1 Introduction - Proutist Economic Development Proutist Universal has designed this intensive training - now available to you in slide show format - on the principles of Prout planning. It was originally designed specifically for Venezuela. The country’s current situation, despite external and internal pressures, offers a unique opportunity to demonstrate to the world that a better future is possible. Proutistic development planning would greatly benefit the country and its citizens.   The principles of nation building through economic democracy, balanced economy and self-reliance will be presented in the various modules. The need for economic justice and fair trade to reduce poverty and violence and to promote healthy communities will be shown. Personal growth and motivation will be examined in the context of effective leadership.   The emphasis will be on empowerment and capacity building. That is, those who follow the series of modules will learn the basic concepts of Prout planning and apply them to develop specific policies. Together we will examine the all-round development of the principles which can be applied to a country in the context of the current social, economic and political reality. Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, who passed away 13 years ago, was an Indian philosopher who founded Prout in 1959. He was the author of more than 200 discourses that are found in various books. In addition he was a composer and spiritual master. He actively challenged the systemic corruption of the government as well as the Hindu caste system. As a consequence he was a political prisoner for seven years from 1971-1978. One of the presenters of the material (Dada Maheshvarananda) met Sarkar for the first time in his prison cell in January 1978. Never before had he encountered such pure, unconditional love. Sarkar inspired Dada to become a monk, and he has spent the succeeding years working first in Southeast Asia and then in Brazil, organizing social service projects, teaching meditation to the public and in prisons, lecturing, and writing. Dada Maheshvarananda majored in “Peace Studies” (an inter-disciplinary mix of education, psychology and political science) in the United States and was active in the protests against the Vietnam War. In 1978 he travelled to India and Nepal where he trained as a yoga monk and studied Prout personally under its founder, Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar. He has taught meditation and yoga to the public and supervised social service projects for 14 years in Southeast Asia and for 11 years in Brazil.   Dada Maheshvarananda was a lecturer at the Eco-92 Global Forum in Rio de Janeiro, and was one of the founders of the Brazilian Inter-religious Campaign Against Hunger. In April 2000 he was on the organizing committee of the protests against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC that mobilized 40,000 people. He has written three books on Prout and published more than 60 articles in different international journals. He has lectured at more than 30 universities and given hundreds of seminars and workshops around the world about social issues and spiritual values. Dr. Michael Towsey is a computer scientist with research interests in machine learning and artificial intelligence. He was Research Fellow at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, from 1997 to 2001. He spent two years in South Germany working in the area of text and data mining for a software development company. He then returned to Australia to take up another appointment at the Queensland University of Technology.   Dr. Towsey has studied PROUT and the philosophy of P. R. Sarkar for the last 30 years. He has written two books and numerous articles in the area. He is a founding member of the Prout Institute of Australia and a current committee member. In 1985, he was instrumental in establishing a Prout community settlement cooperative in Maleny, Australia, and this community continues to thrive today.