Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Thursday said that extreme wealth disparity between various sections of people, which has been driven by hyper-globalisation, remained a key challenge in the present.
Speaking on the theme ‘The crises of the 21st century and the way forward’ at the three-day 48th All India Sociological Conference 2023, which was jointly organised by the Indian Sociological Society (ISS) and Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) at VIT campus campus here, Mr. Rajan said that hyper-globalisation has helped integrate economies of various countries and create a common universal market for consumers. It has also helped to create unprecedented wealth for developing countries like China, he said.
However, he said that greater polarisation and the deterioration of politics were some of the consequences of hyper-globalisation. Such deterioration might have helped some political parties win elections, but it has resulted in a dearth of leaders with statesmanship.
Lack of statesmen has also led to the crumbling of great institutions like the U.N. in saving innocent lives that were getting lost in armed conflict like in Ukraine and Gaza. “Eminent sociologists should find solutions to challenges such as global warming, climate change, rising inequality, and polarisation to ensure an equitable society,” he said.
Lags in per capita income
In his presidential address, G. Viswanathan, founder chancellor, VIT, said that despite India becoming the world’s fifth largest economy in November, pushing France and the U.K. behind, the country still lags in per capita income as India stands at the 139th rank with $2,600 per year as against China, which has $12,600 per year.
The Chancellor said that China and India opened their economies in 1978 and 1991, respectively, with around $20 per capita income gap between them. However, decades later, China grew tremendously in per capita income as compared to India, mainly due to the existing caste system in the country, he said.
More skyscrapers
Mr. Viswanathan advocated for the construction of more skyscrapers in cities like Chennai and Bengaluru, as it would not only provide better housing accommodation for people but also save cultivable lands from being converted into residential plots.
At the conference, Mr. Rajan honoured Chandrashekhar Bhatt, former professor of Sociology, University of Hyderabad, and Professor Virginius Xaxa, former professor of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, with lifetime achievement awards in the presence of Professor Abha Chauhan and Professor Manish Verma, president and secretary of ISS, respectively.
VIT’s vice-presidents, Sankar Viswanathan and G.V. Selvam, gave away the Professor M.N. Srinivas Memorial Prize to N.B. Lekha, assistant professor, Department of Sociology, S.N. College, Thiruvananthapuram, and Aleena Sebastian, assistant professor, School of Social Sciences, National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bangalore.
Published - December 28, 2023 11:07 pm IST
