Tom Palmer: Inequality is not the issue, what bothers people is the "psychological threat to my perceived status"

The opening session on "Winning the Battle of Ideas" featured panelists Tom Palmer (Atlas Network, USA), Linda Whetstone (Network for a Free Society, UK), Ma Jun Jie (Unirule Institute of Economics, China), Raghav Bahl (The Quint, India) and was chaired by Rainer Heufers (Centre for Indonesian Policy Studies). The panelists discussed the state of liberalism today, the narratives dominating media discourse around the world and the measures all liberal minded intellectuals should take to bring liberal ideas back into the mainstream.  

Ambrish Mehta: Give the poor rights and they turn rocks into a garden

The panel on "Property rights as a Human Right" featured Ambrish Mehta (Action Research in Community Health and Development, India), Sudhir Krishnaswamy (Azim Premji University), Rainer Heufers (Centre for Indonesian Policy Studies) and Akash Shrestha (Samriddhi Foundation, Nepal), and was chaired by Baladevan Rangaraju (India Institute).  The panelists spoke about their experiences in enabling property rights for the poor, about the importance of such rights for tribals living in forest lands and on how the ruling elite continually discredit the ability of poor people to take care of their own property. Senior journalist Seetha interviewed Mr. Mehta following panel about his experience working with tribals in Gujarat, which you can read here.