Free A Billion

Free A Billion (FAB) is a Mumbai based socio-political organisation that aims to transform India through a rules revolution. We believe that freedom is a necessary condition for prosperity. India is poor because Indians are not free. There are several restrictions on freedom of speech and expression, trade, property, etc. Today, freedom, and by extension, prosperity, remains elusive for more than a billion Indians. Every five years, Indians get the chance to elect their representatives at the local, state and national level. However, this choice is redundant, since the rules under which we operate remains the same. Through elections, we have learned to change our ‘rulers’, but to no avail. For a real change, we need rules which guide and control the actions of our representatives/rulers. Government at all levels in India are BIG and WEAK. It’s BIG, because it has its hands in too many things and therefore the resulting governance performance is WEAK. Therefore, FAB is advocating for a rules-based change that makes our governments, LIMITED but STRONG – it does fewer things, and does them well. This will requires a change in rules at all levels of government. FAB is starting its campaign for a rules revolution from Mumbai – by targeting a change of rules that govern Mumbai, as encoded in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, BMC is the richest corporation in all of Asia, and one of the richest in the world. But when we look around, we don’t see those riches translated into better quality of life. We believe that the solution lies at the rules level.