Phase of a flattened world began in 2000, says Friedman

8220;The idea of my book The World is Flat came about by mere accident,8221; said Thomas Friedman, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist...

8220;The idea of my book The World is Flat came about by mere accident,8221; said Thomas Friedman, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, noted New York Times columnist and author of four bestselling books. At the inaugural Penguin annual lecture here on Tuesday, Friedman spelt out his vision of today8217;s levelled world.

8220;During a trip to Bangalore, Infosys Co-Chairman Nandan Nilekani told me that the global economic playing field was being levelled and we Americans were not ready for it. That is when I thought that what he meant by the levelling of the global field was that the world is in fact become flat,8221; recalled Friedman.

Earlier, Nilekani introduced Friedman by defining him an 8220;intellectual entrepreneur8221;. 8220;Friedman has made a significant contribution in promoting India8217;s image globally, probably more than the whole diplomatic service,8221; he said, adding that Friedman is an authority on diverse issues ranging from West Asia to globalisation, energy and environment.

According to Friedman, the phase of a flattened world began in 2000, ushering in an era where economic development was built not around countries and companies, but around individuals. Three key technologies, he said, were the genesis of the flat world 8212; the advent of personal computers, which enabled individuals to author their own digital content; Netscape going public on September 8, 1995, triggering the dotcom boom, which allowed individuals to send their content to others across the world; and the software or workflow revolution, which made every computer and software inter-operable.

8220;Today, we are living through a transformation from vertical value addition to horizontal value addition. This new platform has created new rules of doing business,8221; he said. 8220;First, the need to 8216;horizontalise8217; ourselves. Second, we must remember that what can be done will be done 8212; the only question is whether it will be done by you or it is done to you. Third, the most important economic competition today is not between countries or companies but between an individual and his imagination.8221;

In his next book The New Green is Red, White and Blue, Friedman expressed his desire to dispel the belief that US holds about anything green being anti-national. According to him, the 8220;Green Revolution8221; is not a 8220;party8221; where everyone is a winner but is indeed a revolution. The technology will inevitably be disruptive in some senses. Thus, an IT revolution combined with an ET energy technology revolution is in fact the way forward, he said.

Friedman said the developed countries need to make huge upfront investments to innovate and develop green energy technologies. 8220;These then need to be transferred to countries like China and India for mass production and consumption,8221; he said. This green revolution, he added, is what will lead to greater localisation, which combined with globalisation, will actually add up to 8220;humanisation8221;.