People at the centre

Parth J. Shah is president of the Centre for Civil Society, an independent, nonprofit, research and educational organizationthink tankin New Delhi, India. The Centre started on August 15, 1997 with the determination to improve the quality of life of all citizens of India by reviving and reinvigorating the institutions of civil society. It offers public policy solutions within the framework of rule of law, limited government, and competitive markets.

Parth received his B Pharm from M S University, Baroda, and Ph D in economics (with an emphasis on Austrian Political Economy) from Auburn University in the USA. He taught economics at the University of Michigan at Dearborn before returning to India to start the Centre for Civil Society. He has published academic articles in the areas of development economics, welfare economics, business cycle theory, free or laissez-faire banking, and currency board systems. In India his research has focused on private initiatives in and reforms of the education system and property right approach to environmental problems and natural resource management.

He has edited Friedman on India, Profiles in Courage: Dissent on Indian Socialism, Do Corporations have Social Responsibility? and co-edited Law, Liberty, and Livelihood, Terracotta Reader, and Agenda for Change. He writes regularly for several newspapers and magazines. He is the youngest Indian member of the Mont Pelerin Society, the premier international association of classical liberals.

Parth enjoys applying economic principles to understand various human and non-human behavior patterns, and is always doing economics except when he plays chess, badminton, or tennis

Kanwal Rekhi, Milton Friedman & Parth J Shah

Mr. Kanwal Rekhi
Former Chairman, Centre for Civil Society

Articles written by Kanwal Rekhi on the CCS website:

Now is not the time for Vajpayee to falter, June 2002

Why is India Poor? Agenda for a New India, February 2001

Brilliant Democracy, Lousy Economics, December 1999

Born in Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan) in 1945, Kanwal Rekhi came to India with his family after partition and settled down in Kanpur. He graduated as an electrical engineer from IIT Bombay in 1967 and did his MS from Michigan University in 1969. He worked as an engineer, systems analyst, and manager for many years before floating his first company, Excelan in 1982. After Novell bought Excelan in 1989, he joined the Board of Directors of Novell and was named Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. He left Novell in 1995 to start afresh a venture capitalist and angel investor. He is actively focused on helping young entrepreneurs getting started and was the motivating force behind K. B. Chandrashekahar’s Exodus. Currently involved at the Board Level in many companies including 123signup.com, Instantis, Mediaway, Sierra Atlantic, and Versata, Kanwal is also involved in increasing the visibility of premier educational institutions in India. He recently gifted US $ 2 Million to IIT Bombay to help set up a new School of Information Technology. Kanwal was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1987 by the Arthur-Young/Venture magazine. He was named to Board of Advisors to the President of Michigan Tech and was also honoured with a Doctorate in 1997 in Business and Engineering.

Kanwal Rekhi on the SiliconIndia-Website

Prof. Shreekant Gupta
Delhi School of Economics

Articles by Shreekant Gupta:

Implementing Kyoto-Type Flexibility Mechanisms For India: Issues And Prospects April 2003

SSRN's Top Ten Download : Do Stock Markets Penalise Environment-Unfriendly Behaviour? Evidence From India March 2003

Dithering On Climate Change At Delhi Economic & Political Weekly

A New Environmentalism For The New Millennium: Strengthening Civil Society

Dreams of a Green Budget: Wishful Thinking About Mr. Sinha's Budget Speech

Does CoP8 Achieve Anything? October 29, 2002

Enviornmental Benefits and Cost Savings Through Market-Based Instruments: An Application Using State-Level Data from India September 2002 September 2002

Job Vs Environment Trade-Off Can't Be Ignored, December 5, 2000

Can The Market Save Endangered Species?, October 17, 2000

Can The Market Save Endangered Species? (extended version)

Mr. Sharad Joshi
Founder, Shetkari Sanghatana

Common Civil Code sans Coercion

Mr. Sauvik Chakraverti

Sauvik Chakraverti has won the Frederic Bastiat Award for Journalism from the International Policy Network in London. He received the prize on October 4 at London from Baroness Margaret Thatcher!

