Jasmine's blog

Hyderabad, an Emerging Model for India's Cities

2011-09-25T11:29:00.000+05:30

(Cross posted from the article I wrote for SIPA's student blog themorningsidepost.com)

On Wednesday, 14^th September 2011, when Dr.Sameer Sharma, the Municipal Commissioner of the city of Hyderabad in India,walked up to deliver his speech at SIPA’s Global Mayors Forum, few from theaudience had heard or known of Hyderabad as a model for India’s urbandevelopment. Yet, fifty minutes later, few were left with doubt.

Global Mayors Forum is an exciting series featuring leadersof the world’s most dynamic cities, and is sponsored by the Urban and SocialPolicy concentration at SIPA. Prior participants at the Forum have includedMayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, Mayor Boris Johnson of London andMayor Syed Mustafa Kamal of Karachi. Introducing Dr. Sharma at the 2011 GlobalMayors Forum, Prof. Ester Fuchs, Director of Urban and Social Policyconcentration said “Cities are the world’s most important laboratories forinnovative policy making. This forum examines both challenges confrontingglobal cities and also showcases visionary and creative leaders of these citiesand the kind of policies that they pursue.”

Dr. Sharma, who belongs to the elite Indian AdministrativeServices (IAS) cadre of civil servants in India, spoke candidly about hisexperiences as a city manager, and the challenges he faced in making HyderabadIndia’s best governed city. In just under two years, Dr. Sharma brought aboutsweeping changes in Hyderabad’s community participation structures, usedtechnology to increase accountability of government officials, and harnessedthe forces of globalization to propel Hyderabad’s long term economic growth.

Hyderabad, India’s sixth largest city with a population of 6million, is the capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. Overthe past two decades, the city has earned reputation as a global IT destinationand the nickname ‘Cyberabad’ after successfully attracting firms such asGoogle, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon. However, the urban governance systemsin Hyderabad exhibited similar shortcomings as all major Indian cities – poorservice delivery and a highly centralized system of governance.

In 2009, soon after he returned from US with a Ph.D. inUrban Development at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Sharma took over theoffice of the Municipal Commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.Under India’s urban governance structure, the Commissioner holds executiveauthority over a city and has powers far exceeding that of the Mayor. Dr Sharmaused this opportunity to blend his prior experiences as a MunicipalCommissioner (for the cities of Vijayawada and Vishakapatnam) in Andhra Pradeshwith the theories he came across in his doctoral program, to initiate a varietyof unique and innovative programs in Hyderabad.

One of these initiatives was the use mobile phones toincrease government accountability. In a first-of-its-kind deployment anywhereacross the world, the city of Hyderabad has built a web based Off Site RealTime (OSRT) monitoring system which relies on the inbuilt camera of a mobile phoneand GPRS technology to match pictures of field level staff and their streetlocations with preset data, and register attendance. An anywhere, anytimeaccountability mechanism, the OSRT provides real-time information in solidwaste management, urban planning, public works and street lighting to municipalmanagers and the citizens.

Another key initiative was the decentralization of localgovernance in Hyderabad to Ward Committees (similar to Community Boards in NewYork City) and Area Sabhas, or neighborhood associations. In determining whichfunctions would be devolved, Dr. Sharma referred to the “Principal ofSubsidiarity” – a commonly used concept in the theory of local governance.Given that participatory democracy is a new concept to India’s urban citizens,Dr. Sharma relied on 2009 Noble laureate Elinor Ostrom’s theory of “Rules inUse” when formulating the procedures through which these local participatorystructures would function. The result has been a significant shift to bottom updecision making where public interest is constructed through local discourse.About 20% of the city’s annual budget is now decided through these new bodies.

While the community level decentralization project has beenwelcomed by citizens and NGOs, Dr. Sharma cautioned that the initiative isfacing resistance from the city councilors, who are averse to sharing power andhaving citizens ask them questions about their work. The true test of Dr.Sharma’s initiatives will lie in the duration that they survive without being dilutedor subverted by elected representatives, and whether if Hyderabad’s modelinspires other cities across India to adopt similar programs. Nevertheless,this interaction with Dr. Sharma showed SIPA students how individual leaderswith creative ideas can influence far reaching policies.

One down, Three more to go

2010-12-29T03:16:00.013+05:30

“OH NO, one-fourth of our honeymoon is over!” exclaimed a friend as we walked out of a crowded Altschul Auditorium after finishing the much dreaded econ (read: Economics for International and Public Affairs) finals paper. While the joy and relief of having survived the toll of the finals was evident on most faces, it was accompanied by a queer feeling of disbelief how quickly our first semester at SIPA got over. Evidently most of us, and that certainly includes me, had fallen in love with life at SIPA!

It’s hard to imagine the insanity of the last four months at SIPA and New York City. Right from the time I left India in early August, I was consumed by this feeling of having to make the most out of my stay in US. After six years of (almost) non-stop work, two years of graduate study seemed like a nice long holiday and at the same time a unique opportunity to study and experience things that I had ever been wanting to! And so, as soon as I landed in NYC, I was up and about the business.

In the last four months, this was the story of my life in brief – lost a brand new smart phone in Central Park in Week One (Adversity builds Character, I am told), discovered the wonders of living at a place like International House, connected to old IIT friends in US and made some awesome new friends at SIPA from India, France, Brazil, Spain, US, NYC and California (friends from last two places insist that they be included in a list of sovereign states), credited 4 and audited 3 courses at Columbia (I did it coz I had to!), trained hard and ran the NYC marathon in 4 hrs (in the process, fell in love with Central Park – a runner’s paradise), got to learn about a fabulous non-profit called Union Settlement Association in East Harlem and raised $2000 for them through my marathon run, had a traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas day experience (thanks to my host families), and finally, enjoyed my first sledding experience in the post-blizzard snow of NYC yesterday.

This is where I live - International House (Special gift if you can spot me)

Ran the NYC marathon 2010

Thanksgiving day meal with Coleman family, Connecticut

Christmas day celebration with Joyce family, New Jersey

Fun in post-blizzard snow in New York

(Picture Credit: Chitrangada Choudhary's Stellar Moments Inc.)

One of the interesting things I attempted in this period was trying to unravel the intricacies of US politics. Armed with a paper subscription to New York Times (surprisingly, that’s very old-school in US), I was determined to understand the seemingly complex interest-group ridden world of US politics. Like many in my generation all over the world, I found President Obama’s rise to power immensely inspirational. At the same time, I was keen to see how exactly he would set about fulfilling his lofty campaign promises and how American citizens would react to the same. A mix of factors – reading some brilliant thought-provoking reporting in NYT, midterm elections to the US Congress, a large focus on US policy in many of SIPA courses – have ensured that what started out as deep curiosity developed into a strong (maybe permanent) interest in following US politics. This also means, that I haven’t spent as much time as I would have liked to in keeping track (major controversies aside) of Indian politics. I need to work on that.

