A few decades ago, the multinational corporations were making a swift expansion in to the emerging markets. Economists around the world were talking of ‘the coming clash’ between the multinational corporations and the developing economies. However, thirty years down the line, the world is a different place in terms of changed realities in economics of trade, commerce and international investment. A new order of things is emerging and its contours are not yet fully discernible. There is a continuous fluidity in the vast information and data of world economy. It is not distinctively clear what rules of economics are being held as sacrosanct or inviolable. The queerest part of the puzzle is to find nations that thrived on good principles and practice, now staggering to cope with crises and anomalies in their own economies.
The emerging economies are facing problems that are more in the nature of providing logistics for implementing plans that can ensure a better future to a vast number of men and women of their countries. Especially, to give the youth of our nation opportunities of employment or provisions of earning a livelihood by other means is the solemn duty of economic managers in charge of running different affairs of trade, commerce and economy of the state. The young girls and boys not having excess to liberal education are likely to get lost in the maze of a fast changing world. They are resorting to violence or adopting rebellious ways of expressing their discontent with the state of affairs.
Reading tea leaves in these fast changing scenarios of economic realities gives one clear message which is to prepare oneself and avail new opportunities. Depending on the way it is employed, the diversity of cultures in a nation can both be a source of strength or weakness. It can be a basis of friction between the various groups competing among themselves for power or influence, but it can also help to put up a picture of great productivity of human thought and invention, especially when it endeavours to express creativity in liberty and freedom of choice. There was a time when Baghdad and Cardova were the only cities in the world where lamps were lit in the public thoroughfares at night and the paved streets had built-up drains on the sides. They were home to gathering of some of the best scholars and keen merchants, with divergent backgrounds and faiths, of the world. The coming generation must be courageous to take on the meaning of distinctiveness in these changing times. Every era shows ample signs of variations evolving in its times and always yields space for developing new ideas. A spectrum of innovative thought engulfing different fields of study would contribute to the development of an enriched and prosperous society.
The social and economic milieus that are capable of functioning at the crossroads of multiplicity are also capable of understanding and respecting diversity. Such economies are sure to thrive and prosper. The curriculum of today does not seem to convey that it is imparting such information to the present generation. Nearly 37 per cent of our population is below the age of 15. The internet may be of some use but without having access to our own analysis of different milieus of varied ethnic backgrounds, is sure to leave large gaps in understanding. The system must aid in the personal development of individuals. We depend on the internet for information which is analysed and presented not by us but by others. The great need is for our own academicians to update the curriculum and find points of inter-linkages of various perceptions in the world with those of our own. Looking from a practical point of view, this kind of knowledge is a sine qua non for nurturing and developing a prosperous economy which is desperately trying to enhance trade and create connections for greater financial flows with different centers of economic activities in the world.
The writer has served as consultant to the United Nations and other developing economies on the issues of trade and development and can be reached at [email protected]
