Honourable Shri Kamal Nath, India's Minister of Commerce and Industry launched the report at Assocham House, New Delhi on September 4 2007.

Dr Mark Mullins, Executive Director of Fraser Institute, Canada, Lord Meghnad Desai of the London School of Economics, Dr. Parth J. Shah, President of Centre for Civil Society, and Dr. Rene Klaff, Regional Director of Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Germany also shared insights into the findings of the report.

Interesting findings in the report and its relation to the Indian context were mentioned by the esteemed speakers.
The Scholar's Address was given by Meghnad Lord Desai of the London School. Dr. Mark Mullins of the Fraser Institute, the publisher of the global report, gave an outline of the report.

More than 100 individuals from various esteemed institutions/organisations were present during the global launch. The event was covered by major National and International media agencies.

About the report:
The Economic Freedom of the World Report 2007 compares the level of economic freedom in 141 countries. As a global index, it measures the degree to which policies and institutions of these countries are supportive of economic freedom. The essential ingredients of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of privately owned property.

Economic freedom, which has grown worldwide considerably in recent decades, is not only important for improving the investment climate or attracting trade. The report demonstrates that there is also a strong connection between economic freedom and common well-being. Countries with higher economic freedom have higher average per-capita GDP and average per-capita economic growth. Importantly, the poor are also better off in countries with higher degrees of economic freedom, resulting in the average income of the poorest 10 % of population in these countries being higher.

On the other side of the coin, the findings of this year's report shows that 8 of 10 worst performers in economic freedom are African countries, whose people continue to suffer from dire poverty!

India's overall ranking on the global economic freedom index was 80 in 1990 before the economic reforms, it is 69 in 2005. At the same time India's rating improved from 4.9 out of 10 and to 6.6. This is one of the largest increases in the last 15 years of any country. Among the five components of the EFW index, the largest increase for India is in the "Freedom to Trade Internationally". That score improved to 7.0 in 2005 from 3.9 in 1990!

Some of the highlights of the events were:

Mr. Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry, India: "freedom, equality and justice are core to our constitution. But freedom in equality cannot be absolute. It is justice which limits freedom. I congratulate Fraser Institute for publishing this well presented report. No one in India is going to accept inequitable growth. We need sustainable freedom which is broadly accepted by people. All these studies and reports help us in government to provide sustainable freedom."


Mark Mullins: "India has achieved the world average index and performed better than its neighbours. Banking, Capital and Labour sectors are to be more liberalised to achieve better results.

Parth J Shah: “India's global ranking has declined from 60 in 2004 to 69 in 2005, even though her score on a ten point scale has improved from 6.5 to 6.6 . Despite a slight improvement in the overall economic freedom, India's world ranking has fallen. This shows that the other countries have improved their economic freedom more than India has. This is the price of complacency that we are paying. We must forthwith march forward on the path of liberalisation that has made us the envy of the world. Further delays would lead to even further decline.”

Dr. Rene Klaff: "People can not be left to rely on aid and welfare from their governments, but should be given the room and opportunity to create and build their wealth. Governments can facilitate this by providing skills and a climate that is susceptible to entrepreneurship, adopting policies that guaranties economic freedom to people", according to East and Southeast Asia Regional Director of the liberal German Foundation Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Hubertus von Welck.

Lord Meghnad Desai: "People look at freedom as a complex multidimensional aspect. There are people within the Indian system with the capacity to change. Socialists of Yester years are carrying out the reforms now.”