KOCHI SEPT. 14. A four-day national seminar on `Liberty and society', with emphasis on the `Problems and prospects of liberalisation in India', concluded here this evening.

It was organised by the Centre for Civil Society(CCS) for college students from across India. Around 45 students participated. The focus of the seminar was on economic liberty, which also took into account political, environmental and social issues.

"The punchline of the seminar was that capitalism and a free-market economy should ultimately benefit the poor rather than the rich who form a minority,'' said Raj Cherubal, vice-president, CCS, an organisation which is mainly into research on `law, liberty and livelihood'.

``The licence-permit raj benefits only the rich section of society. Our aim is campaign for the fruits of liberalisation reaching the downtrodden of society. Everybody should be treated on par, which is the basic tenet enshrined in the `rule of law'. A liberalised economy works only when there is rule of law,'' he said, adding that the seminar was aimed at making the students think of the pros and cons of various issues.

Babu Joseph, president, Indian Liberal Group (Kerala chapter), said that individual initiative would not survive when there are a lot of Government controls. "But industries and companies should take care to ensure that they do not act against public policy. They should not cause damage to the environment either,'' he said.

Among those who spoke were Sujatha Muthayya from the Madras Christian College and M.N.V. Nair from the Indian Institute of Management.