Globalisation and tax laws at IMT Hyderabad

I had been invited for a guest lecture at Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Hyderabad for a guest lecture on the 10th of September, 2015, followed by one at Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad on the 11th. It was my friend and classmate Sailendra Misra's idea. He is a high-flying researcher based out of Netherlands and India, and his wife, Prof Swati Panda, is associated with IMT.

The stated purpose of these lectures was to analyse globalisation from the perspective of regulation and ethics, and juxtapose globalisation against rise in international laws. It is fascinating that in a time of open and porous borders, nations are facing an existential threat. The threat is to their sovereignty; not from external aggression but from the need to formulate uniform international laws. The idea of a sovereignty is that a sovereign nation can make laws and regulate within its boundaries, independent of any external element. Rise of international laws in the fields of trade, taxation, and terrorism (the three 't's) has led to renegotiation of the scope of sovereignty.

Corporates have become multi-national, and are taking benefits of loopholes in global regulation. Terrorists, launderers, and druglords have gone multi-national; they run their businesses in one country and operate from another. Nations have realised that they have no option but to go multi-national. However, in the process of going multi-national, nations are losing their power to make laws. National laws are increasingly based on rules framed by organisations formed out of cooperation among nations.

My inference, from the trends, is that very soon we will have clusters of countries rather than countries. The nation is going to turn into a province and a cluster is going to behave like a sovereign. This is actually already happening in the European Union. South-East Asian countries have also managed to form a trade cluster, and may turn into a cluster any day now to counter Chinese bullying in South China Sea. Arabian countries are on the verge of turning into a cluster. Larger countries like China, India, US, and Russia will maintain their independent stance, although much of their sovereign powers is destined to be eroded.

The lecture in gave in IMT, Hyderabad mostly pertained to international finance and international tax regulations. IMT has an amazing campus and I found the students smart and intuitive. I myself learnt new angles to the topic I was discussing in the course of my interaction with them. Overall, it was a great experience for me.