Concept of globalisation founded on wrong premises

“The concept of globalisation was founded on wrong premises. In fact, any attempt to universalise financial systems is wrong, which the recent global financial crises have proved,” said noted columnist S Gurumurthy. He was speaking at the 20th anniversary celebrations of the TFSC (TANSTIA-FNF Service Centre) here on Sunday.

Asserting that the uncertainty still existed over whether we had emerged from the global financial crisis of 2008, he said: “When Der Spiegel magazine asked five Nobel laureates about the reasons behind the crisis and sought a solution for it, none of them could come with a proper reply.” Focusing on India, he said: “SMEs  represent the real economy; banking institutions that help them need promotion. We have an order in India which promotes medium and small-scale enterprises, which needs exploration.”

He cited the impressive performance of the Tamilnadu Mercantile Bank, a community-managed bank that lended only to entrepreneurs, and auto major Toyota — a conglomerate of many smaller auxiliary-manufacturing firms —as cases in point. “Germany is an example of a hard economy, with its firm footing on manufacturing,” he said.

“Entrepreneurship runs deep in the nation. The highest per-capita region was not from any of the urban centres but a lesser-known town in Gujarat, Morvi. About 70 per cent of Taurus truck owners of Tiruchengode town were formerly cattle grazers,” he elucidated.

Ex-IAS officer B S Raghavan decried bias towards rural regions. He also released the TFSC’s report.

Siegfried Herzog, regional director (S Asia), Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), said, “India has grown tremendously since the post globalisation era of the 90s. I come from Germany where SMEs comprise the backbone of our economy. SMEs should develop at the grassroots and a synergy with the Panchayats would be beneficial.”

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