When Vasco da Gama came to Calicut in 1498, he was inaugurating, in a way, the globalisation of trade. We did not ask for his passport and visa to land in our place. Since then, we have become a nation-state, with passport and visa formalities, after the manner of countries in Europe. But the European Union points to a new way of re-integration of areas which were nation-states. We are also moving in that direction with our own South Asian free trade zone. What is important in the emerging globalising world is the empowerment of the individual citizen and citizen groups through education, the build-up of the information base and new skill formation.