On the academic front, it has been a satisfying experience so far. I haven’t learned as much about policy issues all over the world (India excluded) in my entire life as I did in these last four months at Columbia. I think that was partly due to my deep interest in public issues in India and partly due to the inadequate reporting of international issues in Indian media. One of the wonders of US universities is that they are often (especially an ivy league like Columbia) the foci of world’s knowledge and attention – both explicit (library collections) and tacit (world leaders, faculty, guest speakers and students). When researching and writing a paper on failure of urban decentralization in India for one of my courses, I was amazed how the vast resources at Columbia made it much easier for me to research on an Indian public policy issue from here rather than from India. Every single journal article that I wanted to refer to was accessible online within 2 minutes and every single book within 2 days! As I settle down to a steady rhythm beginning next semester, I hope to make the fullest of the vast resources Columbia has to offer – wide range of course offerings, library, faculty, fellow students and innumerable talks held every single day.

A discerning eye would have noted a glaring exclusion from the what-I-did-last-summer list. Yes, I am referring to (truly) experiencing the myriad wonders of NYC – food, music, theater etc. Well, this is what I have dedicated my winter break to. J

Done with 20 mile Practice Run, the Countdown Begins!

2010-10-18T10:21:00.007+05:30

“Will I finish this strong or will I collapse towards the end?”

“How will I keep myself hydrated given that I am running all by myself?”

“Oh no, the mid-terms are approaching and everybody is studying. And here I am, spending 4 glorious hours of a Sunday morning running in Central Park!”

As my training for the NYC marathon on 7^th November 2010 approached its peak, a flurry of questions started racing through my mind. I knew I had to get this run right in order to boost my confidence on the marathon raceday three weeks from today.

Having missed my previously scheduled 20 mile run (life at SIPA caught up on me!) two weeks back, this was the last opportunity to do a strong 20 mile practice run and get back on track for a super finish on 7^th November.

With all the burden that life @SIPA had imposed upon me, I ended up sticking to 75% of my ideal training schedule. Though I wish I had done better, I was also happy that I was running pretty strong in the last month. I ran several half-marathon distances (and more) well within my target marathon pace of 9:30min a mile. I also ran my fastest 10k at the Governor’s Island 10k race on a windy and chilly (11⁰C) morning at 7:55min a mile.

Pic: My troupe from I-House who ran the Governor's Island 10k run

But nothing was more important for me than finishing my training with a strong 20mile run, which would lead me into the tapering-off period before the marathon raceday.

I knew that running all by myself (as against running in a group / organized practice run) would mean extra effort. So I took extra care this entire week leading up to Sunday morning, just to be in perfect shape and strength on Sunday morning, including a nice pasta dinner on Saturday night at Max Cafe. If that wasn’t enough, I pepped myself up on Saturday evening by buying some extra gear - special runner’s socks and wrist bands!

I woke up today morning to discover a nice and bright sun, just as www.weather.com had predicted! A very light breakfast and a warm shower later, I hopped outside International House to begin my 20min walk to Central Park – my favourite running track.

Though I will reserve my impressions of Central Park for a dedicated blog post later, I can’t help but admit how much I have fallen in love with this patch of green land in the centre of Manatten, ever since I started running here two months back. I have seen some quirkiest of people doing coolest of things in the remotest of corners of Central Park which more than anything else, captures for me the spirit of NYC!

So as I began my long run today, I found it interesting though not surprising to see over a thousand supporters of “Avon Walk for Breast Cancer” completing the final stretch of their 40mile walk in Central Park. They were all jumping and cheering each other, and the air was filled with optimism for their chosen cause.

I think some of that optimism rubbed off to me, given how comfortably I finished the first 11 miles of my run. After a quick stop to recharge myself with some Gatorade, I started again. With each passing mile, I could see myself reducing my pace steadily yet slowly so as to be able to finish the entire distance comfortably.

The final few miles are always the ones where you need more motivation than strength to be able to get through them well. While the sight of 60yr old men and women running (very common in Central Park) and overtaking me never fail to motivate, my strongest source of motivation today ended up being a small comment from a runner friend in India last week. Training for the Bangalore ultra-marathon (75kms / 47miles), she said, “Oh, marathon? I could run that on any given day now”.

So as it turned out, I finished my 20miles today in 3hrs and 10min – just about the perfect pace I am shooting for. The best part, I felt reasonably strong at the end of it to carry on for the rest of my day as usual. In short, just the perfect kind of confidence booster I badly required.

I can now calmly sit back and wait for the magic of marathon raceday to unfold!

Support my Run at NYC Marathon 2010!

2010-09-16T09:53:00.002+05:30

I've learned that finishing a marathon isn't just an athletic achievement. It's a state of mind; a state of mind that says anything is possible - John Hanc

There are several ways of experiencing the diversity of life that NYC offers, I am told. But none of them beats running the annual New York City marathon - one of the oldest, toughest and most popular marathons in the world.

When I was planning my move into NYC last summer, I vaguely hoped that I would get a chance to run the NYC marathon some day (only the top athletes get a direct entry). But I had no idea that I would get so lucky to run the NYC marathon this year itself!

Just a few days before I boarded my flight to US, a friend from NYC told me that his non-profit organization - Union Settlement Association, was looking for runners to run the NYC marathon on 7th November 2010 and support their work through individual fundraising efforts.

Though I was initially thrilled to learn of this opportunity, I found it difficult to arrive at a decision. I wondered if it would even be possible for me to train for a marathon within 3 months (as against the usual 5 months), especially since I had run my last marathon 3 years back. What would make this race tougher would also be the weather in NYC on race day – 5 to 10 deg C, way below my comfort limit! Not to mention the rigour of settling down in a new city and going back to college after 6 years to pursue a very demanding Masters program.

Eventually, I couldn’t succeed in talking myself out of it. The marathon bug had bit me badly and I enrolled myself to be a member of the Union Settlement team running the ING NYC marathon 2010. Ever since, I have been training like a mad man running 40-45 kms every week. The going has been surprisingly smooth so far, and I am hoping to finish the marathon in 4hrs 30min.

While I have been making great strides (sorry for that!) in my training, I need your help.

The Union Settlement Association is an organization that has been serving the East Harlem community (one of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods of NYC) since 1895, fostering community leadership and self-sufficiency by helping local residents build better lives for themselves and their families. They do so by working in close partnership with the New York City government.

Over the last few weeks, I got to learn a lot about their work through my friend (a SIPA classmate who worked at Union Settlement before) and also after visiting their community centre in East Harlem. I must admit that I was left thoroughly impressed by the quality, professionalism and dedication of their work. In signing up to run on the Union Settlement Team, I have pledged to raise $2,500 to support their work.

They have set up a web page to provide donations to your favorite runner (i.e. yours truly :) ) and ways to learn more about Union Settlement. You can also view this brief video on the history and work of Union Settlement. I urge you to make a $100, $50 or $20 contribution today, if possible.

The last couple of years have been challenging for everyone here, certainly for those who benefit from the work of the Union Settlement. While I realize it’s a tough task to ask anyone for money, I ask that you dig deep and support me in this endeavor. If you are able to make a donation, any donation, regardless of the size, thank you for your generosity on behalf of the thousands of people who benefit from the life changing, sustaining and saving services of the Union Settlement Association.

It’s an honor for me to run under the banner of the Union Settlement and with your help, I look forward to reaching the double goal of raising $2500 and finishing the race in my personal best time!

Click here to donate funds for my run now

First Reactions of US!

2010-09-11T02:32:00.004+05:30

As I complete my first month in US, I feel this strong urge to put down some of the great and not-so-great things that I have noticed about this country!

Before I begin, some caveats. The points listed below are not in any specific order and the observations may not be unique to US alone. But they are certainly true of US from what I have seen of it in one month and living in two very different cities – San Diego and New York. I am sure this list will evolve over time. But for now, here it goes…

Best of US #1: Sense of orderliness – This is an obvious one. The most striking feature about US (especially for somebody coming from India) is the sense of order that prevails in day-to-day life. Be it the streets or the supermarkets, flying by air or taking a ride in a NYC subway or bus, opening a bank account or locating an address, simple things are just so easier to do out here!

I can’t think of a better example than the amazingly well-organized streets of US. All of them have clear signboards (In San Diego, they even mention the plot numbers covered) and lane markings, traffic flows smoothly, everybody obeys signals, and most importantly pedestrians have equally good if not better facilities than anybody else! I wasn’t surprised when I learned that Google had mapped almost each and every building in the top US cities. I learnt this in San Diego when our GPS device running on a Google base map indicated that our destination was on the right side as we stopped our car besides the building!

NYC takes this one level further by numbering and not naming all its streets - I live off 122^nd street in Manhatten, while my home in Mumbai is on Swayambu Ganesh Mandir Marg. Not just that, my address here fits in line 1 itself (I still can’t believe it), while most Indian addresses need 3 if not more lines, with one exclusively reserved for a nearby landmark!

Best of US #2: A new concept of public spaces – One of the most striking and impressive things about US cities is the prominence they accord to creating beautiful public spaces, and the efforts they undertake to maintain them.

Be it the beautiful beaches of San Diego filled with people (even on weekdays!) doing all sorts of activities – reading a book and enjoying the sun, surfing or kayaking, jogging or listening to a free rock concert; or the Central Park in NY – a dream come true for runners and cyclists, a perfect setting for music performances and a great picnic spot, it is so refreshing to know that malls are the last thing in the minds of people here when planning a fun time outside.

I found it remarkable when a friend from San Fransisco told me that she loves her city even more with every passing year since the city government is constantly at work redeveloping and beautifying various parts of the city! I dream to hear that of an Indian city one day.

Best of US #3: Dignity of human life – Though not very obvious, I feel this is a wonderful virtue that runs deep in the American society and manifests in multiple ways. Almost all public spaces – streets, stadiums, parks, buses, toilets etc. are carefully and meticulously designed keeping the needs of the handicapped in mind. A few days back, I almost stopped and watched in awe when I saw a person on a motorized wheelchair cross multiple streets of New York, faster than the other pedestrians! In contrast, on the pavements of India, even ordinary people sometimes feel handicapped.

Besides, people smile at each other very often and though they don’t always mean it, do take the effort of asking how the other person is doing. I also noticed that most people here accord great dignity to any kind of labour, and would strike a conversation with their building security guards, bus drivers or housekeeping staff just as with any other friend.

Ok, time to move on to some not-so-great things about US…

Worst of US #1: Give me more! – Widely known as it is, the daily life of an American is indeed quite energy intensive and clearly unsustainable.

Complete reliance on cars (except for the top few cities), packaged foods, over usage of tissues and paper napkins, automated cloth dryers and dishwashers – the list of what seems to be grossly out of tune with modern sensibilities on energy consumption is endless. It almost seems like all of human knowledge has been pressed hard into service to ensure that extra little degree of comfort in doing mundane things, with little regard to that imaginary (unfortunately so!) carbon footprint.

What is depressing is that there are hardly any efforts underway to change this way of life anytime soon. Take the case of reliance on cars. As the 8^th largest city in US, San Diego is a perfect showcase. Only limited areas of the city are covered through public transport, that too with infrequent service. While part of the blame clearly goes to an urban planning paradigm that doesn’t seem to incentivize high density and multi-purpose zones resulting in large spread out cities, what was also missing was any serious attempt from the city government to put high quality public transport infrastructure in place. My guess is that the case with most other American cities won’t be very different.

Worst of US #2: Mobile industry is a big cartel – It’s strange that the mobile industry in US is hardly what you would expect it to be at a model free market society. Battle lines are clearly drawn and alliances between mobile handset manufacturers and service carriers run deep, often hurting the interests of the consumers.

For example, I can’t use an I-Phone handset if I don’t choose AT&T as my carrier howsoever poor their network might be (I am not saying it is!). Each handset manufacturer releases different (if any at all) models for different carriers resulting in a limited range of options for any consumer. What is worse is that all carriers lock you into a 1 yr or a 2yr plan with high penalties for violation, and you get to choose only between fixed talktime plans (eg. 400 or 700 mins per month) even though your average usage might be much below that.

Worst of US #3: Yet to figure this one out. Certainly goes to show that the country has more good than bad to offer to any discerning visitor!

Pusuing MPA at Columbia University

2010-09-10T03:45:00.005+05:30

Difficult as it is to believe in it myself, it’s true! After spending three most exhilarating and memorable years at Janaagraha, I have quit the organization to pursue higher studies.

Leaving Janaagraha was a very tough decision. My years at Janaagraha have shaped my growth as a public service professional in ways I had never imagined. I got my first ringside view of the exciting world of public change in India, and was fortunate enough to witness some successes too.

In fact, in my last week at Janaagraha, we hit a major milestone in the campaign (Jaagte Raho! or “stay awake”) I was leading at Janaagraha. ECI signed a historic MoU with Janaagraha to launch the BEST initiative aimed at reforming Bangalore’s electoral system. Ball was certainly rolling in the right direction and possibilities of what could be accomplished in near future were boundless.

Yet, I was certain that it was time for me to pass the baton and move on. I have decided to pursue higher studies by attending the Masters of Public Administration (MPA) program at School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, New York – the most global and amongst the top public policy schools in the world. That I was awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship to pursue this education made the decision a lot easier!

The reasons why I chose to pursue this MPA education are simple enough. Let me try and list them out (my fascination with bullet points is there to stay!):

My years at Janaagraha left me convinced that what I thought was my calling, was indeed my calling! I realized that I was truly cut out for a career in public service. But as I looked ahead, I felt ill equipped to do complete justice to the roles I would like to play. Having been trained as an engineer, I had little besides passion, reason and some experience to keep me going. Given the increasing complexity of public change in a vast country like India, and the multiplicity of debates that each issue throws up, I felt it was essential for me to develop an academic footing in public policy and go deeper into at least one policy sector of my choice – Urban Policy. And which other place to do that better than NYC!
While the context of India will always remain unique, I strongly believe that we can find the best solutions to our problems only if we are well informed of the history and experiences in public policy arena from all across the world. Studying at a globally reputed public policy school is a good way to do that.
Besides public policy, there were a few topics in other related fields that I wanted to study for a long time – law, journalism, political science and religion. Spending 2 years at a place like Columbia was the only way I think I can do that!

When I look back at my years at IIT, I almost think of it as memories from a past life. My transformation from an engineers-rule-the-world person to a complete humanities person has been astonishingly quick and effective!

Besides leaving Janaagraha, what made the decision to study MPA abroad especially difficult was the thought of leaving India for 2 years. TWO long years!

My only hope now is that I return back quickly enough without missing any major action (thank god the next parliamentary elections are only in 2014!) and accomplishing as much of the ambitious agenda that I have set for myself J.

Vapi - India's Most Polluted Town!

2010-06-08T09:58:00.003+05:30

Today I read this TOI article which confirmed what I always feared to be the truth. Vapi, an industrial town in south of Gujarat and just 17km away from my hometown Silvassa, is the most polluted town in India.

I spent 14 long childhood years in Silvassa before I left to study engineering at Chennai. Vapi used to be the closest railway station which connected us to the rest of the world. Even then, the air of Vapi had a distinctive stench of chemicals that would make you feel sick. I remember my schoolteachers telling us that breathing Vapi's air for 5 minutes is equivalent to smoking one cigarette. I wonder what took so long to arrive at this conclusion, perhaps a brave environment minister?

But the big question that still remains to be answered, what now? One has to see Vapi to believe how environmental pollution, primarily air and water, has engulfed this town. How come Narendra Modi has not uttered a word on this given how ardent a supporter he is of unabashed industrialization? Will Jairam Ramesh, having displayed the courage to accept this fact, do something to bring about a change in Vapi and many such industrial towns that dot the length and breadth of this country?

BBMP Elections : Lessons for the Future

2010-04-24T00:11:00.005+05:30

A take on how Jaagte Raho! campaign fared at the Bangalore municipal elections that were held on 28th March 2010, and where do we go from here.

The recently concluded BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) election was the first major milestone for Janaagraha’s Jaagte Raho! campaign in Bangalore. Launched barely 4 months ago on 15th December 2009, the campaign is an attempt to redefine patterns of electoral engagement in urban India over the long term along two key dimensions – improved accuracy of electoral rolls, and high voter turnout.

Admittedly, there were no big victories at the city level this time around, and the turnout (at 44.1%) was similar to that during the last few elections in Bangalore. While the tendency to dismiss effectiveness of civil society campaigns at such occasions runs high, a finer analysis reveals that the issue of urban voter turnout is a complex one and it would be foolhardy to expect anything drastically different unless a few underpinning factors change. These can be broadly classified into factors External and Internal to civil society campaigns such as Jaagte Raho!

External Factors

There are two big external factors which affected the official voter turnout in the BBMP elections perhaps the most:

1. High error rates in electoral rolls – Bangalore’s electoral rolls have been long known to be highly inaccurate, with error rates (omissions and commissions) upto 40%! The issue has been further exacerbated in the last year when the State Election Commission (SEC) took over the charge of updating electoral rolls. While over 3 lakh voters were newly added, only 2500 deletions were made. The result is that Bangalore’s electoral rolls have become highly bloated, with 7 million official voters as against an expected 5.6 million voters going by the 2001 census. If one goes by the latter figure of actual voters, the actual voter turnout in Bangalore could be as high as 55%!

Going forward, this is easily the single most important issue for Election Commission of India to tackle if the perception on urban electoral engagement is to change. The good news here is that Chennai has already shown the way! During the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Chennai was the only metro to register a turnout of 60% - a clear 13% rise from the turnout in previous general election. The key reason attributed by the ECI itself was intensive cleaning up of electoral rolls and deletion of names of bogus voters. In Chennai, the ECI carries out an intensive process of electoral roll updation every year through door-to-door enumeration, while Bangalore and most other cities do it once every 5 years.

2. Poor connect between candidates and voters – Besides the call to duty, one of the most effective motivations to vote is to know that one is voting for a good candidate. For this to happen, adequate information on all candidates needs to be made available much in advance of Election Day. This is a long standing issue afflicting our electoral setup, which worsened further in the case of BBMP elections. With the entire election cycle crunched to 3 weeks, perhaps the shortest cycle ever, there was little time left for most voters to familiarize themselves with their candidates, and vice-versa. As a result, many voters found it difficult to shun their general cynicism towards the entire political setup and eventually opted out of voting. The fact that most voters voted on party lines, the ruling party won and independent candidates fared poorly can also be attributed to the same factor to an extent.

Going forward, Jaagte Raho! campaign will continue its dialogue with ECI and create a more favourable eco-system for the ECI to bring about a much needed overhaul of urban electoral systems.

Internal Factors

Despite the large role that external factors can play, there is lot that a campaign such as Jaagte Raho! can do in affecting the trend of voter turnout. Following are the two key reasons why the efforts of Jaagte Raho! had a limited impact in these elections:

1. Launched barely 4 months back, the campaign is still at a very nascent stage of its evolution with only 5% of its targeted grassroots volunteer base (Area Voter Mitras) set up. Building a strong city-wide grassroots network of committed volunteers takes time, as does any genuine attempt at social change. The campaign expects to go through this journey in next few years, as it stays committed on its mission of improving electoral engagement in urban India.

2. Many of the campaign strategies at a micro-level are still experimental in nature, and are bound to get better and more nuanced in their approach with subsequent elections. To add to this, Jaagte Raho! is planning to carry out some core research studies that will provide crucial insights into the reasons that inhibit or encourage electoral engagement in urban India. This will play an important role in guiding campaign’s response in the future

That being said, there were some important positive takeaways for the campaign from this experience viz.

The effectiveness of Area Voter Mitra (AVM) model has been validated on a pilot scale, with a few AVMs successfully registering hundreds of new voters in their polling booths at one go, and affecting upto 10% increase in voter turnout. The challenge now is to scale this up to a city level.
Spreading information on ALL candidates is an effort intensive though an essential task before every election. Taking the approach of enabling volunteers to organize ward level Know Your Candidate (KYC) events, the campaign succeeded in enabling AVMs to organize as many as 10 KYC events – the highest for any election in Bangalore so far.
Several colleges in Bangalore ran voter awareness drives prior to Election Day, through their Jaagte Raho! clubs. In addition, Jaagte Raho! clubs in colleges and companies mobilized close to 80 volunteers for door-to-door drives across the city proving their effectiveness as important channels to get the youth involved in reinvigorating our democracy.

