Summary
Sunil Bhandare recounts his involvement with the Forum of Free Enterprise (from the mid-1980s) and the Indian Liberal Group (from the early 1990s), a period that coincided with India's economic reforms. He describes participating in conferences on liberalization, privatization, and globalization organized by S. V. Raju, and his work with the Project for Economic Education, a wing of the Indian Liberal Group.
A central focus of his recollection is the preparation of 'alternative liberal budgets' — published roughly a month before the central budget. The first such effort emerged from a workshop at the Leslie Sawhny Programme near Nashik, attended by T. N. Ninan, Suresh Tendulkar, and others, where participants debated fiscal, trade, pricing, and regulatory policy. Four or five such alternative budgets were published in total, accompanied by press conferences in Bombay and Delhi.
Bhandare reflects that while the alternative budgets received some attention, they fell short of the impact participants had hoped for. He frames the exercise as a useful contribution to liberal economic thinking in India, deepening engagement with the fiscal system through discussions with figures like the former finance secretary Geethakrishnan.
Key points
- Bhandare joined the Forum of Free Enterprise in the mid-1980s and the Indian Liberal Group in the early 1990s.
- S. V. Raju organized conferences on reforms, privatization, and globalization that drew prominent thinkers.
- The Project for Economic Education, a wing of the Indian Liberal Group, produced 'alternative liberal budgets' ahead of each central budget.
- The first alternative budget emerged from a Leslie Sawhny Programme workshop near Nashik, with T. N. Ninan and Suresh Tendulkar among participants.
- Workshops debated fiscal policy, trade policy, pricing policy, and regulatory institutions.
- Four or five alternative budgets were published, with press conferences in Bombay and Delhi.
- Despite the effort, the alternative budgets received less attention than the group had hoped.
Transcript
Sunil Bhandare on private enterprise post 1991 reforms
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g52qPVVXICE Duration: 222.6s
Sunil S. Bhandare (00:05): My sort of association with Forum of Free Enterprise started probably somewhere in the mid eighties, quite late, and with the Indian Liberal Group early nineties. Now, in early nineties I think there were lots of those conferences which are being organized by Raju on understanding the economic reforms process, question about privatization, questions about globalization and so on. So I used to participate in that and there used to be a great number of great thinkers coming for those kind of deliberations and discussions. And that is how the whole process became sort of you know participative for me, getting involved with Raju’s Freedom First and as well as the Project for Economic Education. Now, the Project for Economic Education, which is a wing of the Indian Liberal Group, sort of thought about producing alternative budgets, and just before the presentation of the normal central budget, just about two to three weeks before that or about a month before that, we used to come out with our own publication. And there were in the early stages of this particular first liberal budget which was being presented, we had a conference held in in what is this place sort of in Nashik, close to Nashik, I forget the name of the place, but Leslie Sawhny Programme which was there and we used to have these kind of workshops and conferences. And the first that kind of a conference was attended by T. N. Ninan, then Suresh Tendulkar, all these people were there and we used to discuss about what should be the fiscal policy for this country, what should be the trade policy, what should be the pricing policy, what should be the regulatory institutions and all that. Based on those deliberations we came out with the first Indian liberal budget and we also made presentations on that liberal budget both in Bombay and in Delhi, held the press conferences and so on. It did receive some attention, but the kind of attention which we were expecting from that kind of activity did not happen. We came out with another three subsequent publications of the Indian Liberal Group’s, so in all about four or five such alternative budgets were being prepared. So, these budgets enabled us to at least look at the entire fiscal system at a great deal of sort of in a specific details. We had discussions with Geethakrishnan who was the former finance secretary and he was from Chennai and many others. That was a good kind of contribution which came from the Project for Economic Education for liberal economic thinking.
Notable passages
"Based on those deliberations we came out with the first Indian liberal budget and we also made presentations on that liberal budget both in Bombay and in Delhi, held the press conferences and so on."
"That was a good kind of contribution which came from the Project for Economic Education for liberal economic thinking."
"getting involved with Raju's Freedom First and as well as the Project for Economic Education"
"The first that kind of a conference was attended by T. N. Ninan, then Suresh Tendulkar"
"all these people were there and we used to discuss about what should be the fiscal policy for this country, what should be the trade policy, what should be the pricing policy, what should be the regulatory institutions and all that"
"We had discussions with Geethakrishnan who was the former finance secretary"
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