India's renowned scholar Dr. Gurucharan Das has said that Nepal has the potential to prosper in the future. During a talk program tittled the Need for a strong Liberal State, Dr. Das said Nepal had many advantages in trade and business sectors since it was between the world's two growing economies.

At the function organized by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), in association with the Embassy of India, a renowned author, commentator, intellectual and former CEO of Procter and Gamble India, Dr. Das said that India had a lot of potential to grow, too. Despite a temporary slowdown, the Indian economy was still strong and resilient. He analyzed the strength of Indian and Chinese economies as well as state systems.

Addressing the program, Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Ray said that this kind of program would help increase the understanding between India and Nepal.

CNI president Emeritus and renowned industrialist Binod Kumar Chaudhary highlighted the importance of bilateral trade between Nepal and India.

He suggested the need to implement SAFTA for the benefit of the billion plus population of South Asian region.  Chaudhary reminded all of Nepal's highest economic growth during the period of 1996 to 2001 due to the preferential treatment given by India to Nepal.

Welcoming the speaker, CNI president Narendra K Basnyat said that the modern state had many responsibilities and there were many things for which individuals or private sector—rather than the state—were responsible. One of the most difficult political questions in a society like ours, centered on determining an appropriate extent and limits of the state’s role in contrast to the role of individuals and private sectors, he said.

"As J. S. Mill, one of the classical economists, put it over one hundred-fifty years ago, ‘the practical question where to limit the state in order to make a fair adjustment between individual (private sector) independence and social control—is a subject' on which we are going to hold a discussion today. We may have made some progress since Mill’s time both in economic and political fronts, but we will forever be confronted by the issues in which the trade off between liberty and authority must be determined," said Basnyat