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Honourable Shri Kamal Nath, India's Minister of
Commerce and Industry launched the report at Assocham
House, New Delhi on September 4, 2007.
 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, Dr. Rene Klaff and Mr. Hubertus
von Welck, both from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation,
Germany were present at the launch and 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 important for improving the
investment climate or attracting trade. The report
demonstrates that there is a strong connection between
economic freedom and common well-being. Countries
with higher economic freedom have higher average
per-capita GDP and 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!
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