Mitra, B

Barun Mitra
Founder and Director, Liberty Institute

<h1>Our Expert: Barun S. Mitra</h1>

    
        
               
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       <p><font face="Times New Roman">BARUN S. Mitra is a writer and commentator on current affairs

on a range of issues from economic development, environmental quality

and political participation. He is the founder and director of the

Liberty Institute, www.InDefenceofLiberty.org, a non-profit, independent

public policy research and advocacy organisation, based in New Delhi,

India. Liberty Institute is dedicated to enhancing individual freedom in

economic and political domains. Among the recognition the Institute has

received was the Templeton Award for social entrepreneurship in 2003.

Barun Mitra also received the 2005 Julian L. Simon Award for his

contribution in environmental policy debates from the Competitive

Enterprise Institute.

He has been widely published in newspapers and magazines in

India and across the world, among them the Sydney Morning Herald, China

Daily, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, The Times (London), the New York

Times and the Wall Street Journal. He is a columnist for The Wall

Street Journal’s WSJ.com.

Empowering India <www.empoweringindia.org> is an award

winning initiative of Liberty Institute that seeks to make democracy

more meaningful and participatory. The core objectives are to empower

citizens with information about India’s democratic institutions, to

encourage active citizenship, and to facilitate a constructive dialogue

between the citizens and their elected representatives. It was born out

of a realisation that public policy discourse is not just an

intellectual exercise, but that in order to be effective the proposed

policies need to be politically viable as well. While the initiative has

a long way to go, nevertheless even in its basic form, it has been

awarded the Manthan Prize for South Asia 2009 for innovative digital

content in the e-governance category. </www.empoweringindia.org>

Barun Mitra is currently working to apply his insights from

the political process to a few policy areas such as climate change and

energy, and property rights (particularly land rights). The aim is to

understand the political dynamics surrounding these issues, and leverage

them to stimulate policy change in way that makes reforms politically

acceptable. These are among the new initiatives of the Liberty

Institute.

• Protecting Property Rights at www.ProtectingPropertyRights.org

• Challenging Climate at www.ChallengingClimate.org