NEW WORLD ORDER

Four disruptions-urbanisation, technological change, demographic shifts, and global connectivity-are converging to create a new world order

- RICHARD DOBBS

THE BRITISH Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries radically transformed Britain and its role in the world. Today, the world is undergoing an even more profound transformation, driven by four fundamental disruptions. Each of these changes is larger than anything we've ever seen individually, and we are seeing all four simultaneously.

Compared to the Industrial Revolution, these disruptions are occurring 10 times faster, at 300 times the scale, and with an impact approximately 3,000 times greater. While we recognise these disruptions, their full magnitude and second-and third-order effects remain underappreciated as these forces amplify one another, interacting and intensifying as they interact.

Together, they are reshaping the global economy in ways that, if managed correctly, could play to India's strengths, elevating it to the third-largest economy in the world, with Indian companies becoming global leaders.

Let's review these four disruptions, identified in our research at the McKinsey Global Institute:

1. The Age of Urbanisation