Elucidate the relationship between globalization and new technology in a world of scarce resources with special reference to India. (Answer in 250 words)

Globalisation expands flows of capital, goods, knowledge and labour, while new technology compresses distance and raises productivity. In a resource-constrained world, their relationship is both enabling and unequal.

Positive relationship

• Digital networks connect Indian firms and skilled workers to global value chains, enabling IT services, fintech, telemedicine and remote education.
• Satellite systems, GIS, artificial intelligence and sensors improve water management, crop advisories, disaster warning and logistics.
• Renewable energy, energy-efficient appliances, electric mobility and circular-economy technologies can reduce material and carbon intensity.
• Global collaboration transfers research, finance and standards for climate adaptation and sustainable development.

Risks and inequalities

• Technology can accelerate extraction, e-waste, data-centre energy use, planned obsolescence and consumption-led emissions.
• Unequal digital access, language barriers, algorithmic bias and automation may widen the rural–urban and skilled–unskilled divide.
• Global value chains can externalise pollution and resource costs to weaker jurisdictions; critical-mineral dependence creates strategic vulnerability.

India’s way forward

India needs affordable connectivity, public digital infrastructure, skilling, privacy and competition safeguards, repair and recycling ecosystems, responsible AI, local manufacturing and technology assessment against ecological carrying capacity.

Global value chains; digital public infrastructure; resource efficiency; circular economy; e-waste; digital divide; responsible AI.