If we take the first driver of globalization, the integration of the global economy has mainly been due to the rapid spread of IT and communications that enabled countries like India and China to circumvent hitherto aspects that were holding them back. These flatteners or drivers of globalization include the rapid spread of IT and communications across the world, the massive investment in broadband technologies or enablers like fiber optic cables and undersea cables in the wake of the dotcom bubble and the adoption of English as the medium of instruction in many countries across the world. In other words, globalization has ensured that all countries with minimum infrastructure and educated workforces have the same entry level meaning that there are no �walls� or barriers to trade and hence the world is flat.

He called these factors the flatteners to denote the premise of the book that these factors were responsible for the flattening of the world. The famous author and cheerleader for globalization, Thomas Friedman, in his book The World is Flat identified some key drivers of globalization.