The pace of interaction of human societies has dramatically increased in recent years, which were largely facilitated by jet airplanes, cheap telephone service, internet, huge oceangoing vessels, instant capital flows, all these have made the world more interdependent than ever. Multinational corporations manufacture products in many countries and sell to consumers around the world. Money, technology and raw materials move ever more swiftly across national borders. Along with products and finances, ideas and cultures circulate more freely. As a result, laws, economies, and social movements are forming at the international level. Many politicians, academics, and journalists treat these trends as both inevitable and (on the whole) welcome. But for billions of the world’s people, business-driven globalization means uprooting old ways of life and threatening livelihoods and cultures. Intense political disputes, academic deliberations and discussions will continue over globalization’s meaning and its future direction. The recent issue of the Economist summarises the symposium on the rise of Chindia (to borrow from Jairam Ramesh’ book) in the global horizon once again after more than thousand years.
