Tracing the past developments:

Let us look at the developments in the past centuries to add teeth to the statement - globalization and technology have evolved as a twin phenomenon.

The eighteenth century brought about the first industrial revolution that led to emergence of energy and motion through the invention of steam engine. And, in turn, it promoted automation of factories, mining, textile industries etc. resulting in improved productivity and faster movements of people and goods to and from places.

Then came the second industrial revolution in nineteenth century that witnessed invention of electricity and communications which seeded developments of newer and more effective communication systems in later times that has brought the society closer. Electricity further helped in speedy industrialization and made fast travel possible.

The third industrial revolution of twentieth century saw the developments in computers that led to the new fields of information technology and robotics. It laid the foundation of new (software based) applications in the various sectors, be it manufacturing, banking & finance, healthcare, agriculture, transportation & hospitality, retail & supply chain, education and the like, making them more efficient and customer friendly.

And then came the fourth industrial revolution of the current (twenty first) century, denoted as Industry 4.0, which is laying the foundation of an information intensive transformation of manufacturing and service industries in a connected environment of data, people, processes, systems and industry assets, with generation, leverage and utilization of actionable information as a means to realize smart industry. It is primarily aimed at rendering high productivity, cost saving, minimized errors, and reliable quality products and services for the customers world over.

Technology at the center stage:

Clearly, the technologies that have emerged in the past three centuries have made the people, societies, businesses and the nations come closer. Energy and automation have enabled people move across the physical boundaries, thanks to the evolution of locomotives from steam engines to diesel and electricity engines and more recently to intelligent engines, and to energy efficient near sonic speed commercial airplanes, and now to satellite vehicles that has made travel to the distant planets a possibility. Turbines, grids  and  transmissions have enabled energy to be produced and integrated at one place and  efficiently delivered for consumption in far off places. Communications have  extensively evolved from the Morse code to telegraphs to texts to audio and to video. Internet and smart cell phones are the key examples of effective and instant communications among many simultaneously. This has been a single most development of the current times that has brought the people and businesses closer.

Current, the twenty first century is often described as a watershed in technology development where innovation is at a center stage to seek elegant and robust solutions to the evolving needs of today’s vibrant economy and complex society. The world is fast propelling itself to an era of digital economy, wherein every activity, be it social or economic, is increasingly influenced by the technology. Researches are being carried out to effectively, with simplicity, securely and cost-effectively realize practical implementations to solve numerous problems of the society and economy, which were hitherto intractable.

Recent decades have witnessed far reaching developments in the area of electronics, information technology and computer software, responsible for a  complete tech - driven digital transformation of the way in which humanity lives and conducts its activities. Evolution of silicon based machines, as a core element of the information technology, has been a cause of disrupting the way the information intensive transformation has taken place in a connected environment of people, processes and systems.

Of more recent times are the massive technological leap witnessed in the area of Artificial intelligence (AI), and other technologies such as Robotics, Computer Vision, High Performance Computing and Cyber space that have impacted virtually all sectors of the economy and the society, involving healthcare, education, agriculture, transportation, media, retail and supply chain, banking and finance, insurance, e Government etc. This has also integrated people, goods, capital, information and knowledge globally, for collaborative trade and businesses, exchanging information on the current happenings globally and sharing the results of research for common good.

Some examples of global - technology level integration:

A classic example of the global level integration in electronics industry  is of one place where Silicon wafers (from sand) are produced in a foundry, to another place where the wafers are sent to make an integrated circuit (IC), to yet another place where the IC is packaged, and finally to a place from where the finished devices are shipped to places of demand. The design of the IC itself would have been evolved at altogether another place of research, and the final product ICs are shipped and consumed by the customers all over the world who use them in their diverse products.

There was a time when individual industries had been setting up and using their own IT infrastructure, comprising servers, software and data, in the form of a Data Centre to service their requirements of data storage, and running software applications. Now, such individual data centers at an industry’s owned place are not required to be built, thereby saving enormous amount of upfront investment on computers, software, power and environmentally controlled space, and an equally large amount to be spent on its upkeep and regular maintenance. Instead, service providers offer the same services to the concerned industry from their cluster of large computers located worldwide through what is called as Cloud. Besides, they offer complete security of customer data and running their production application 24*7. So, you can rent a storage space on Cloud for your data with a secured access, and the computing power to run your software applications effortlessly without your need to know where does your data reside and where are the computers located.

Yet another example of global - technology integration, practiced and seen much more universally in the current time, is use of a secure high bandwidth communication network servicing people from far off geographical places that are networked together to interact and communicate on the subject of their interest in real time, without having the people to travel from far off places for a face-to-face interaction in proximity. Such interactions ( through WebEx, Zoom, Conference call, Webcast etc) may be to set up meeting among people and offices at geographically differently located places, to cooperate in trade and business, share outcomes of any development within a multi-location organization, or to collaborate on research findings among the development teams located at different places.

Today, it is a common practice in Software industry to develop complex software packages involving multiple teams located at different places across the globe which bring with them diverse expertise and knowledge required for the speedy development of products and services, and patenting using secured network. Even advanced semiconductor chip designs are being evolved through a collaborative platform used by the teams spread in geography and skill set.

