International Perspectives - Gapminder World - Assessment Answer

International Perspectives Assignment

Assignment Task

Use Gapminder World to write a report investigating development in your country from 1900.

Critically analyse what the data used in Gapminder World means and how we measure ‘development’.

Discuss your country’s ‘trail of development’, highlighting relationships, trends and events.

Consider what conclusions you can draw from your data and the ways in which Globalisation processes have shaped your country’s development.

Introduction

Since the year of 1900, life expectancy rate and income per person of Nepal have been increased significantly. These changes are highly influenced by globalisation and development in different sectors such as social, economic, political and cultural (Fisher, 2013, p.189). Hence, the present study analyses the ‘trail of development’ of Nepal from 1900 to 2015. It helps in analysing the macro-trends and global pattern focusing on the major aspects of global development related to Nepal.

Critically analysing the data used in Gapminder World for measuring development of Nepal (from 1900 to 2015)

As an underdeveloped nation Nepal experienced economic, infrastructural and many other issues during 1900 to 1951. People had very lower income and poor living standard. There was no proper medical facility at that time in the country, which increased the mortality rate and decreased the life expectancy rate considerably (Sharma, 2016, p.2).

Discussing the ‘trail of development’ of Nepal highlighting trends, relationships and events

Life expectancy and income per person- Life expectancy refers to the probable years left in an individual’s life that is affected by physical condition, occupation, heredity and nutrition. Income per person or per capita income involves measuring the average wage earned by a person in a particular year and in a particular country. GDP is the acronym of gross domestic product. Furthermore, it gauges national income and expenditure of a country. The GDP is divided by population of the country through GDP per capita (Sharma, 2016, p.2).

Analysing data showing Nepal’s development since 1952

Until the middle of 20th century, the nation was an agrarian and isolated society.Life expectancy rate of Nepalese increased mostly during 1980 to 2000 due to the development of medical facilities. (Fisher, 2013, p.190).

Historical events led to the dramatic changes of Nepal’s trail of development- The country started progressing since 1950 by committing toward economic liberalisation program. In 2002, the country accomplished its ninth five-year plan of economic development that significantly increased the per capita income of the country (Poudel, 2016, p.50).

From the data, it can be analysed that life expectancy of Nepalese has been almost doubled since 1900 to 2015 due to globalisation and development of treatment procedures (Shakya, 2015, p.96).

Link between income and life expectancy- There is a direct connection between increased output and income with the growth of development factors in history. Higher GDP of the country helped to provide a number of opportunities such better access to health care services and other requirements of livelihood. (Lasrado et al.2012, p.6059).

Statics show that from the year 2000 the number of total internet users in Nepal has increased drastically, which is from 50,000 to 2,690,162. Although, the telecommunication sector of the country is small, however; it is growing rapidly. Nepal is the poorest countries of the world. Nevertheless, the nation is moving toward more slacken telecom market. In April 2006, more than 170 operators got the authorisation of providing a huge range of telecom service (Poudel, 2016, p.51).

As an underdeveloped country, contribution of Nepal toward CO2 emission is much lower comparing to other developing and developed countries. Nepal shares only 0.025% of the total global emission of CO2 at present time (data.worldbank.org, 2016).

Variables related to income per person of Nepal- Per capita income of the country is highly influenced by the industrial sector of the country. Moreover, the increasing use of internet and new technologies has integrated the efficiency of this sector that has a positive impact on the per capita income of Nepa. (Graafland and Compen, 2015, p.789).

Other variables related to income per person in Nepal-Other variables linked to income per person of the nation include forestry, agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, mining and quarrying, gas and water, electricity, wholesale, construction, retail trade, transports, hotel and restaurants, financial intermediation, storage and communication.

Impact of globalisation and demographic trends:

The total number of schools in the country increased to 49,000 in 2010. Female literacy rate (46.3%) of the country is much lower as compared to male literacy rate (73%) due to lower caste, social exclusion of female and indigenous people (Iqbal et al. 2014, p.209). Since, 1980, agriculture was the livelihood of over 90% of the total population of the country. Since the Fifth Five year Plan (1975 to 1980), agriculture of the country got the highest focus for economic development. Statistics show that by the year 2008 and 2009, 65.6% nepalese are relied on agriculture and 21% of the total land is used as agricultural land in Nepal (Lawson et al. 2016, p.19).

Globalisation and demographic trends are considered as two major forces that shape the development of modern society. Even though, it also increased employment opportunities for so many people in Nepal, however; it increases income inequality among them (Fisher, 2013, p.189).

Conclusion of how globalisation has shaped the development of Nepal

Hence, it can be inferred that globalisation affected the growth of Nepal in both ways positively and negatively. The rate of brain drain increased significantly that made the economic condition worse. Therefore, to cope up with the adverse its impact, Nepal started developing and implementing some policies that might help them to promote equality and reduce poverty.