Centre for Civil Society (CCS), in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), welcomed 120 participants including 26 renowned speakers & resource persons from 20 countries at the 2011 Asia regional meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society titled ‘India as Global Power: Practicing Liberal Values at Home and Abroad' at the Leela Kempinski hotel in Gurgaon (NCR) from 10 to 13 February last.

During the four-day event, attendees took part in some very engaging panel discussions and breakout sessions which took up important topics ranging from ‘Inclusive Growth’ and ‘Democracy/Rule of Law’ to ‘Global Rules of the Game’ and ‘Redefining Superpowerdom’. A number of them also took part in a guided excursion tour of the historical city of New Delhi, visiting the various medieval and modern times monuments of interest.

The meet was inaugurated by former union minister, writer and journalist Mr Arun Shourie while the concluding session was marked by the presence of deputy chairman of India’s planning commission Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Welcoming the guests, CCS president Dr Parth J Shah spoke about some of the recent successes of the organization. He expressed satisfaction that their campaign on Bamboo achieved fruition when the Indian government recently made the announcement declaring bamboo as a grass. This will go a long way in establishing rights of tribal and forest dwellers, he said expressing hope that the final step of amending the Indian Forest Act will also be taken soon. He also welcomed the passing of the Right to Education act in India, which proposes 25 percent reservation in private schools to students from weaker sections which would eventually lead to the creation of world’s largest voucher program in India, ensuring quality education to millions of underprivileged children. This comes as a vindication to the flagship ‘school choice campaign’ of CCS, he pointed out.

In his inaugural address, former union minister Mr Arun Shourie said Indian entrepreneurs and professionals have enormous potential. The reforms that have been carried out have cleared some space and it is in this clearing that these two classes have been able to forge ahead. The limited reforms do not exhaust the potential. They just show how much more could have been achieved. And how much more can be achieved if the momentum of Reforms is kept up on the one side (and thereby entrepreneurs and professionals get ever widening space to work their talent and skills) and governmental functioning is improved on the other, he emphasized.

Speaking during the conference, CCS chairman and former CEO of Procter and Gamble Mr Gurcharan Das said India’s rise to power is baffling because it is from below, almost despite the state. In trying to come to grips with this ascent and India’s new found power, he said he turned to the 2000 year old epic, Mahabharata. “There I find three distinct but contending positions with regard to power, all wrestling with the problem of means and ends. Their clash culminates in the proper dharma of a ruler”. For too long in the second half of the 20th century India preached an irritating, dangerous and moralistic ethic in international affairs, Mr Das said adding fortunately, that has changed. And the insight from the epic and socio-biology can help India to prosecute a more pragmatic and realistic but ethical international diplomacy in the years to come, he said.

Former president of Mont Pelerin Society and James S. Coleman Professor of International Development Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles Prof. Deepak Lal said the superpower status of the US was in danger because of the financial crisis and its aftermath which had also led to a massive rise in the debt burden of the US. The endemic US fiscal deficit is due to the unfunded entitlements (granted by both parties) for medical care, social security and housing. A retrenchment of this entitlement economy is now needed to restore the US’ fiscal health, as well as to maintain its military prowess on which its unique superpower role depends. Talking about India’s serious bid for super power status, Mr Lal said India’s economic prospects are equally clouded by a different type of hubris. With the high growth rates providing burgeoning fiscal revenues, India has embarked on a massive expansion of the entitlement economy to achieve what is termed ‘inclusive’ growth. As most of these entitlements are siphoned off by various forms of rent seekers, the intended beneficiaries rarely get more than about 15% of the outlays. The Indian polity has failed to implement the simplest means to have inclusive growth by rescinding the colonial labor laws. These protect the small group of ‘organised’ labour against the vast numbers of outsiders in the ‘unorganized’ sector eager for manufacturing jobs. This has prevented India from generating the labor intensive growth that has been the centre piece of the Chinese economic miracle, he pointed out.

Speaking about liberalization of the informal sector, one of the speakers, Research Director and Dean at the Bangalore Management Academy Dr Amir Ullah Khan said that with poor working conditions and low living standards, the informal sector uneasily coexists with a rapidly developing mainstream India. The situation is not much different in many other developing countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where there are small formal economies amidst large-scale informality. Economic reform has largely ignored the informal sector, despite some hesitant measures, he said.

Managing Director of Oxus Research and Investment, Surijit S Bhalla, said India’s growth is more inclusive than general beliefs and suggested that a picture of India's growth would be portrayed differently should we add more variables, such as price differences between states and education progress across the board, into equations when we consider growth and distribution.

Other important speakers to grace the occasion included current MPS president Kenneth Minogue, former Indian bureaucrat and sitting MP NK Singh, Regional Director (South Asia)FNF Siegfried Herzog, Research fellow at Centre for Independent Studies, Australia John Lee, Columnist and Cato Institute research scholar Swaminathan Aiyar, Executive Director at Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE), South Africa Ann Bernstein, General Secretary-Foundation of Democratic Reforms Jayprakash Narayan, economist Bibek Debroy, Executive Director Centre for Policy Alternatives (Sri Lanka) Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Jt. Secretary (Finance) KP Krishnan, Executive Director, International Policy Network Julian Morris, Director-European Centre for International Political Economy Razeen Sally, Executive Director at the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS), Australia Greg Lindsay and Prof of Public Law, University of Queensland, Australia Suri Ratnapala.