This experience has been crucial for Jaagte Raho! to get a finer understanding of the complexities affecting urban electoral engagement, and to draw up a more nuanced long term strategy for Bangalore and other cities that the campaign will foray into. A change, though unlikely in the immediate horizon, is definitely achievable with persistent focus and action.

This article has been cross-posted at iJanaagraha blog.

A visit to the Parliament House

2010-03-07T17:10:00.009+05:30

Every time I visit Delhi, I feel a sense of awe for the power this city exudes. Countless policy decisions being made every day in various Ministries and the Parliament affect lives of a billion Indians in unimaginable ways. It’s only befitting therefore that most of this work happens in the precincts of the grand architectural area called Lutyens’ Delhi.

So far, I had to stay content with viewing the edifice of India’s power corridor from the outside, save a brief visit to North and South Block a few years back. But the desire to see the Indian Parliament and the LIVE proceedings of a house in action stayed elusive. The fact that most of my Delhi trips were planned at short notice, did not allow me to make any elaborate plans besides official work.

But last week was different. I was on a 3 day visit to Delhi and with the help of a few friends at PRS Legislative Research, I managed to get a pass to the Public Gallery of Lok Sabha during the ZERO hour (12 – 1 pm) on Friday, 5th March 2010. I was so excited that I managed to get an official meeting at Election Commission of India to be re-scheduled by a few hours just so that I wouldn’t lose this opportunity!

On the day of the visit, I reached the Parliament House at 11:30am. Prior briefing ensured that I didn’t carry any prohibited items (i.e. anything except ID card and Currency notes), and breezed through the Reception building security in 10 minutes. This is when you land right in front of the main Parliament House (see image below – I didn’t take it!).

I was gripped by an immediate sense of awe standing in front of this majestic building. Most of us would have seen it a million times on TV but this was different. I think I stood for about 5 minutes to really digest the size and beauty of this view.

I was standing in front of Gate 1 and besides the mammoth bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi. There were several media persons hurrying around, I could spot 3 to 4 interviews with MPs happening close by. They were talking about the contentious Women’s Reservation Bill that was scheduled for discussion the following week.

Finally, I made my way to a small opening in the building meant for a passage to the Public Gallery. At12:05 pm, after four long security checks, I finally stepped into the Public Gallery of Lok Sabha. My request for a front row sitting when asked to sit in the 4^th row met with a stern response from the guard - “Do what is told to you”. Apparently, the first two rows are reserved for women. Clearly, Public Gallery had implemented the Reservation Bill much ahead of the Lok Sabha itself!

As soon as I took my seat and glanced at the Lok Sabha floor, I couldnt help but notice how small the Lok Sabha floor actually was! Quite in contrast to the exterior of the Parliament House or how the Lok Sabha itself appeared on TV, the real Lok Sabha resembled a small auditorium with dim lighting (it was artificially lit since little sunlight came in) and poor audibility – at least from Public Gallery.

My initial sense of disappointment was made up by the proximity of Public Gallery to the scene of action. I could clearly spot the members on the floor and was delighted to see all key leaders present – PM Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Verappa Moily, Jairam Ramesh, Sharad Pawar, Laloo Yadav, Sushma Swaraj, LK Advani, Deve Gowda, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav and of course the speaker, Meira Kumar. With recent trends of increasing absenteeism in Indian Parliament, I considered myself quite lucky at witnessing action of a near full house!

Coming to the actual proceedings, ZERO hour is supposed to be a free-wheeling open house when opposition MPs can bring up urgent issues of national interest, without prior notice. The first 40 minutes of the ZERO hour were taken up by a long drawn speech by Murli Manohar Joshi of BJP amidst much fanfare, even though the Speaker made repeated requests to terminate the speech after 30 minutes.

Joshi spoke in brilliant Hindi about diverse issues such as food insecurity and government’s complete ignorance of farmer’s problems, Bt Brinjal debate, reservations on UID etc., though he appeared incoherent in parts. All through his speech, I was treated to the usual tamasha of Lok Sabha – thumping of desks, shouting across the floor, regular warnings by the Speaker, MPs standing up and walking etc. I could see people around me in the Public Gallery giggling when all this was happening.

Finally, at about 12:45pm, the PM stood up and began with his response. He was barely audible from the Gallery so I couldn’t hear much except for the fact that he was praising the economic progress in India over last 5 years. At 12:50pm, I left the Gallery to catch a 1pm appointment elsewhere! I later read in Rediff that the opposition wasn’t too impressed with PM’s response. On my way outside, I tried recalling the landmark moments in Indian history that were scripted in this great building. Quite an impossible task!

My brief peep into the Parliament's proceedings was quite overwhelming, much more than what I had imagined it to be. I wished I had spent a full day checking out rest of the Parliament House though I wasn’t sure if visitors were allowed to do that.

Launching Jaagte Raho! campaign in Bangalore

2009-12-21T02:35:00.008+05:30

(This post of mine has been reproduced from an entry on iJanaagraha blog)

As the memory of our massive national campaign for Lok Sabha 2009 elections fades into the past, we are all set to rollout an even more intense effort to mobilize electoral participation in urban India – the Jaagte Raho! campaign.

Jaagte Raho! is a long term Janaagraha initiative that inspires values of active citizenship in urban India by bringing out the vote for local, state and union elections; and by promoting participation in neighbourhood areas. The campaign aims to redefine patterns of electoral engagement (voter registration and voter turnout) in 10 cities over the next 5 years, thereby creating a successful model for the rest of urban India.

The first step in this journey were taken on the evening of 15th December when Jaagte Raho! was launched in Bangalore. This couldn’t have happened at a better occasion – a few months prior to the all important local elections in Bangalore!

Bangalore is perhaps the most ill-fated mega city in India – the only one with no elected body at the local level for over 3 years now! Given the importance of local governance in our day to day lives, it is almost a miracle that Bangalore has survived over the past 3 years. But that doesn’t mean much for a city that craves to create a global reputation for itself.

Clearly then, the upcoming BBMP elections present a historic opportunity for the residents of Bangalore to put the life back into its day-to-day governance. But do all of us recognize this as an opportunity? Do majority of Bangaloreans even acknowledge the prominence of local governance in their day-to-day lives? If even some of us do, what are we doing jointly to ensure that we don’t miss out on this opportunity?

These questions have shaped the immediate strategy of Jaagte Raho! campaign in Bangalore. Over the next 3 months, Jaagte Raho! will rollout an intensive awareness and mobilization drive to unite all Bangaloreans in the task of ensuring maximum participation in BBMP elections. At the center of action will be the unique grassroots volunteering position created by this campaign – Area Voter Mitra.

Area Voter Mitras provide local leadership in improving electoral engagement within their polling booth areas (about 1000 voters). They are identified and trained by Janaagraha, and work on the field in close coordination with Janaagraha. However, the uniqueness of being an Area Voter Mitra comes from the fact that they receive formal support from Election Commission of India (ECI) to clean up their voter lists.

