BRIC are raring to go-Part III

This is the third part of the article on the summit of the BRIC group in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

 

Reform of the global financial system:   The global financial system, all along, has been dominated by the Western powers, who have subverted the system for the benefit of their own countries.   The capitalist system has been projected and promoted as the only right system of economic and financial governance, for the whole world, regardless of the circumstances and the economic conditions prevailing in other parts of the world.

 

The present crisis has shown the hollowness of this claim and exposed the weaknesses of that system to such a painful extent, that even Western commentators are speculating on the possibility of the demise of capitalism.   This development has provided an opportunity to the second rung economic powers to showcase their own systems as an alternative to the present one.

 

The BRIC group would like to bring about reforms to the present financial system, by injecting into it, some of the elements of their own systems, to increase their own stake, and control of the global economic system.   Reducing the influence of the Western stakeholders in the global financial system is one of the major tasks that the emerging economies have set for themselves.

 

The official stand of the emerging economies is that, the world economic system is slanted to serve the interests of the Western world, and to concentrate the benefits of the system in the hands of the few countries that control the major portion of the world’s economic assets.   Of course, there are issues between these emerging economies that are not easy to resolve.   But they seem to have made a beginning towards addressing these issues, with the intention of capturing the economic space that the West is bound to vacate in the years to come.

 

Food Security:  Hunger has been a recurring theme in the lives of a vast swathe of humanity for long.   The poorer countries are accustomed to this phenomenon on account of their long exposure to it.   But the present crisis is impacting on the food security of the developed countries also, and is setting the stage for social unrest not seen in the past.  

 

The unsettling effect of insecurity on the food front is an issue no Government can ignore in the present age, with growing awareness of the general public of their various rights.   The BRIC group, especially India, has a vast constituency of hungry souls that is bound to pose a serious threat to the ruling elite.

 

It is a welcome development that the emerging economic powers are addressing this serious issue, whatever be their motivations.

 

                                                                                      To be concluded.

 

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