WASHINGTON, Nov. 08, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New Delhi-based Centre for Civil Society (CCS) was selected as the winner of the prestigious $50,000 Leveraging Indices for Free Enterprise Policy Reform (LIFE) Award for its work to reduce barriers to prosperity and opportunity in India. The award was presented during Atlas Network's Liberty Forum on Nov. 7 in New York City at the Crowne Plaza Times Square Hotel. The LIFE grant program was made possible by the generosity of the John Templeton Foundation and several other supporters of Atlas Network.
“The winning of the award is first of all a tremendous morale boost to the CCS team and particularly those who worked on the project,” said Parth J Shah, president of CCS. “We have been doing this work for a long time with few successes, but we now know our efforts are top-notch within the think tank community. It's a heart-warming recognition, validation, and appreciation, which will inspire us to continue the good fight. It strengthens our credibility and helps amplify our noise in the ears of the state.”
CCS’s work on the project has culminated in numerous policy wins promoting the ease of doing business in India. One of its greatest victories was advocating for and realizing the elimination of minimum capital requirements for new businesses in 2016. Previously, India’s minimum capital requirements stifled entrepreneurship throughout its economy by requiring 111.2 percent of per-capita income to be deposited before opening up shop. Those requirements are no longer a barrier to starting a business, nor is the need to obtain a government certificate before beginning business operations, because both were rescinded due to CCS’s policy reform efforts.
Coinciding with CCS’s policy successes have been an increased rating in the World Bank’s “Doing Business Index,” up from 142 of 189 in 2015 to 130 in 2017. India’s ranking in the “starting a business” indicator was 179 of 189 countries ranked in 2014. It climbed to 158 in 2015 and further yet to 155 in 2017. Meanwhile, its ranking in “enforcing contracts” category rose from 186 of 189 in 2015 to 172 of 190 in 2017. This demonstrates directly how responsibly developed indices can be leveraged for policy reform. While India has much work left ahead of it to make itself a more amenable environment for entrepreneurs and businesses to thrive, CCS has jumpstarted the country’s recent move to transforming a bureaucratic landscape fraught with red tape into one that fosters productive economic activity and growth.
“Last week, India made news by making a substantial jump in the World Bank's 'Doing Business' rankings,” said Atlas Network CEO Brad Lips. “One of the factors contributing to these types of improvements in India in recent years has been the New Delhi-based Centre for Civil Society. The Centre provides the international think tank community with a great example of how to achieve policy wins through research and advocacy. Those wins are providing benefits for people at all levels of Indian society, and they remind us how chronic problems like poverty can be addressed through locally grown policy reforms that protect economic rights. CCS is certainly a deserving recipient of Atlas Network's LIFE Award.”
The LIFE grant program provided grants to sixteen Atlas Network partners to conduct research, advocacy campaigns, and media campaigns to promote policy reforms that measurably move the needle in a specific prominent ranking or index. Such indices include the Ease of Doing Business Index by the World Bank Group, the Economic Freedom Index by the Heritage Foundation in partnership with the Wall Street Journal, and the Economic Freedom of the World Report by the Fraser Institute. Each participating partner organization in the grant program received US$100,000 divided over the course of three years, starting in 2015.
About CCS
Centre for Civil Society advances social change through public policy. Its work in education, livelihood, and policy training promotes choice and accountability across private and public sectors. It aims to translate policy into practice, and the staff engages with policy and opinion leaders through research, pilot projects, and advocacy.
About Atlas Network
Washington-based Atlas Network is a nonprofit organization that strengthens the worldwide freedom movement by connecting more than 475 independent partners in over 90 countries that share the vision of a free, prosperous, and peaceful world where limited governments defend the rule of law, private property, and free markets. AtlasNetwork.org
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