McDonald's goes vegetarian during the Navaratri festival. Identify the process of which the above is an illustration.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Glocalisation
Option (1) Glocalisation — Correct. Glocalisation is the mixing of the global with the local. It is a strategy often adopted by foreign firms while dealing with local traditions in order to enhance their marketability. A global food chain that serves only vegetarian food during a local festival is adapting a global product to local custom.
Option (2) Globalisation — Incorrect. Globalisation is the stretching of social and economic relationships throughout the world. The arrival of a foreign chain in India is a part of it, but changing the menu to suit a local festival is the local twist that the narrower term glocalisation names.
Option (3) Commoditisation — Incorrect. Commoditisation is the process by which something which was not a commodity is made into a commodity and becomes part of the market economy, as drinking water became bottled water. The food a restaurant chain sells is already a commodity; changing the menu for a festival does not turn anything new into a commodity.
Option (4) Liberalization — Incorrect. Liberalisation is a range of government policies, such as the privatisation of public sector enterprises and the loosening of government regulations on capital, labour and trade, that opened the Indian economy. It is a decision of the state, not a firm’s way of adapting its product to local custom.
NCERT (2025-26): “6.2 Understanding Globalisation … A central contention is that all cultures will become similar, that is homogeneous. Others argue that there is an increasing tendency towards glocalisation of culture. Glocalisation refers to the mixing of the global with the local. It is not entirely spontaneous. Nor is it entirely delinked from the commercial interests of globalisation. It is a strategy often adopted by foreign firms while dealing with local traditions in order to enhance their marketability. In India, we find that all the foreign television channels like Star, MTV, Channel V and Cartoon Network use Indian languages. Even McDonald’s sells only vegetarian and chicken products in India and not its beef products, which are popular abroad. McDonald’s goes vegetarian during the Navaratri festival.…” |