We hosted a Development Seminar is on “Economic openness across India: the opportunities, challenges and risks” where the Legatum Institute will launch the Global Index of Economic Openness (GIEO) and its India specific case study that assesses the nature of economic openness across the country, with a focus on particular states and regions.

Abstract: Prosperity entails much more than financial and material wealth. It reaches into the political, the judicial, the well-being and the character of a nation. For societies to flourish and people to prosper, we need economic prosperity and social well-being working hand-in-hand. But that requires open, competitive economies, where individuals, communities and businesses are truly empowered to realise their full potential. The Legatum Institute has created a Global Index of Economic Openness (GIEO) to rank 157 countries’ openness to commerce, assessing the environment that enables or hinders their ability to trade both domestically and internationally. It can serve as a unique and valuable tool for governments across the world to assess the economic impact of their policy choices, understand the vast potential for wealth creation from their improvement, and create pathways from poverty to prosperity for some of the world’s most disadvantaged people.

Speaker’s Bio: Stephen Brien is Director of Policy at the Legatum Institute. In addition to overseeing the Institute’s policy programmes, his research focuses on the socio-economic drivers of prosperity. He also leads the Institute’s Centre for Metrics, which hosts the Prosperity Index, and other UK and international social and economic metrics. Stephen has served as an advisor to governments in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and UK. He is the author of Dynamic Benefits (the blueprint for Universal Credit) and Outcome-based Government.

Discussant:

Harsha Vardhana Singh, Senior Fellow, Council on Emerging Market Enterprises at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, is an expert on international trade policy, development, infrastructure regulation and global governance. As the Deputy Director-General at World Trade Organization, he was responsible for trade in agriculture, services, trade and environment, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and electronic commerce. Harsha holds a Ph. D. in Economics from Oxford University.