The term "globalization" has gained wide and popular currency today. Yet, there is often a lack of clarity on the precise meaning and definition of the term, and of its implications. In the more euphoric versions, globalization is seen as the wonderful culmination of a century of glittering technological progress which has made the world a global village, and has made it possible for people everywhere to communicate with great ease across the globe.

Globalization

The term "globalization" has gained wide and popular currency today. Yet, there is often a lack of clarity on the precise meaning and definition of the term, and of its implications. In the more euphoric versions, globalization is seen as the wonderful culmination of a century of glittering technological progress which has made the world a global village, and has made it possible for people everywhere to communicate with great ease across the globe. These versions cite the phenomenal progress in such fields as biotechnology and information and communication technology to highlight the fact that a whole new range of technological possibilities have emerged which could potentially enhance human life spans and the quality of life for all. But they do not pause to examine the track record of scientific and technological progress under hitherto existing socioeconomic regimes, which have more often than not led to both highly in equalizing and highly destructive uses of science and technology. The more explicitly ideological versions of this genre see globalization as the ultimate triumph of capitalism and as signifying "the end of history". The reality and the lived experience of globalization of the vast majority of people in the world call seriously into question the euphoric versions, the strenuous efforts of electronic and print mass media top portrary otherwise notwithstanding.

Globalization, as it is currently occurring, is best understood as a hegemonic process led by the economically and militarily powerful G7 countries-USA, UK, Canada, France, Italy, Germany and Japan - and the huge transnational corporation {TNCs or more popularly, multinational corporation (MNCs} based in these countries. In a sense, globalization has always been with us ever since the capitalist mode of production took firm root in UK some centuries ago, and the ceaseless quest of capital for profit across space and all sectors of productive and unproductive activity emerged. However, there are certain distinctive features of about contemporary globalization that need to be clearly understood.

Globalization rests on-the five important monopolies that Samir Amin locates with the G 7 countries.

Monopoly of technology, of finance, of markets, of media, and of weapons of mass destruction.

Contemporary globalization's distinctive feature is centralization and globalization of finance. Cross-border flows of finance via currency transactions amount to fifty times the value of international trade in goods. Global capital is largely metropolitan capital, which seeks quick gains in portfolio investment in the third world. Globally, foreign direct investment (FDD, while large compared to the decades of the 1970s and 80s, is much smaller than portfolio investment, and is concentrated in a few countries. In the third world, China and a handful of other countries account for nearly all FDI from the advanced capitalist countries.

An important implication of the dominance of finance capital globally is that countries seeking to attract and retain capital must maintain high interest rates and provide other incentives to such capital. In turn, this means that governments cannot follow expansionary policies through increased government spending and lower rates of interest to stimulate growth in the economy. This is why the decades of rapid globalization -1980s and 90s- have seen a sharp decline in the growth rates of capitalist countries, after a long period of expansion since the end of the second world war. This is especially the case with third world countries, since they face hostile international markets dominated by the monopolistic MNCs, and end up with severe problems in their balance of payments and foreign exchange holdings. The ruling regimes in most of these countries are unwilling to tax the rich and unable to curb imports, while exports face uncertain and highly competitive markets, and expenditures cannot be curbed beyond a point for fear of tremendous popular unrest. The resulting crisis of both internal resources and balance of payments pushes these countries into the stranglehold of the so-called Bretton Woods Institutions (BWI), namely the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which then dictate policies of  "structural adjustment" requiring the withdrawal of the state from economic activity and social protection, and the handing over of the economy to private capital, largely foreign, but with willing and p'iant domestic partners. The grip ofG7 countries and MNCs over the economies of third world countries lia? been greatly strengthened by the emergence of the world trade organization (WTO) in 1995 from the erstwhile Genera! Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). WTO, IMF and WB act in concert to keep the third world countries under the tutelage ofG7 and the MNCs, and ensure free movement of finance capital across the globe. They also aim at keeping the third world country markets freely accessible to G7 and MNCs, while allowing the latter to erect all sorts of tariff and nom-tariff barriers to exports from the third world into the advanced countries. This is the essence of globalization. In other words, far from being a benign process of breaking down unnecessary barriers that divide people and nations with the help of advanced technology, and helping them all to develop equitably, globalization as dominance of finance capital amounts essentially to recolonization of the third world.

Armed with the understanding of globalization sketched above, let us turn to a discussion of the impact of the economic policies followed in India throughout the 1990s, based on the trinity of liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG)