Friday, February 4 2005 09:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: India yesterday (Feb 03,2005) urged the developed countries to review the process of globalisation and make it more inclusive, just and equitable so that the developing countries could benefit from its prosperity.

"As of today, the terms are heavily weighted in favour of the developed countries," Finance Minister, P Chidambaram said at the Foreign Policy Centre in London, The European Think Tank with a Global Outlook.

He said, "Millions of people in the developing countries and in the least developed countries, watch in silence and with a growing sense of bitterness, that the Age of Prosperity is passing them by. This does not augur well for either globalisation or stability."

"I urge you to review the process of globalisation. And I urge you to renew the process by making it more inclusive, more just and more equitable," the Finance Minister, who is in London to attend the two-day meeting of Group of Seven rich nations commencing today, said.

The invitation to India to attend the G-7 rich nations meeting underlines the growing influence of its economy that has become too big and potentially influential to ignore. India's participation, alongside China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa, will be its first ever in a G-7 - the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada - meeting.

According to sources, the G-7 is increasingly interested in India because the country's economic clout, from back-office outsourcing to demand for resources, is growing rapidly.

Stating that globalisation meant different things to different countries and within a country too, different things to different people, Chidambaram said, "The international architecture, comprising the UN, the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund), has served the globe reasonably well in the last 50 years. "As we face new kinds of complex challenges in the future, we need to find new ways of organising the international architecture in response to the emerging new poles of economic strength on the planet."

Reeling out statistics, he said, India's GDP, at market prices, is nearly $ 800 billion per year. "Exports of goods and services amount to $ 133 billion a year. Net capital inflows average about $ 19 billion annually."

Chidambaram pointed out that a new aspect of India's globalisation is outward FDI by Indian companies, who are now enormously confident, and are in the process of becoming multinational corporations.

He said, "In 2003-04, outward FDI from India amounted to a sum of $ 1.4 billion - a small step by world standards, but a giant leap for India. "In my view this is only the beginning. Indian companies are hungry to go abroad, acquire manufacturing firms as well as brands, and position themselves at the doors of new markets. For the first time, Indian companies are seen as potentially major players in the world market." The Finance Minister said that the traditional face of Indian business has changed dramatically in the last few years. "Indian firms are no longer only seekers of foreign technology or producers of staple goods or providers of low-end services. Their engagement with the world has acquired new dimensions."

Even in the traditional engagement in goods and services, India has become the leading nation in software services - TCS, Infosys and Wipro are acknowledged world brands.

"India is also a major hub for manufacturing and export of manufactured products, especially in sectors such as automobiles, auto parts and accessories, leather goods, textiles, pharmaceuticals, petroleum products and machine tools. And if you will add handicrafts and hand made products, flowers and herbs, the traditional engagement with the world is quite impressive."