Kolkata: Nobel Laureate economist Prof Amartya Sen today (July 17, 2004) said market forces and Government intervention both had definite roles to play in a country's development to ensure 'freedom' for individuals.

"The market forces and the Government sector both have their role to play in the development process. I don't think any of these alone can solve the problems facing the world today," Sen, a professor of the Harvard University, USA, said at a function in Kolkata.

Referring to certain views of Karl Marx, co-author of 'Das Capital' and Adam Smith, famed for his pioneering work on market theory, Sen said "it is pleasing to note how they had acknowledged the positives of the two systems in the process of development."

Besides, the other societal components like political parties, non-Government organisations and media also had a definite role to play to ensure a desired path of development, which ensured 'freedom' of individuals.

Sen, who shared the dais with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee on the occasion of the release of a Bengali translation of his book 'Development As Freedom', said 'freedom in the true sense' could only be achieved through self-empowerment of individuals in terms of his ability to obtain minimum standard of economic and social benefits.

Bhattacharjee, who echoed the views of Sen, said "to us, freedom means 1947 and it all ends there only...the professor has used the term in a much wider sense and he looks for alternative paths of development to find solutions for the problems facing today's world".