Introducing the theme, convener of the seminar, Prof Manjit Singh, said the neo-liberal model of development, followed so religiously in India, has failed everywhere.

“Miseries are being heaped on the common man for no reason and everyday thousands of people are being rendered unemployed. All those Indian planners who were making tall claims of pushing the GDP to 10 per cent have suddenly gone into deep slumber,” he said.

Minister of Cooperation, Government of Punjab, Captain Kanwaljit Singh, said: “Big companies in India have grown almost 100 times during the last four years while 40 per centof the Indian population is still surviving on Rs 20 a day. The spread of Naxalism in more than 170 districts of India, where government is effective only notionally, is the direct result of stark inequalities between rural and urban, and between the elites and the poor.”