India - Globalization’s Poster Child

Many people in the world perceive India as the land of maharaja’s and elephant while others associate it with hunger and the derision’s of a developing country.Contrary to conventional wisdom, India has taken the center stage in the process of globalization. In the last ten years,the pace of globalization has accelerated at an unprecedented speed in this super charged sub continent. The Indian economy opened up in the early 90’s as a result of foreign trade deficit’s due to the gulf war and with pressure form the IMF , World Bank and other international organizations. This liberalization of the Indian economy led to the explosion of the global consumer goods and the television market. A wide range of Indian companies, from steel to cars, IT to Bollywood are setting themselves up as powerhouses of tomorrow’s global economy. It may be note worthy to mention that globalization is not new to India. During the period 1500- 1800 , India experienced it’s first phase of globalization attracting the Portugese, the Dutch and finally the English trading companies.From India’s vantage, the forces of globalization the second time around continue to intensify and accelerate.In this weeks blog for the sake of focus, I would like to predominantly elaborate on media globalization in India.

Television

Until 1991, Indian television and film constituted one of the world’s most protected media markets but deregulation transformed the media landscape. Fueled by the desires of advertisers to reach the newly open Indian market, the number of television channels grew from one state-run channel in 1991 to more than 70 cable channels in 1999. Access to television increased from less than 10% of the urban population in 1990 to nearly 75% by 1999 (Derne, 2005). Using the growth of the satellite television audience to their advantage, a number of Indian satellite based television services were launched between 1991 and 1994. With its huge numbers of potential consumers, India provides transnational media corporations with unrivalled opportunities — it is one of the fastest growing and potentially one of the biggest English language media  markets in the world.

The proliferation of satellite channels and foreign programming has put a great pressure on the Indian television programming industry. In the early 1990s, Indian television channels had their highest audience ratings within the region and forced foreign channels to adjust their programs so as to fit into the Indian national and local culture (Sonwalkar, 2001). The most successful channels were the one’s with most localized content.Patrick Cross, the managing director of the BBC World Service, said that his corporation had plans to introduce programs in Hindi (Mitra & Anjan, 2000, cited by Sonwalkar, 2001). This is the first time the BBC has shown interest in local language broadcasting outside the UK, although England has had an intimate and protracted relationship with the Indian subcontinent (Wang, 2008 ).

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India: Makings of Little Cultural/Media Imperialism? - P Sonwalkar - International Communication Gazette, 2001

Privatizing the airwaves: The impact of globalization on broadcasting in India - DK Thussu - Media Culture and Society, 1999 .

The Good Side of Globalization and Mass Media – KIVA

Companies have been operating without borders for a quite a while trying to hire the best talent or seeking the best idea’s, all in the best interest of making profit. Having only profit as their God, the multinational conglomerates, the most visible facet of globalization are destroying the rights and the livelihoods of peoples in the two-thirds world (Rajput, 2003). Women, especially those in developing countries seem to experience the adverse effects of globalization.

Women and Globalization

“Micro credit is a critical anti-poverty tool-a wise investment in human capital, when the poorest,

especially women, receive credit, they become economic actors with power. Power to improve not onlytheir own lives, but in a widening circle of impact, the lives of their families, their communities and their nations···”      Kofi Annan, Secretary General, United Nations.

The adverse impact of globalization upon women’s livelihood, employment, education, health, etc has been highlighted by numerous national and international reports. Lack of access to credit is a key barrier to economic development and growth in the informal sector in which women constitute an overwhelming majority. This has led to an increasing emphasis upon micro credit and microfinance for women as means for their empowerment (Rajput, 2003). In laymen’s term micro financing is the extension of credit or loan to people who do not have access to the traditional financial system.

It has been known that empowering one women can empower successive generations. This is where KIVA comes in. KIVA is a nonprofit organization that empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. The organization has partnered with microfinance organizations and 82 % of the loans have been made to women. KIVA has combined microfinance with Internet and created a global community of people connected through lending. The organization takes great efforts to present the realities of microfinance by giving lenders the opportunity to learn about the borrower’s background and their personal story for seeking the loan.

How KIVA works

I stumbled upon KIVA around the same time last year and chose to help a member called Hannah, who lived in Ghana. Hannah, a 40 year old single mother of three children works very hard to be able to provide for her family. She lives with her school going children in a rented apartment in a fishing-dominated community called Axim in the western region of Ghana. Hannah trades in provisions and sells on a tabletop in front of her house. She has been in business for three years and sought a loan to procure goods in bulk. She sought a loan for $1,050 with the repayment term of 8 months. She works with a local field office in Ghana and with their help is able to provide information that is displayed on the KIVA website for potential lenders to see. In Hannah’s case, 38 lenders from countries like Japan, US, UK, Netherlands, Australia, Canada etc saw her profile and chose to help her by funding her $1,050 loan. In my opinion KIVA is a social enterprise that touts a simple business model, which just might make the world a true global village, in terms of connectivity and philanthropy.  

 

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Sources:

www.kiva.org

Rajput, P (2003). Women and Globalization: Is Microcredit the Answer?

www.socialedge.org