The challenge therefore that confronts the Jaagte Raho! campaign is the mobilization of enough Area Voter Mitras to cover all 5000+ polling booths covering BBMP area, within a short span of 2 months. This is where we need all stakeholders of Bangalore – individuals and institutions (RWAs, NGOs, Colleges and Companies) to come forward and commit their energies towards better local governance by joining this campaign.

Launching a campaign like Jaagte Raho! has been possible only after months of preparation and planning. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Chunk of the effort clearly lies ahead of us, the outcomes of which will possibly determine the quality of local governance in Bangalore for the next several years!

My Best Moments from Jaago Re! One Billion Votes campaign

2009-12-14T22:55:00.015+05:30

It's incredible that a year has passed away since the Jaago Re! One Billion Votes campaign began. An idea put down into a MS Powerpoint first in early 2008 took the shape of a national voter registration campaign within 6 months, and was launched nationally in Sept 2008. The campaign was active for 8 months targeting the parliamentary elections in April – May 2009.

Over here, I will attempt to put together all the amazing things that I saw happening from the driver’s seat of the campaign. This is not a conclusive piece on the impact of the campaign, just my collection of 10 best moments of this campaign – events and happenings that excited me the most, in no specific order.

1. It was absolutely thrilling to see the number of voter registrations that the campaign managed to rake up, and the associated feeling of “making a difference”. We celebrated the first 1000 and first 10,000 sign-ups by cutting a cake at office. Realizing that the ticker was moving too fast, we made a prudent choice to celebrate only multiples of 1 lakh. The first lakh registrations happened around end of Nov 2008, almost 2.5 months after the campaign launch. The subsequent ones averaged a month each. We celebrated each of them by cutting a cake. Here’s a picture from our celebration of 4 lakh voter registrations.

2. The experience of working with an extraordinarily passionate team at Janaagraha. We started out as a 4 member team (Rajesh, Praveen, Deepthi and I – all from IIT Madras) in July 2008 and expanded to 15 member full time team by Feb 2009. Looking back at the way the team got formed so quickly and with such amazing people, I cannot help but think of it as an act of divine intervention. The average age was just 26 yrs, making it a truly youth driven campaign. The bonding was so strong that we would stay together for a majority of the evenings, not always for work though :). See one of the team pics below:

What was equally amazing was the kind of volunteer energies this campaign attracted across

India

. More than a thousand volunteers participated, either on a one-off or regular basis, to take leadership in the outreach drives of the campaign.

3. My first meeting with NR Narayana Murthy and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra – two absolute luminaries, to ask them to join on the Advisory Board of this campaign. I was quite nervous on both the occasions and hadn’t it been for Ramesh (Co-founder, Janaagraha) who joined me for both these meetings, I doubt if the outcome would have been the same.

I still recall how talking to Rakeysh for about 20-30 min straight without getting the slightest of reaction (he was completely stone-faced) made me certain that he would junk the idea. Instead, once I finished, he responded saying “It’s a giant of an idea, treat me as your slave…”. That’s Rakeysh for you!

Both NRN and Rakeysh continue to be the Advisory Board of Jaagte Raho campaign, and are as committed to support our work as they were on Day 1. I cant describe the feeling I get when I hear them talk so passionately about this campaign. Following is a pic that shows all three of us, shot at a campaign event at Infosys.

4. The day I participated on the BIG FIGHT show of NDTV, one of the most popular television debate shows in

India

. The topic was “Youth and Politics” and my co-panelists were Sachin Pilot, ‘Pappu’ Yadav, Sudheendra Kulkarni et al. I didn’t speak too well against these seasoned politicians but I remember how electrifying the atmosphere was the moment debate was thrown open. My best moment came out of a remark Sudheendra Kulkarni made to me before the show began. He complimented me for the campaign and said that if 10 yrs down the line if we see the youth rising to prominence in Indian politics, you should know that Jaago Re had a role to play in that.

5. After the campaign ended, I sent a mail to the team asking them to share their funniest moments. I was totally unprepared for the response the mail received. Some dangerously hilarious stuff came to the front! Sample a couple of these:

(Rajesh) I got a simple mail from one of our registered users from Gurgaon saying “Your Site Sucks”. As is the standard policy, I wrote back apologizing him for any inconveniences he may have faced and asking him to share what part of our website he faced issues with. The guy replies back promptly, “Sorry there was a typo in my mail, I meant to say - Your Entire Site Sucks”
(Praveen) I get a call at 3pm on April 30^th, the day Mumbai went to polls. It was a lady from Mumbai complaining that she wasn’t able to register on our website. I told her that we were facing some technical issues and asked her to check after 24 hrs. She insisted that I helped to register her right away. When I asked why was it so urgent, she said because the polling booth is going to close at 5pm today

6. When Meera Sanyal (Country Head, ABN Amro and a candidate from Mumbai South constituency) said in a “We The People” show of NDTV that it was “Jaago Re” voting campaign that inspired her to stand in elections

7. The commitment with which Tata Tea, our partners and sponsors, marketed the campaign. It was a blitzkrieg effort – TV ads, radio spots, internet banner ads, Vote ya Vaat show on Channel V, messaging on millions of tea packs etc. One of these days, I was dialing on the Indian Railways enquiry no. to check the reservation status for my dad and I discovered that the waiting tune was the Jaago Re jingle! I was caught by such surprises at many instances since Tata Tea independently drove their marketing campaign.

8. When I heard a couple of songs composed exclusively for this campaign. Both are brilliant tracks, though I preferred the 2nd one more!

Thermal and a Quarter did a 5 city rock show tour called “Shut Up and Vote” tour for this campaign, and also composed a title track for this campaign.
A band from Pune (led by Tamir Khan) got inspired and recorded a brilliant song for the campaign, at their own expense! I ended up making this my morning alarm tune, listening to it over 100 times by now.

9. Numerous small stories that I have heard (and keep hearing till date) from complete strangers that shows how the campaign touched them and made a difference:

A young girl traveling on Shatabdi Express alongside me flashed a Voter ID card as the identity proof. My eyes opened up and I asked her how she got her Voter ID card made. She said she saw the Jaago Re ad and used the facility on www.jaagore.com to fill out her form. She found the process damn easy and said she even got 10-15 of her friends to register through www.jaagore.com. She had voted for the first time in these elections
A retired Brigadier I met at Pune a few weeks back told me how much he regretted missing out on his vote all his life since he used to be posted away from home during every election, and because the postal vote system never worked. But during the past general elections, he had returned home. His young college going son got inspired by Jaago re campaign and insisted that his father registered. Both of them registered through the campaign and voted in the elections

10. The change this campaign brought about in me, as an individual. I consider myself very fortunate (a great coincidence of time, circumstances and above all an institution called JANAAGRAHA) to have seen an idea planted by me with modest ambitions take the shape of a dream national campaign. Frankly, within a couple of months of its launch, the campaign outgrew all expectations I ever had from it. By the end of it, a couple of lessons got firmly engraved in my heart, soul and mind:

No one will believe in your idea unless you do, and keep pushing until the entire world follows suit
I had heard this before and liked it instantly, but now I live by this quote of Margaret Mead - Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Managing Social Sector Projects : Importance of a Method in Madness

2009-10-30T20:11:00.003+05:30

How project management can help bring in more focus and effectiveness in any social sector project

(This article of mine has been published in the November 2009 issue of MANAGE India - the online magazine of Project Management Institute, India)

The social sector in India faces tremendous challenges; this includes NGOs and community groups working on a range of development and governance related issues – in rural and urban India. The potential impact of this work needs no emphasis. While it can significantly impact various development issues, it plays an important role to keep our governments accountable and our democracy vibrant.

