Globalisation has rewritten India’s middle-class consumption, work culture and family life — but it has not produced uniform gains. Examine its differentiated impact with reference to job markets, traditional crafts and cultural homogenisation.
Subtopic: Indian Society · Globalisation
How to structure your answer
Introduction: Define globalisation as the post-1991 reform integration of India with global capital, labour and culture. Frame both winners and losers.
Body — three dimensions: (1) Jobs — IT-BPM ~5.4 million workers (NASSCOM 2024), services 53% of GDP; conversely 90% workforce still informal, MSME craft clusters squeezed by Chinese imports. (2) Crafts and culture — handloom workers down from 65.5 lakh (Handloom Census 1995-96) to 35.22 lakh (Fourth Handloom Census 2019-20); globalised English-medium consumption coexists with vernacular resurgence. (3) Family and gender — delayed marriage in metros, dual-income households, but also reverse migration (FY21 pandemic) and dowry inflation in upwardly mobile groups.
Conclusion: Globalisation is neither a blessing nor a curse — its outcomes are mediated by caste, region and skill. Protect craft and language ecosystems through GI tags (e.g., Banarasi saree, Kanchipuram silk, Madhubani) and a re-skilling push for tier-2/tier-3 cities.
Written within the word limit
129 words · target 150 words · 9 min
Introduction: Manmohan Singh's 24 July 1991 budget integrated India with global capital, labour and culture — rewriting middle-class consumption, work culture and family life, but with sharply unequal gains across regions and social groups.
Body: Jobs split unevenly: IT-BPM employs about 5.4 million workers (NASSCOM 2024) and services contribute 53% of GDP (Economic Survey 2024-25), yet 90% of workers remain informal. Crafts felt the squeeze — the Fourth Handloom Census (2019–20) recorded 35.22 lakh weavers, down from 65.5 lakh in 1995-96 — even as 432 GI tags (Banarasi saree 2009, Channapatna toys, Madhubani painting) push back against imitation imports. Culture and family transform too: English-medium consumption and dual-income metros coexist with dowry inflation, vernacular resurgence and the over one-crore reverse migration of 2020–21.
Conclusion: Globalisation's outcomes are mediated by caste, region and skill — GI protection, MSME credit and tier-2/tier-3 re-skilling are the equalisers.
What an examiner expects to see
- Post-1991 LPG reforms — Manmohan Singh budget speech, 24 July 1991
- IT-BPM 5.4 million workers (NASSCOM 2024)
- Services 53% of GDP (Economic Survey 2024-25)
- Handloom Census 2019-20 — 35.22 lakh weavers, down from 65.5 lakh in 1995-96
- Fourth Handloom Census published 2020
- Geographical Indications — 432 registered as of 2024
- MSME ~6.3 crore enterprises, employing 11+ crore
- Pandemic reverse migration 2020-21 — over 1 crore returned
Concrete cases, schemes and judgments
- Bengaluru and Hyderabad as global IT clusters
- Banarasi saree GI tag, 2009, against imitation imports
- Tirupur knitwear export cluster
- Surat diamond polishing — over 10 lakh workers
- Channapatna toy GI vs cheap plastic imports