Question

How did the development of information and communication technology promote globalisation? Explain with examples.

Hint:

Cover telecommunication and satellites, the spread of computers, and the internet with electronic mail. Then give a concrete example such as a magazine designed in Delhi and printed in London.

Answer 1

Concept:

• Globalisation means the rapid integration of countries through trade, investment and the movement of people and ideas.
• Technology has been the main force behind it, and in recent decades information and communication technology has played the largest part.

Step 1: Telecommunication connected the world instantly.
Telecommunication facilities such as the telegraph, the telephone including the mobile phone and the fax are used to contact one another around the world, to access information instantly and to communicate from remote areas.
This has been made possible by satellite communication devices.

Step 2: Computers entered every field of activity.
Computers have now entered almost every field of activity, from banking and railways to design and manufacture. Work can be organised, stored and transferred between countries without any physical movement of papers.

Step 3: The internet made information and messages almost free.
The internet allows people to obtain and share information on almost anything. Electronic mail and voice mail can be sent across the world at negligible costs and reach the other side almost at once.

Step 4: Give the example of the news magazine.
A news magazine published for readers in London may be designed and printed in Delhi. The text and photographs are prepared in Delhi, sent through the internet to the London office, and printing is done there.
The cost of designing and printing in India is low, so the publisher saves money while the reader gets the magazine on time.

Step 5: Note the wider effect on services.
Because of these facilities, services such as data entry, accounting, engineering design and customer support can be carried out in one country for customers in another. This is how many service jobs came to India.

Final Answer: Telephones, satellites, computers and the internet allowed information, money and instructions to move across the world instantly and at very low cost. This let firms spread their work across countries, as when a London magazine is designed in Delhi and printed in London, and it is what turned separate national markets into one connected world market.