The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) is delighted to organize this function to release Professor R Vaidyanathan’s latest book titled “Black Money and Tax Havens”, brought out by Westland Publication Ltd. I extend a warm welcome to Sh S Gurumurthy, Vice Chairman of the VIF Trust and eminent political and economic analyst, Sh Vivek Debroy, Chairman of Prime Minister’s Economic Council and Member NITI Ayog, Sh Mahesh Jethmalani, senior advocate and Professor R Vaidyanathan, who have taken time to be present at this function.

Prof Vaidyanathan is presently Cho Ramaswamy Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Sastra University, Tamil Nadu. He has recently retired from IIM Bangalore where he taught for 30 years. Prof Vaidyanathan is an author of several books including “India Inc–Role of Non-Corporate Section in India”. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of the VIF.

Indians are fascinated by black money. Black money has vitiated the Indian polity deeply. It feeds corruption. Everyone wants to see the back of it. Yet, Indians are also the major generators of black money. This contradiction has been with us for a long time and seems to be irreconcilable. Much has been written on black money. It became a major election issue in 2014. In the last three years the government has taken several important measures including the historic and bold step of de-monetization to stamp out the scourge. Yet, there is a long way to go.

In his book, Professior Vaidyanathan deals with the various aspects of black money, how it is generated, how it is linked with corruption. The central part of the book is on Tax Havens around the world where illicit money is parked and circulated. He also gives an account of Indian money stashed in the Tax Havens. He deals with the role of Tax Havens in global financial structure and the steps of G-20 has taken in defining a methodology for black listing the Tax Havens. His suggestion is that we should try to construct a new global financial architecture without the tax havens.

This lucidly written book enhances our readers understanding of the black money phenomenon and also concentrates our minds on how to diminish the role of tax havens in circulating the poison through the veins of the global financial system.

I request Sh Gurumruthy , Sh Mahesh Jethmalani and Sh Vibek Debroy and the author to release the book…. I invite Professor Vaidyanathan to introduce the book to the audience. Thereafter I would request the panelist to make their remarks for about 10 minutes each. Thereafter we will have 15 minutes of Q & A session.