New Delhi, (IANS): Recent incidents and growing concerns around excessive online influence and cultural obsession among adolescents have renewed national debate on how foreign cultural content is being consumed by young Indians, and whether adequate guidance and balance are being provided at the family and institutional level.
At the heart of this discussion lies a broader and more complex issue -- India's cultural confidence and the way its youth relate to their own language, traditions, and identity in an increasingly globalised world.
Over the past decade, South Korean popular culture -- popularly known as the Korean Wave or Hallyu -- has gained remarkable traction among Indian youth.
Korean pop music, television dramas, online games, fashion trends, food preferences, and even language expressions have become deeply embedded in adolescent and youth lifestyles, particularly in urban and semi-urban India.
While cultural exchange is a natural and often enriching process, concern arises when admiration for another culture begins to replace, rather than complement, one's own cultural foundations.
The contrast between South Korea and India is particularly striking.
While a country like South Korea, with a population of around 50 million, is consistently promoting its culture, language, traditions, and music not only within its own borders but across the world, India -- despite having a population of nearly 1.4 billion -- appears to be gradually distancing itself from its own cultural roots.
Many observers note that Indian youth are increasingly forgetting their language, traditions, food habits, and cultural practices, while enthusiastically adopting foreign lifestyles and trends.
South Korea's cultural success is not driven by blind admiration for other nations, nor by rejection of globalisation. Instead, it is built on deep confidence in its own identity.
Korean youth do not abandon their language or traditions while engaging with the global community.
On international platforms, Koreans confidently use their native language, promote their music and cinema, support domestic brands, and project a strong sense of national belonging. This mindset is anchored in the concept of "Woori Nara", meaning "my country", which reflects collective responsibility, cultural loyalty, and pride.
Wherever Koreans go -- whether for education, employment, or travel -- they consciously carry their identity with them. They speak Korean among themselves abroad, prefer Korean airlines, support Korean-made products, and actively promote Korean food, games, music, dramas, and technology.
Importantly, Korean youth are not seen abandoning their cultural values in the name of global trends, nor do they display excessive fascination with foreign cultures at the cost of their own traditions.
In contrast, a section of Indian youth appears to be moving in the opposite direction. Increasingly, young Indians openly express discomfort or dislike toward Indian food, show hesitation in using Indian languages in public spaces, and associate modernity, sophistication, or global status primarily with foreign cultural markers. While interest in global cultures is not problematic in itself, concern arises when such interest is accompanied by embarrassment, detachment, or disregard for one's own heritage.
India has historically been an emotionally open and inclusive society, readily absorbing external influences. This openness has been one of the country's greatest strengths. However, inclusiveness without cultural grounding can lead to imbalance. The issue is not about rejecting Korean culture -- or any foreign influence -- but about the absence of discernment: understanding what to learn, what to adapt, and what not to imitate blindly.
Cultural thinkers emphasise that true nationalism in a globalised world does not mean isolation or hostility toward other cultures. Rather, it means possessing the confidence to celebrate, protect, and promote one's own language, traditions, food, knowledge systems, and products while engaging respectfully with the world. South Korea's example demonstrates that strong cultural pride and global integration are not contradictory, but complementary.
The role of families, schools, and educational institutions is critical in this context. Cultural awareness and identity formation cannot be left solely to digital platforms, algorithms, or entertainment content. Children and adolescents require consistent guidance to understand their heritage, language, history, and values so that their engagement with global culture becomes additive rather than substitutive.
At the policy level, there is a growing need for initiatives that encourage Indians to use their languages confidently on international stages, openly acknowledge national achievements, and support domestic products without hesitation. Cultural confidence must be reinforced through education systems, media representation, youth programmes, and institutional messaging that normalise pride in Indian identity rather than treating it as outdated or secondary.
