CORRESPONDENCE CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 83, NO. 9, 10 NOVEMBER 2002 1056 Indian science slows down–III: While we sleep Tucked away in the pages of the Science and Engineering Indicators 1 (an excel- lent review of this appeared in Current Science recently 2 ), is evidence that while the number of Ph Ds in engineering pro- duced by our country has actually taken a tumble (from a peak of 629 in 1991 to 298 in 1998), the corresponding numbers in many Asian countries have gone up dramatically. We have still not been able to work out how many of the very large number of engineering graduates we are produc- ing should go on to do a Ph D, if we are to maintain a position among the advanced technological nations of the world. Table 1 and Figure 1, which are based on data appearing in reference 1, show these trends. 1. Science and Engineering Indicators, Natio- nal Science Board, National Science Foundation. Arlington, VA, USA. (http:// www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/start.htm) 2. Arunachalam, S., Curr. Sci., 2002, 83, 652–653. GANGAN PRATHAP E-12, NAL Campus, Bangalore 560 017, India e-mail: gp@cmmacs.ernet.in Towards a global perspective on globalization In the years immediately after the Second World War, the concept of nationhood was considered sacrosanct. Internationalism recognized and respected national boun- daries, aspirations and priorities. It sought to build bridges among nations and to do so went out of the way to discover, even invent, and enhance commonalities. Glo- balization on the other hand, is a process of denationalization, of capital flow, ownership, production and consumption as well as of laws and politics. It seeks to devalue national borders and erode sover- eignties. It introduces homogenization in superficial areas such as entertainment, food, dress and even slang, but deeper down tends to encourage sub-nationalism and accentuate differences between ‘us’ and ‘them’. Any feeling of fellowship, noblesse oblige or colonial guilt that informed the days of internationalism has since been swept aside by the tidal wave of globalization. The term Third World was coined in 1952 by the French demographer Alfred Sauvy to denote the economically under- developed countries. The capitalist, indus- trialized countries constituted the First World, whereas the Soviet communist block represented the Second World. The coinage was inspired by the expression third estate which denoted the commoners of France before and during the French revolution as opposed to the priests (first estate) and nobles (second estate). With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Second World has disappeared, even though the term Third World continues to retain its original meaning. We may still Table 1. Doctoral engineering degrees earned in selected Asian countries: 1975–99 Number of degrees Year China Japan South Korea Taiwan India 1975 986 20 8 136 1976 1079 20 8 174 1977 1043 14 3 223 1978 1168 20 3 134 1979 1195 29 8 176 1980 1186 42 10 193 1981 1236 60 15 282 1982 1255 87 15 380 1983 1290 97 14 511 1984 1291 120 31 510 1985 68 1404 197 59 509 1986 89 1493 273 83 554 1987 127 1547 270 98 603 1988 476 1717 346 98 594 1989 726 1774 415 120 586 1990 715 1967 439 165 607 1991 767 2029 466 209 629 1992 823 2094 552 264 451 1993 1069 2362 659 287 323 1994 1389 2610 786 312 329 1995 1659 2791 938 373 335 1996 2195 3297 1042 435 374 1997 2643 3411 1157 433 298 1998 2900 3580 1393 477 298 1999 3269 482 - 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 Years No of Eng PhD degrees