Therefore, it is extremely important for the social sector to operate within strict bounds of professionalism and use best available tools and techniques to manage their projects successfully.

Unfortunately, this does not match with the current reality. An overwhelmingly large majority of social sector projects in India are managed in an ad hoc and informal manner even today. Project management hasn’t matured to the extent it has in the private sector. Most of the organizations working in this space rarely take the typical approach to project management – defining clear targets, defining an action plan and timelines, allocating resources, mapping out dependencies, regular tracking and reviewing.

The reasons for this are varied, some of which are genuine. It is true that the vagaries and external dependencies that a social sector project is subject to, are rarely seen in other sectors. This is compounded by the fact that most NGOs have highly heterogeneous teams with non-uniform understanding on project management, and the tools that enable the same. In many cases, especially in rural NGOs, technology skills are a big impediment. On the other hand, many NGOs don’t feel the need to apply modern project management practices because they do not commit themselves to clear annual and quarterly targets.

But is it a wise choice not to adopt standard project management practices due to the inherent complexity of this space? I would argue this otherwise.

It is because of the fact that social sector is fraught with challenges and external dependencies – a chaos or a madness of sorts, it is even more important to deploy relevant practices in project management. To add to this, the resources available are so limited and the windows of opportunity so narrow, that one rarely gets a second chance to make an impact. Clearly then, little or no project management reflects poorly on an organization’s commitment to change.

Over the last few years, Janaagraha has taken important strides towards better project management in its various programs. Defining clear targets and action plans, and reviewing the same periodically are a norm. Weekly review meetings are conducted within programs and at the organizational level to ensure alignment of all staff and volunteers. All of these are open door meetings, where any kind of external input is welcome. This is complemented by a monthly review by the Executive Body and a Quarterly review by the Advisory Board.

Earlier this year, Janaagraha successfully executed India’s largest voter registration campaign – Jaago Re! One Billion Votes campaign – in partnership with Tata Tea. Strong project management practices were the backbone to running this nationwide campaign successfully.

Recently, Janaagraha has initiated an exercise based on Balance Scorecard approach to better define organizational goals and ensure alignment among its various programs. There has also been a shift from excel based project planning towards professional open source tools for project management. I am sure this will yield significant outcomes in the short and long term.

An Indian Shame in Professionalism

2009-10-16T00:12:00.008+05:30

The worrying saga of India’s preparedness for 2010 Commonwealth Games at New Delhi reached a new low few days back when the President of Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) Michael Fennell announced that the Games was heading for “partial failure” and decided to setup a special monitoring panel with international experts to oversee preparations on a monthly basis for the rest of the year.

Why this is a big slap on India’s image as a professionally reliable nation is because this is the first time ever in the history of Commonwealth Games when such a step has been taken. Apparently, the only other instance that comes close to this was the case of 1982 Asian Games when a similar monitoring panel was setup. Guess what, this was the Delhi Asian Games! Clearly, some things in India never change.

Subroto Bagchi’s latest book “The Professional” does a great job of defining what being a professional really means. It says:

First and foremost a professional is a person who can self-certify completion of a task and can work unsupervised. If somebody else is required to certify that this task needs a particular standard then you are not a professional. This is a very small, but very subtle and important, distinction between being competent and being a professional.

Now apply this definition to all the monitoring going on with the Commonwealth Games. Lets begin with the latest one to join the group, the special monitoring panel setup by Michael Fennel out of utter frustration to trust his Indian counterparts.

Countering this development, the Games Organizing Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi says “We don't want multiplicity of agencies, there are already agencies, including the Co-ordination Commission, which are monitoring the Games preparations”. Notice the words “there are already agencies, including the…”, clearly acknowledging that more than one group is monitoring the same project.

Now since that doesn’t sound like enough monitoring, Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit asks all her ministerial colleagues to regularly inspect various project sites and do the needful to ensure that all the projects are completed well ahead of the deadline. I wonder how on earth can all ministers together get into the act of ensuring timely project completion? Another example of “everybody’s responsibility and nobody’s accountability” syndrome so frequently seen in Government projects.

One would assume that this is enough of an overdose of monitoring. But wait, here comes the best. Enter the Sports Minister M.S.Gill and along with him the only man India can trust, Dr Manmohan Singh. Gill says, “The Prime Minister takes meetings regularly and has given the Group of Ministers under Jaipal Reddy the mandate to ensure that we are ready and complete for the Games”. Note the statement carefully “… Group of Ministers under…”. So half of Union Government has joined in the act as well.

What does one glean out of all this?

First, the easiest way to show you bother about the Commonwealth Games is to join in the act of monitoring it. Little doubt that the BJP has raised a demand that the PM appoint yet another Monitoring Committee, which can have members from different walks of life. A novel idea I think, perhaps it can take the added responsibility of ensuring that all the other monitoring groups are doing their monitoring jobs well.

Second, it shows an utter lack of faith in the abilities of those who are meant to deliver the Games in the first place. Clearly, Suresh Kalmadi has been caught in the act and he doesn’t mind showing off his frustration in pictures like the one above.

But most importantly and most unfortunately, this significantly compromises India’s image as a professionally competent nation. This at a time when China has pulled off the grandest Olympics ever and Brazil has clinched the 2016 Olympics from the jaws of US. It shows that not only are we quite far from achieving our targets for 2010 Commonwealth Games in a professional manner, but few of our public leaders even understand Bagchi’s golden definition of what being a professional really means.

Aruna Roy on Indian Democracy

2009-10-15T10:36:00.003+05:30

Read this from a rediff interview by Aruna Roy today. A fabulous statement at the end!

Q: Have you lost faith in our democracy?

No, I haven't lost my faith in democracy. I have lost my faith in the way democracy is used by the people who go into certain institutions (Parliament) in this manner.

I think it's like the parson's egg which is good in parts. Even our government is good in parts in the sense that the same Parliament gave us the Right to Information Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act as well as the Special Economic Zone Act.

But then we need to educate our parliamentarians; we need to educate our politicians. Their levels of literacy is so low, their levels of exposure (to people's problems) are so low.

After all, politicians are really the custodians of our Constitution, of the people but today they have become custodians of themselves.

Getting a new political party will not solve the problem; it is the interaction with the people that will help. After all, where will we go?