Sauvik's Speech & Photo at the Award Ceremony

Award Winning Articles
On Scarcity...and Abundance Jan 28, 2002
Teacher, Don't Teach Nonsense! March 26, 2002
Liberals Must Dump Gandhi Feb 24, 2002

Articles by Sauvik Chakraverti:

Management Mantras: Make Way for New Public Administration July 14, 2004

Ring in Torts:Making People Pay for Negligence Jun 18, 2004

Brand New Delhi: Let Political India Move Out of the Capital March 26, 2004

Walled-in Ideas. We No Longer Need Economists Feb 6, 2004

A Second Republic | There Can Be No Collective Property Dec 30, 2003

Auction Ayodhya: We'll Have Both Freedom and Justice Nov 19, 2003

New Freedom Struggle: How Markets Will Win Hands Down Aug 5, 2003

Reassessing Nehru: Free India From His Evil Legacy Jun 12, 2003

Rallying Around The Cow
Politicians Must Not Try And Legislate On Moral Issues April 7, 2003

New York Sun review of Amartya Sen's latest book Rationality & Freedom Feb 26, 2003

On Utopia… and Hindu Rashtra Jan 13, 2003

PT Bauer - A True Friend of the World's Poor

Economics. On The Rocks October 1, 2002

ALTERNATIVE NATION - The Public Administration of Anarchy April 25, 2002

The Liberal Vision, India, August 2001

Hobbes' Mistake - The Rational Case For Anarchy, May 26, 2001

Predatory State, September 22, 1999

New Brooms for Old - Fiscal Discipline & Public Services, May 28, 1999

May Our Tribe Increase!

Sauvik pursued higher studies at the Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science. He was for long a freelance writer, contributing regularly to leading Indian newspapers. He is currently with the editorial team of The Economic Times, and writes a fortnightly column, 'Antidote'.

Prior to writing, he has variously been a fisherman, a businessman, a television presenter and a policeman.

Mr. Gurcharan Das

India Unbound - Reviews

Sunday Columns in Times of India Jan 2003 onwards

Sunday Columns in Times of India Jan 1998 to Sept 2002

Gurcharan Das is a columnist, novelist, playwright, and a management consultant. He is the author of the recent bestseller, India Unbound, published by Knopf in the U.S. and Viking/Penguin in India, and Profile Books in the U.K. He writes a regular column for the Times of India and occasional articles for the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers. Penguin Books have published his novel, A Fine Family, which is being adapted for film by the director, Sham Benegal. Oxford University Press has published his anthology, Three English Plays, consisting of Larins Sahib, a prize-winning play about the British in India, which has been produced in many cities, and presented at the Edinburgh Festival. Mira, another play, was produced off-Broadway to critical acclaim from New York critics and has had long and successful runs in many cities around the world. 9 Jakhoo Hill is currently touring around India.

Gurcharan Das graduated with honors from Harvard University in Philosophy and Politics. He later attended Harvard Business School (AMP), where he is featured in three case studies. He was a writer in residence at Harvard in1992.

He was CEO of Procter & Gamble India and Vice President, Procter & Gamble Far East between 1985-1992, and Vice President and Managing Director, Procter & Gamble Worldwide until 1994, when he took early retirement to become a full time writer. He has two children and lives with his wife in New Delhi.

Dr. Christopher Lingle

Christopher.jpg (93908 bytes)

Interview in local paper in Guatemala March 6, 2005

Articles by Dr.Christopher Lingle:

Time For China To Float Its Currency Nov 25, 2004

Is The India-China Gap Narrowing? Nov 9, 2004

The True Nature of Inflation Aug 19, 2004

Depoliticise The Human Rights Debate April, 2002

Blame It All on Socialism April, 2002

Dr. Christopher LINGLE is a native of Atlanta, Georgia USA (born: 2 October 1948). After earning his doctorate in economics from the University of Georgia in 1977, he has served principally as a university professor. Most of his career has been spent outside the USA, including university appointments in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America. He is an ardent and energetic defender of individual freedom.

