Globalisation helps India attack poverty: Chris Patten

from the Hindu

NEW DELHI: Lord Chris Patten, Chancellor of the University of Oxford and former Governor of Hong Kong, on Thursday said globalisation that triggered the flow of investments and growth in the developing nations brought millions out of poverty, particularly in India and China.

After the Indian economy opened up, the level of poverty in the country declined, and had the reforms been pursued further and faster, the results would have been better. The untapped potential of the economy remained and there was immense scope for improvement in the bureaucracy and labour reforms in order to sustain the economic reforms.

Lord Patten was delivering the Madhavrao Scindia Memorial Lecture on “Globalisation — Friend or Foe?” here.


Rise in inequality

It was proved that nations with better mass educated and trained workforce benefited more from globalisation. It also led to a rise in inequality between the urban and rural populations and between the haves and have-nots. The need was to ensure that the benefits of globalisation also helped in improving social parameters and states should be more accountable to their people. If the economic process of globalisation continued to alienate people and increase social disparity, problems across the globe would grow further.

If globalisation increased competition, it also promoted protectionism and increased the divide between the young and the old. Globalisation was not only about choice but also about more choices than one could handle. However, the more radical lot thought that it was creating a lack of faith among human beings, Lord Patten said.

Underlining the need for greater cooperation among states, Lord Patten said even if the United States had the will to provide leadership, it should not consider itself the only kid on the block.

The U.S. status as the only superpower was not under threat by the growing power of India and China. Shared leadership with China and India along with Europe was what the world needed to find solutions to its problems. Nations should exercise sovereignty more cooperatively, he said.

Referring to the growing opposition by the West to migration, Lord Patten said he was in favour of a controlled movement. Citing the examples of how Britain and the U.S. were benefiting from Indian migrants and their children, he said 30 per cent of the doctors and paramedics in Britain belonged to the Indian diaspora, while Indians accounted for one-third of those working in the U.S. space programmes.