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India and the Ascendency
of the Global South
The Report identifies four areas for particular
attention: “enhancing equity, including on gender dimension; enabling greater
voice and participation of citizens, including youth; confronting environmental
pressures; and managing demographic change”
The elevation of a Jesuit from Argentina to
the highest rank of the tradition-bound Roman Catholic church – arguably one of
the most conservative and orthodox institutions of the established world order
– is the clearest sign for believers of that faith of the ascendency of the global
South. For followers of other faiths and non-believers, however, this dramatic
shift was highlighted yet again by another more secular ritual: the release of
the 2013 Human Development Report (HDR) by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP).
Aptly titled The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse
World the Report notes: “For
the first time in 150 years, the combined output of the developing world’s three
leading economies – Brazil, China and India [BIC] – is about equal to the
combined GDP of the longstanding industrial powers of the North – Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States [six of the original
G-7].” The global South is generally understood to be countries that do
not belong to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),
with one or two notable exceptions, such as Chile.