Dr. LINGLE is currently Visiting Professor of Economics in ESEADE at Universidad Francisco Marroqun in Guatemala and Adjunct Scholar at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney. He also operates a private, independent consultancy that advises clients on economic and political risk in emerging market economies (eConoLytics.com).

His previous appointments include Visiting Associate Professor of Economics, Case Western Reserve University (1996-98); Visiting Scholar-Emory University and Adjunct Professor of Economics-Georgia State University (January 1995 to August 1996); Senior Fellow-European Studies Program, National University of Singapore (September 1993 to November 1994); Associate Professor of Economics-Loyola University (New Orleans); Associate Professor of Economics-Miami University, European Center, Luxembourg and Oxford, Ohio (1981 to 1984 and 1989 to 1991), Adjunct Professor-Departement de Droit et des Sciences economiques, Centre Universitaire de Luxembourg (1989-91); Senior Lecturer-University of Natal, South Africa (1984-90). During a sabbatical in 1987, the Chinese government invited him to serve as Visiting Foreign Expert in Economics to the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Dr. LINGLE's research interests and publications are in the areas of Political Economy and International Economics with a focus upon emerging market economies and public policy reform in Europe, East Asia, Latin America and Southern Africa. His work has appeared as chapters in books, in the international media, and in scholarly journals that include the American Economic Review, Foreign Affairs, Journal for Studies in Economics and Econometrics, Kyklos, and Pacific Review.

His first book dealt with the political economy of Singapore's development (Singapore's Authoritarian Capitalism: Asian Values, Free Market Illusions, and Political Dependency, Fairfax, Virginia: The Locke Institute, 1996). Another book anticipated the underlying problems that led to the turmoil in the Asian-Pacific economies (The Rise and Decline of the 'Asian Century': False Starts on the Road to the 'Global Millennium'). First published by Edicions Sirocco (Barcelona, May 1997), a second and third revision were published by Asia 2000, Ltd. (Hong Kong) and distributed by The University of Washington Press and the University of British Columbia Press (June 1998).

Prof. Kirit Parikh

Prof. Kirit Parikh at Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (I.G.I.D.R.)

Articles by Kirit Parikh on the CCS Website:

Thinking through the Enron Issue

Political Economy Of Growth And Reforms In India

Dr. Ajay Shah

Articles by Ajay Shah on the CCS Website:

A Plan to Corporatize PSU Banks, August 2, 2002

This Internet Policy Is Incomplete, November 18, 1998

Rethinking Elementary Education, July 1, 1998

Does Xenophobia Work?, April 8, 1998

Lending With (Nearly) Zero Risk, January 28, 1998

Dr. T. H. Chowdary

Articles by Dr. T. H. Chowdary on the CCS Website:

Internet - Government, Companies And People, May 14, 2001

Prof. Meghnad Desai
Professor of Economics, Director, Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics

Prof. Meghnad Desai at the London School of Economics

Prof. Jagdish Bhagwati
Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University

Prof. Jagdish Bhagwati at Columbia University

Prof. Bibek Debroy

Articles by Bibek Debroy on the CCS Website:

Why The Poor Need Economic Reform, Oct 12, 2004

The Two Gs, Cricket And Elizabeth, April 4, 1998

The Gaps That Could Have Been Filled, January 6, 1998

The Logic Of Swadeshi Economics, December 20, 1997

Adopted Rules

Bibek Debroy is Director (Research) at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, New Delhi. He is a professional economist and was educated in Presidency College (Calcutta), Delhi School of Economics and Trinity College (Cambridge). He has worked at Presidency College (calcutta), Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Pune), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (Delhi), National Council of Applied Economic Research (Delhi) and as Consultant, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. He was also the Director of a project known as LARGE, set up by the Ministry of Finance and UNDP to examine legal reforms. He is the author of several books, papers and popular articles and is also Consulting Editor with Business Standard.

Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia
Former Director & Chief Executive, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER)

Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia on the ICRIER website

Prof. Deepak Lal

Articles by Deepak Lal on the CCS Website:

The Nuclear Fallout - II, September 3, 1998

Time To Say Good Bye?, April 9, 1998

Lessons Of The Korean Crisis, March 5, 1998

The Call For Ethical Trading, February 5, 1998

Love And Marriage, January 8, 1998

Mr. Rakesh Wadhwa
Executive Director, The Everest Hotel, Kathmandu

Rakesh Wadhwa is an economist and a proponent of free markets. His articles have appeared in the Economic Times (India), Times of India, Daily News (Sri Lanka), Asian Age, & Fresno Bee (US).

Articles by Rakesh Wadhwa:

Do what makes salaries soar June 27, 2005

Should Beauty be Penalised? June 20, 2005

The Communists of India and China June 13, 2005

The Third World MNCs May 15 - June 14, 2005

Don, You Are Wrong About Taxes, March 6, 2005

The Sun, Tsunami and Global warming, Feb 21, 2005

Stop favouring the Rich, Feb 14, 2005

How Poor subsidize Rich, Feb 7, 2005

The hunt for Poor, Jan 24, 2005

When US tried Communism, Jan 24, 2005

Is India shining?, Jan 17, 2005

Freedom and Peace, Jan 15 2005 - Feb 14, 2005

Open the skies, Jan 10, 2005

Airlines and Regulations, Jan 03, 2005

Drugs: How regulations kill, Dec15 2004 - Jan 14, 2005

Where is gas?, Dec 27, 2004

Bush, Kerry, and Taxes, Dec 27, 2004

Copy China, Not India, Dec 6, 2004

Trade, Tourism and Gambling, Nov 22, 2004

Are We Afraid of Foreigners?, Nov 15, 2004

The Chinese Transformation, Oct 04, 2004

Outrage in Iraq, Sept 06, 2004

Coffee, The Grand, and Government, Aug 30, 2004

Crime And Punishment, Aug 9, 2004

My Golden Standard, May 17, 2004

Tobacco, Alcohol, Gambling and Me, March 15, 2004

Plan or Prosper, March 10, 2004

Blueprint for Nepal’s Prosperity

Currency Controls: The Perennial Folly

Economic Freedom- What Does It Mean And What It Can Do For Nepal

Nepal’s Route To Prosperity: Free Trade

Nepal's People Are Its Strength

Difference In Rates of Growth: Significance for Nepal

Privatize,Privatize,Privatize

What Mumbai, Delhi & Kolkatta Can Learn From Kathmandu

Mr. Nimai M Mehta
Visiting Scholar CCS

Articles by Nimai M Mehta:

Why The Poor Need Economic Reform, Oct 12, 2004

Mr. Kaushik Das
CCS Research Fellow

Kaushik Das is an Economics honors graduate from St. Xaviers College in Calcutta, and has an MBA in Finance from Symbiosis Centre for Management and HRD. He currently works for Finolex Industries Ltd. in India as a manager in corporate finance. He is a strong believer in free market economics, and has studied a great deal on the subject.

Articles by Kaushik Das:

The Predatory Side of `Benevolence`, July 29, 2004

The State of Funded Education, June 17, 2004

The Politics of Boom and Bust Cycles, April 21, 2004

The Right to Property, April 14, 2004

Seven Sins of Highly Ineffective Government, March 26, 2004

Mr. Vijay Jayaraman
CCS Research Fellow

Don't look west: US policies no justification for quotas, July 7, 2004

Articles by CCS Team Members

Mr. Sanjay Kumar Sah (Hindi Articles)

Sabka Pani, July 21, 2004

Janata ka Hathiyar, March 12, 2004