Sunday, April 21, 2002		Books

Scholars on WTO’s meaning
P. K. Vasudeva

WTO & Competitiveness: Challenges for Indian Business and Management Education
edited by D Paduranga Rao, Excel Books, New Delhi. Pages 639. Rs 495

THERE have been vicissitudes in the world economy, especially after the ongoing war against terrorism in Afghanistan. Global financial markets have come under severe pressure. There is a decline in the foreign direct investment inflows. Trade balances are adversely affected. It is in the context of this backdrop of uncertain international economic environment and decelerating growth in our economy and exports that we must look at the looming impact of the WTO on our economy.

The successful completion of the Uruguay Round of the multilateral trade negotiations (1986- 94) has established the World Trade Organisation on January 1, 1995. The WTO is entrusted in administering and implementing the multilateral trade agreements and is acting as a forum for trade negotiations and for solving trade disputes among the signatory countries. The WTO has also gained importance due to its mandate to include agriculture, textiles and clothing, services and intellectual property rights in the ambit of its operations.

The book contains papers presented at the 13th Annual Management Education Convention organised by Association of Indian Management Schools in collaboration with Institute of transport Management, Andhra University. In the opening chapter "WTO challenges and opportunities—-government response", Abhishek Tripathi brought out that the so called Swadeshi and protectionist lobby is one of those who exaggerate the ill effects of the WTO and present it as a threat to all the indigenous sectors. Their fears are mostly unfounded as the WTO order not only poses challenges but also the opportunities to the vast intellectual and natural resources of this great nation. Only one point that we have to strive for is to be more competitive and quality conscious to gain the competitive advantage in the global market.

Sunita Singh on "globalisation and national development" has addressed the issue of globalisation vis-à-vis national development. The idea is to emphasise the role of organisations in the overall development of the country.

V Krishna Mohan and C Suryanarayana have discussed about the WTO challenges and opportunities for small industry development in India. They have talked about WTO’s non-discrimination between the member countries, freer trade, and promotion of fair competition and policy recommendation of various committees on industry.

According to the policies of the Government of India, the corporate sector has welcomed the MNCs for technology transfer, inflow of foreign capital and advanced management skills and still struggling for survival in the competition.

P C Raja has explained in his paper on globalisation—-challenges for the service industry that service sector has gained unique importance for direct sales to the customer, direct contact to the user, and the maintenance of the time schedule. The emphasis has been on the quality of service and time saving service..

T Dantel Ashish has discussed issues in management education in detail. He says that across the country there about 500 business schools producing about 40,000 management graduates every year, making India the second on the list of nations with the largest number of management graduates per year.

P Janaki Ramudu concentrates on the impact WTO on Indian agriculture in specific terms like reduction of tariffs, and subsidies, enhancement of market accessibility for export and import of agriculture products and ensuring the safety and security of the food products.

The other papers have been on WTO sectoral impacts on textiles and clothing, banking insurance and financial services, information technology, communication and entertainment, and destination for intellectual capital in the WTO context.

The book is of great importance to all the people who are affected by the WTO; agriculturists, industrialists, Educationists and the Parliamentarians who are to deal with the Bills affected by the WTO.