As India continues to assert its place on the global stage -- economically, technologically, and diplomatically -- the challenge is not to resist global culture, but to engage with it from a position of self-respect and clarity. Learning from South Korea is valuable, but the most important lesson lies not in imitating entertainment trends, fashion, or lifestyle choices. It lies in adopting the confidence with which a nation carries its identity into the world.In the end, cultural exchange should expand horizons, not erase roots. Global trends, fading roots: What the Korean wave means for India | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
As Netflix continues on its quest for global coverage, Futuresource Consulting has identified five key developing markets which present significant opportunity for Netflix and the wider digital video landscape. The firm notes that Netflix has enjoyed enormous success in developed nations and is now looking to emerging markets for continued growth. The advent of digital video is fuelled by growth of broadband infrastructure and connected devices, combined with limited penetration of digital TV services. Such a scenario provides Netflix (or other digital video service) with great potential to establish a robust footprint. Futuresource’s entertainment analysts take an in-depth look at some of these growth opportunities.
The BBC’s licence fee will be under severe pressure come 2020/2021, according to an analysis of the UK government’s ‘Green Paper’ proposals for funding the public broadcaster. Enders Analysis’s Toby Syfret and Gill Hind, in a report published August 1 by the ‘Our Beeb’ website and which originated as a study by Enders, are blunt and uncompromising. They state that 2020/2021 is key because by then, the full costs of paying the licence fee for Britain’s ‘over 75’ viewers will have kicked in, and will thus represent a fall on “at least 20 percent” in the total funding of the BBC. Indeed, say the pair, it could even be much worse and could represent a dangerous period for the BBC and its commercial rivals, including those depending on subscriptions. Enders Analysis says that this year the BBC receives around £3.8 billion net income from licence fee, BBC Worldwide net revenues and other commercial revenues. Strip out the costs of funding the ‘over 75s’ and that cash inflow could tumble to barely £3 billion by 2020-2021 say Syfret and Hind. “The actual projections for 2020/21 could be worse, since our forecasts assume that the licence fee rises or falls in line with the CPI, which is the best possible outcome of the Charter Review. The only possible upside is the closure of the iPlayer loophole, by which a growing number of households can avoid paying the licence because they have no TV set, but still access BBC video content via online connections. However, we think the annual incremental payments are unlikely to amount to more than £100 million and the implementation is not straightforward.” “Though not explicitly stated, the government appears to be keen on introducing some form of hybrid publicly funded and voluntary, in other words subscription, payment solution into selected areas of BBC funding. This would allow it to hive off the BBC into separate components, be they BBC Television, BBC Radio, BBC online, BBC Nations or BBC genres such as children’s or local news; or what is tantamount to the de-scaling and end of the BBC as we know it,” says the study. Syfret and Hind are critical of the Green Paper in that it fails to present – they say – “any discussion of wider trends in the UK creative economy, including the consumption at home and abroad of UK-originated television content; or how this relates to the new online players like Netflix who are allegedly transforming the nation’s viewing habits.” They admit that the public value of the BBC is broad and the bulk of its spend is on UK originated content, “which the likes of Google, Netflix and Amazon show no signs of wishing to invest in to any significant extent even if they do greatly expand the viewing options. In our view, the UK creative economy needs to be a core topic of the Charter Review, the more so in view of mounting concerns about the future of Channel 4, which makes the second largest annual contribution to the UK independent production sector, as a publicly owned national broadcaster.” The report recognises that changes are likely, and some departments, divisions and channels might go. But just about every other form of funding has its own set of challenges, says the study. Indeed, they conclude by warning that the UK broadcasting model, including the other public broadcasters such as Channel 4 and ITV, is unique in the world and “we tamper with it at our peril”. “In short, the TV industry needs to think through carefully the implications of the different courses of action being put forward by the Green Paper and be ready with its response by 8 October when the consultation closes. It is not just on the BBC, but on the entire television industry – pay-TV, advertising, free-to-air broadcasting and content production – that the government axe is poised to fall.”
