I propose a discussion on my PDF-PowerPoint "Good life in the thought of Mahbub ul Haq",

I used this PowerPoint for the online Lecture held within the hybrid Workshop “Good Life, Good Society and Evolutionary Flourishing: Business, Management and New Visions, Practices and Movements for Planetary Well Being”, organised by the IBA - Indus Business Academy, Bengaluru on Monday 17th February 2025.

I am working on a text corresponding to the PowerPoint.

In my study, I shall analyse some ideas of Mahbub ul Haq on the concept of development. Ul Haq’s observations on development enable us to understand the limits of all the economic strategies which exclusively aim at the growth of GNP. We shall see that, in ul Haq's view, the increase in the gross national product – GNP – is certainly necessary to have the needed foundations for the improvement of the living conditions of the people: without an increase in GNP, a government cannot have the due instruments to promote the improvement of the living conditions of the people. Nonetheless, improvement in the living conditions of people does not follow automatically from the growth of GNP. A correct economic strategy of the governments is needed in order that the growth of GNP can bring about this improvement. Any government must decide the priorities of its economic policy: depending on the choices made by the governments, different economic developments in the societies will follow. Different models of society correspond to different interpretations of development. Improvement in the living conditions of the people will come about exclusively as a consequence of specific choices regarding the sectors of society which deserve priority of investment. The action of the governments proves to be indispensable: any confidence in an automatic improvement of the living conditions of people coming about as a consequence of the increase in GNP is false. The different developments which countries have depend on the choices of the governments: they have their roots and their causes in the choices of the governments. The developments which come about in the different countries are a precise consequence of the priorities which have been put by the governments: they do not come about accidentally. For my exposition, I shall consider two studies of ul Haq, i.e. Reflections on Human Development and The Poverty Curtain.