transfer of unds was a time

consuming process. Electronic banking is at the heart of the global networks

system. Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT), is the first operating form of global

electronic financial networks. With EFT it is possible to send and receive financial

assets among banks. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial

Telecommunication (SWIFT) is the organization to assure a reliable global

electronic financial system.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now a major disruptor for many industries. Industries

like transportation and hospitality especially face severe competition from AI.

MacDonald plans to replace cashiers in their restaurants with automatic bots,

this way MacDonald saves time and money.

One of the big challenges in autonomous vehicles is its built on machine

learning technologies which are shall we say quite reliable. If you read

machine learning papers, an individual technology will often be right 99% of the

time Thats pretty spectacular for most machine learning technologies But

99% reliability is not going to be nearly enough for a safety critical technology

like autonomous cars. So I think one of the very interesting things is how you

combine technologies to get something which, in the aggregate, at the level of

assist, rather than the level of an individual algorithm, is delivering the kind of

very high reliability that of course were going to demand from our autonomous

transport. Safety of course is a key consideration. All of the engineering we do

and the research we do is going to be building around the principle of safety

rather than safety as an afterthought or a bolt-on, its got to be in there right at

the beginning.

-Professor Andrew Blake

Autonomous vehicles are a major disruptor for the transportation industry. With

AI, cab drivers are being replaced with AI drivers. AI can multitask and are not

affected by distractions, hence they make better drivers. Human cab drivers will

soon be replaced.

AI is also now starting to disrupt another field, investing and day trading. An

example is the Silicon Valley based start-up by Babak Hodjat. Babak Hodjat

believes humans are too emotional for the stock market.

"Humans have bias and sensitivities, conscious and unconscious," says Hodjat, a

computer scientist who helped lay the groundwork for Apple's Siri. "It's well

documented we humans make mistakes. For me, it's scarier to be relying on

those human-based intuitions and justifications than relying on purely what the

data and statistics are telling you."

Hodjat, with 21 patents to his name, is co-founder and top scientist of Sentient

Technologies Inc., a start-up that has spent nearly a decadelargely in secret

training an AI system that can scour billions of pieces of data, spot trends, adapt

as it learns and make money trading stocks. The team of technology-industry

vets is betting that software responsible for teaching computers to drive cars,

beat the world's best poker players and translate languages will give their hedge

fund an edge on Wall Street pros.

References

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-06/silicon-valley-hedge-

fund-takes-on-wall-street-with-ai-trader

http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/publications/industrial_development/1_2.pdf

http://www.technologist.eu/the-challenges-of-artificial-intelligence/

https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/17/a-discussion-about-ais-conflicts-and-

challenges/