The current experience of providing an on line education has proved effective in delivering education material (live interactive lectures through web cast) form one far off place to any number of learners located in the other corner of the globe in real time. Intelligent tutoring system (ITS) involving its four main components, viz. learner, pedagogy, communication, and content, are tightly integrated within an expert system. Such integration of intelligent algorithms and AI helps to offer a better personalized learning experience and enhance tutoring methods for the learners in far off places.

Characteristics of Globalization:

In the ongoing discussion, let us look at the characteristics of globalization that are influenced by the technological developments. These are;

• Weakening of the physical boundaries allowing free flow of goods,   services, capital and people across the globe without any restriction.
• Shrinkage of space and time converging to a global village.
• Intensification of economic, political, social and cultural relations across international boundaries, meeting the new demands and opportunities for the societies and businesses.
• Integration among people, institutions, businesses and governments.
• Leading to the birth of a connected world for public good.
• Free flow of volumes of information among the beneficiaries.
• Unrestricted movement of people, goods, investments, information and knowledge.
• Complementing and supplementing actions among nations for optimal utilization of resources.
• Rapid advances in transport and communication.

Areas benefitting the humanity from globalization of technologies:

Imagine, if the relevant technologies were not available, how could the actions, reactions and the interventions mentioned above were going to be possible at global scale to benefit nations. 

The areas which have benefitted the humanity far more from the globalization of technologies are, for example, healthcare, agriculture, media, education, environmental monitoring, finance and banking and supply chain.

Let us get a glimpse of how !

Main impact in the healthcare, a gigantic sector globally, has been to research and develop new and advanced medicines and treatments utilizing the data globally. Genomic sequence is one classic example of this that has made possible better understanding of the genetic disorders, new viruses, chronic ailments and resulting new medications.

In the farming and agriculture sector, shrinking agriculture lands globally and scarcity of natural resources has led to urgent use of technological inputs far more than it was ever before. Experiences of different countries with the use of technology have been useful in optimizing the processes to generate profitable crop yields, predictable analysis for farm inputs, sensing and guidance technologies to curtail misusage of agriculture inputs and timely intervention for prevention of crop diseases in different parts of the earth.

Globalization has made far reaching impacts on education, as it forms the very basis of the status of development of a nation. Higher is the literacy level in a State better are the employment opportunities and consequent improved demography in the social fabric of the country. Content digitalization and on line delivery, digital libraries, cognitive learning, web services, multi lingual translation and intelligent tutoring systems have been developed drawing from multiple experience and offerings from among the developing and developed countries.

With an estimated 54 % of the world population residing in urban areas, and an increasing trend for such urban settlements, the pressure on urban administrative system to manage environment is mounting to a point that it is a huge challenge in the current day urban management situation. Here again, the experiences of the countries in different regions with the various simulation models comes in handy for developing accurate models using data about urban infrastructure, healthcare, air pollution, safety of citizens and public assets to improve the services. Many countries share common social settings and issues in this regard.

Banking and finance have benefitted tremendously to a point that today technology has made it possible to virtually conduct all banking transactions on line at a global scale, integrating all the financial institutions, various modes of currency transactions, investments, taxation and business globally 24*4 basis most reliably and speedily.

And the supply - chain is another sector that has seen a virtual integration of manufactured outputs, dispatch agencies, transportation and custom and border management agencies among the suppliers and customers of goods and services globally. It is made possible through the use of efficient communication and transportation channels and globally accepted standards of software applications.

Objectives of globalized education:

As education is at the center stage of the various actions, reactions and interventions from the globalization, it has made far reaching impacts on education. The objectives of globalized education, as enumerated below, are served well with the technology playing a pivotal role in the process.

• Make global citizens as netizens
• Empathy for others’ systems, processes and data
• Respect other’s values, languages and cultures
• Create wealth, both material and spiritual
• Address major societal concerns such as environmental population, safety, data security and skill development
• Sensitize society with nationality and culture, apart from making them digitally literate in true sense of the word
• Remain contemporary in knowledge and with new vistas of technology
• Learn from the experiences of other countries in designing and delivering quality and contemporary education.

Epilogue:

In this paper, we have analyzed the emergence of globalization in the realms of technology developments, and tried to establish this fact that globalization and technology is a twin phenomenon, that makes both mutually inclusive in their character.

Today, technology has assumed a status that makes a country, possessing it, secure and powerful. Its economic and demographic status is dictated by the technology it possesses and the level at which it has fruitfully utilized it in its various social and economic sectors. So much so, the education and literacy level is also influenced by the extent of possession of technology and its application in the sectors of banking & finance, retail & supply chain, transportation & hospitality, healthcare, agriculture, e Governance etc. 

The prescription here therefore is that technology enables effective fruits of globalization to be reaped; it significantly impacts the quality and pace of life of the humanity, and is a powerful tool in protecting the sovereignty and nationality of a country, in maintaining and sharing its culture, social systems, ethos and technology adaptation experiences globally. Newer technologies, the likes of Artificial Intelligence, have a defining role in this competitive race.