17 Jun 08

Kamal Nath, Indian Minister for Commerce and Industry, speaking at the Oxford-FICCI conference

‘The benefits of globalisation are now accepted… but inevitably there have risen the worries of inclusion,’ said Mr Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, the Indian High Commissioner to the UK at a conference organised by the University of Oxford and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). ‘The fruits of globalisation are not evenly spread, nationally or internationally.’

The Oxford–FICCI conference ‘Globalisation and Developing Economies: Concerns of Inclusion’ was hosted by Lord Patten of Barnes, the Chancellor of Oxford University, at Oxford’s Saïd Business School on 16 June. The attendees heard from UK and Indian government ministers, Indian heads of business and media, and academics.

Professor Ngaire Woods, Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University, defined the worries. ‘There are some serious concerns about globalisation that are felt as an echo around the world,’ she said. ‘There is a sense that the world is becoming more precarious, more unequal, and the world economy is becoming less governed.’

Many of the speakers pointed out India’s unique position in finding ways to respond to these issues. ‘India is the great beneficiary of globalisation,’ said Lord Malloch-Brown KCMG, UK Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN. ‘India has emerged as one of the great stakeholders of the new 21st century global and political economy.’

Lord Malloch-Brown would like to see a greater role for India at the IMF, World Bank, and UN Security Council, particularly because the challenges for India in making sure the poor are not neglected or left behind by the pace of change are the same at the global scale. ‘India now needs to step forward in its global leadership,’ he said.

Kamal Nath, Indian Minister for Commerce and Industry, outlined the benefits of India’s engagement with the global economy for India and the wider world. ‘For the last two years, India’s investment in the US has been greater than US investment in India.’ This has led to the creation of jobs in the US, he pointed out. ‘Trade and investment is now a two-way street.’

There is still the need to ensure that all levels of Indian society benefit. ‘Does globalisation touch the heart of 1 billion people in India?’ asked Mr Nath. He concentrated on ‘flaws’ in global trade, particularly the ‘huge subsidies in agriculture’ that still exist in developed countries and are the subject of world trade negotiations.