Globalisation, technology and social change

The first principle

Technology is the engine of today's globalisation, because cheap computing, mobile phones and the internet let ideas, jobs, money and people move across borders faster than ever. Societies change when the means of communication and production change, as sociologists from Marx to Manuel Castells, who described a networked society, have argued. In India the change falls hardest on those with the most to gain and the most to lose: the young, women who leave home for work, and a population that must grow richer while land, water and energy stay scarce. The questions in this note all ask whether technology driven globalisation widens choices for these groups or merely shifts the risks onto them.

The core

Globalisation and Indian youth

India has about 254 million people aged 15 to 24, and they are the generation most exposed to global markets and media.

• Economic. Information technology, start ups, global capability centres and services exports created well paid jobs and a culture of enterprise. At the same time youth unemployment is high, at about 10.2 per cent for those aged 15 to 29 in the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2023 to 2024, and many work in platform jobs without security; NITI Aayog (2022) estimated 7.7 million gig workers in 2020 to 2021, rising to 23.5 million by 2029 to 2030. Large numbers also go abroad for study and work, which brings remittances but also brain drain.
• Social. Exposure to global media widens aspiration and individual choice in education, careers, dating and marriage, and weakens deference to elders. Competition and social media comparison are linked to stress, and the National Crime Records Bureau records students as a rising share of suicides.
• Political. Social media has made the young politically visible, from the anti corruption movement of 2011 to campaigns on climate and on examination paper leaks, though it also spreads misinformation and polarisation.
• Cultural. Youth culture is hybrid: global music, fashion and gaming mix with regional cinema, religious festivals and language pride.

Skilled young women migrating to cities

Globalisation created service jobs in information technology, banking, retail, hospitality, health care and aviation that recruit educated young women, many unmarried, from small towns and from different classes. They move to Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad and the National Capital Region and live in working women's hostels, paying guest homes and shared flats.

• Personal freedom. A salary gives financial independence, the city gives anonymity, and women decide their own clothes, friends, spending and leisure. Marriage is often delayed, and many choose partners themselves.
• Relationship with family. Ties are renegotiated rather than broken: daughters send money home, support siblings' education and gain a voice in family decisions, which shifts their status from dependants to contributors. Parents often accept the move as an investment in a better marriage, while still trying to control choice of spouse.
• Limits. Safety concerns, moral policing of women living alone, high rent and the double burden after marriage push some back. Landlords and hostels still impose curfews and rules that families would.

Dimensions

• Demographic. A young population is an asset only if it is skilled and employed, otherwise the demographic dividend becomes a burden.
• Economic. Technology destroys routine jobs and creates new ones, and India's growth has leaned on services more than manufacturing.
• Social. Individualism rises while family and community remain central, and inequality between the connected and the unconnected grows.
• Gender. Technology opens remote and platform work for women, though platform work for women is discussed in a separate note.
• Environmental. Digital growth depends on electricity, water, minerals and disposal of waste.

In practice

Globalisation and new technology in a world of scarce resources

Global trade and investment spread new technology fast, and new technology lets a country do more with less. This matters for India, which has about 18 per cent of the world's people but around 4 per cent of its fresh water and 2.4 per cent of its land.

• Technology as a substitute for resources. Solar and wind power, made cheap by global supply chains, reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels; India's non fossil installed capacity crossed 50 per cent of the total in 2025, five years ahead of its 2030 target. Drip irrigation, precision farming and LED lighting under the UJALA scheme save water and power.
• Leapfrogging. India skipped landline telephones for mobiles and is building digital public infrastructure: Aadhaar, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), DigiLocker and the Open Network for Digital Commerce. Over 18 billion UPI transactions happen in a month, replacing cash, paper and travel.
• Global partnerships. The International Solar Alliance (2015) and India's Group of Twenty (G20) presidency in 2023 promoted shared solar and digital infrastructure for the Global South.
• The costs. Technology uses scarce resources too. India generated about 1.75 million tonnes of e waste in 2023 to 2024, most of it handled by informal recyclers; data centres need large amounts of power and water in water stressed cities; solar panels and batteries depend on imported critical minerals; and the digital divide, with women and rural households less likely to own smartphones, means the gains are unevenly shared.

Cryptocurrency

A cryptocurrency is a digital token that people can hold and transfer without a bank or central bank in the middle. Transactions are recorded on a blockchain, a shared ledger copied across thousands of computers, where each block of records is linked to the previous one by cryptography so that it cannot be altered quietly. Bitcoin, launched in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, was the first; stablecoins are tokens pegged to currencies such as the United States dollar.

Effects on global society

• It offers fast cross border payments and remittances, financial access where banks are weak, and a hedge in countries with collapsing currencies; El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender in 2021, though it rolled this back in 2025.
• It enables ransomware payments, money laundering, terror financing and sanctions evasion because of pseudonymity.
• Prices are highly volatile, and the collapse of the exchange FTX in 2022 wiped out investor savings.
• Bitcoin mining uses electricity on the scale of a mid sized country.
• Central banks fear loss of control over money, and the Financial Stability Board and the Group of Twenty agreed a common regulatory roadmap in 2023.

India's position

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular of 6 April 2018 barred banks from dealing with virtual currency businesses.
• Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) v Reserve Bank of India (2020): the Supreme Court struck down the circular as a disproportionate restriction on the freedom of trade under Article 19(1)(g), since the RBI had shown no actual harm.
• The Finance Act, 2022 taxed income from virtual digital assets at 30 per cent without set off of losses, and imposed 1 per cent tax deducted at source (TDS) on transfers from July 2022.
• In March 2023 the Ministry of Finance brought virtual digital asset service providers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), so exchanges must register with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and report suspicious transactions.
• The RBI launched the e rupee, a central bank digital currency (CBDC), as a wholesale pilot in November 2022 and a retail pilot in December 2022.
• Crypto is neither banned nor recognised as legal tender, and a promised discussion paper on comprehensive policy is still awaited.

Effects on Indian society

Indians have taken to crypto in large numbers, mostly young men in small towns and cities drawn by social media promises of quick returns, which reflects aspiration and distrust of slow savings. The high tax pushed trading to offshore exchanges, scams and fake apps have cost investors savings, and the Enforcement Directorate has pursued laundering cases linked to crypto. Remittances and blockchain uses in land records and supply chains show the technology's constructive side. So crypto affects Indian society, but more as a speculative and regulatory issue than as everyday money.

Issues and way forward

• Jobless or insecure growth for youth. The cause is a mismatch between degrees and jobs and a weak manufacturing base; the Code on Social Security, 2020 recognises gig workers, and skill programmes need industry partnership, as the Economic Survey 2023 to 2024 urged.
• Unsafe cities for women migrants. Lack of safe housing is the cause; the Working Women Hostel scheme (Ministry of Women and Child Development) and safe public transport are the remedies.
• Digital divide. Device and data costs and low skills are the cause; BharatNet and digital literacy under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan aim to close it.
• E waste and data centre stress. Weak collection is the cause; the E waste (Management) Rules, 2022 fixed extended producer responsibility targets, and data centre policies should require water recycling and renewable power.
• Crypto risks. Regulatory uncertainty is the cause; a clear law aligned with the global G20 roadmap, investor education and wider use of the e rupee are the answer.

Common confusions

• Cryptocurrency and CBDC. Cryptocurrency is private and decentralised; a central bank digital currency such as the e rupee is legal tender issued and controlled by the RBI.
• Blockchain and Bitcoin. Blockchain is the ledger technology; Bitcoin is one application of it.
• Brain drain and brain circulation. Brain drain is a permanent loss of skilled people; brain circulation describes migrants who return or send back capital, ideas and networks.

For the exam

• Keyword bank: aspiration, gig economy, brain circulation, individuation, renegotiated family ties, leapfrogging, digital public infrastructure, resource decoupling, e waste, digital divide, blockchain, virtual digital asset, stablecoin, CBDC.
• Previous year questions: Practise the previous year questions on this topic →
• Use in an answer:
  • Introduction (data): With UPI handling billions of payments a month, India shows how imported technology can be turned into home grown digital public infrastructure.
  • Introduction (judgement): In Internet and Mobile Association of India v RBI (2020) the Supreme Court held that a ban on crypto banking must rest on proof of harm, which left India to regulate rather than prohibit.
  • Conclusion: Globalisation gives India's youth and women wider choices, and the state's task is to make those choices safe and secure.
  • Conclusion: In a world of scarce resources, technology is India's best substitute for land, water and fuel, provided its own footprint and its unequal reach are managed.