It is my country, an independent country. I can't ask for any outside intervention to cleanse it. I think it is the failure of the so-called literate people, of my generation, the generation after me and also the current generation who think that running the country is not their business.

In a democracy it is your business and my business to see that the country works properly.

How do we Define a Great Leader?

2009-10-14T20:13:00.005+05:30

I read this statement from Mr NR Narayana Murthy’s interview in TOI (Bangalore edition) today:

Q: How would you describe a great leader?

A: A great leader is one who is not only good in creating a vision, creating the big picture, but also ensuring that he goes into the nitty gritty, into the details of making sure that the vision actually translated into reality through excellence of execution. In other words, great leaders have great vision, great imagination, great ideas, but they also implement those ideas through hard work, commitment and flawless execution. In doing so, they motivate thousands of people.

I think the need for “excellence of execution” (EoE) couldn’t have been stressed better. The private sector in India has learnt this the hard way. Thanks to globalization, this is a constant challenge for them, something which they can ill afford to ignore. This has also resulted in bringing to fore some truly exceptional leaders like NRN and Ratan Tata, separating out the giants from the men and boys.

Unfortunately, our governments and our politicians are never measured by a similar yardstick that lays emphasis on EoE. Victory is hailed when annual budget allocations are made or new schemes announced. There is little focus or talk on how a particular scheme or project is going to achieve EoE and thereby its intended outcome. In most cases, the outcomes themselves are never defined!

Take the case of recent spurt in metro rail projects for eg. the one in Bangalore. What could be the most important outcome of a project like this, something that would be a result of EoE? I would say a marked reduction in door-to-door travel time for an average trip in the city. Now do we know what this metric is currently, and how will it be impacted after the project because of EoE? We rarely hear, read or discuss these things.

The flip side to this is that we fail to recognize instances of exemplary public leadership that still exist today. These are the individuals (politicians and bureaucrats) who know that the battle has only begun when a project is launched, and that much of the hard work lies in achieving EoE.

The only figure that stands out here as an exception is E Sreedharan of Delhi Metro. Off late, also Mr. Madhavan Nair of ISRO but only thanks to our ability to define outcomes clearly – the rocket launch finally did yield some path breaking findings on lunar surface. But for every ‘x’ number of such examples that we do recognize, we miss perhaps ‘10x’ others – big and small.

One such example I feel is Project Arrow of the Department of Post. A Google search will reveal a lot of information on its vision and the wonderful work that is already under way, but public awareness on this mammoth project is extremely poor! What is largely unknown therefore is the name of individual (s) who displayed leadership in envisioning and implementing this initiative. One of them, I have learnt, is Jyotiraditya Scindia who played a key role in launching this initiative when he was the Union Minister of State for IT & Communications in 2004 UPA government.

One only hopes that we come across more and more visible examples of great public leadership characterized by “excellence of execution”!

Three things ECI can do to Encourage Youth Voter Registration

2009-09-28T01:43:00.003+05:30

One of the things that keeps me busy these days is advocating better urban electoral processes with Election Commission of India (ECI).

In August 2009, Janaagraha came out with a report titled “Reforming Electoral Processes in Urban India”. I played a role in putting together the contents of this report. A few weeks back, I was at Nirvachan Sadan (ECI headquarters) to present this report to a few officials there.

Luckily, I got the opportunity to meet the current Chief Election Commissioner, Mr Navin Chawla. He congratulated me for Janaagraha’s work with Jaago Re! One Billion Votes campaign, and asked me a simple question:

Tell me 3 things ECI should do to encourage voter registration amongst the youth?

I am yet to get back with a response, but here are my thoughts:

Talk directly to various Universities and make Voter Registration compulsory for college students when they turn 18
Reach out directly to the youth – launch a national media campaign targeted at the youth, let the CEC / DECs / state CEOs directly go to college campuses to encourage the youth, start blogging on the ECI website
Demystify and simplify the process of voter registration – a majority of the youth already have the motivation, it’s the process that lets them down

Please let me know what you think of the above suggestions, and your own ideas.

Electing a Citizen's Consensus Candidate in Mumbai

2009-09-27T16:25:00.002+05:30

A couple of weeks back (13^th Sept), I was part of a very interesting and possibly historic event.

The event was held at Mumbai by Jagrut Nagrik Manch (JNM), a Mumbai based activist NGO, to elect a Citizen’s Consensus Candidate for Andheri (W) constituency for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections.

The decision to elect a Citizen’s Consensus Candidate (CCC) was an outcome of the frustration experienced by JNM and its partner civil society groups that were active in Andheri / Juhu area, due to the apathy of successive governments and elected representatives. To use their words, they felt “the time for requests is over, we need direct action”.

This isn’t a completely new idea though. JNM and other civic groups (including Lok Satta Aandolan and Janaagraha) had participated in a similar campaign called Vote Juhu campaign during the 2007 municipal elections in Mumbai. Local activists from Juhu ward chose to support one of the popular citizen leaders - Adolf D’Souza, who went ahead to win the election handsomely.

So now JNM set itself to repeat this task though at a much larger scale, that of an Assembly Constituency with over 200,000 voters. This had never been attempted before, and that is why this event could go down in history if successful.

Very briefly, following is what unfolded at the event:

4 candidates had decided to stand up for becoming the CCC. The candidates were interviewed by a panel, followed by an election to choose the CCC
Electoral College included Area Sabha representatives / local activists from 157 polling booths of Andheri (W) constituency. They had all pledged to campaign for the winning CCC
All candidates were asked to pledge for a “Right to Recall” before the election results were announced, which all of them did
The winner was Hansel D’Souza, who won by a whopping margin of 117 votes!

The event was well covered by the media – HT, DNA and Times of India.

I participated in this event as a panelist representing Janaagraha. Co-panelists were some truly admirable people – Dr L C Jain, Shabana Azmi, Ajit Ranade (ADR), Adolf D’Souza, Manish Sisodia (Parivartan) etc. Our role was to challenge the candidates with questions.

The best question (I think) came from none other then Dr L C Jain. To the first candidate who came on stage, he asked “The JNM video played at the beginning of this event spoke about us needing to protect our constitution…. My question to you is – have you read the Indian constitution?” The answer came as “Hmmm... only in bits”, which wasn’t received too well by Dr Jain or the audience.

After the winner was announced, Mayank Gandhi (Founder, JNM) made a passionate appeal to all members in the audience (mostly local activists) to take a week’s leave from their work prior to election day for campaign work. The energy in the air and emphatic mood of the crowd and their newly elected candidate Hansel, were infectious.

There were several highlights of this event for me.

First, it was amazing (and surprising to some extent) to see the kind of support Janaagraha has in Mumbai. This is largely due to the role Janaagraha played in bringing about the Nagara Raj bill or Community Participation Law (CPL). I had perceived this to some extent last year too during the outreach activities of Jaago Re! One Billion Votes campaign. Of all the cities in India, I think Mumbai seems most excited and knowledgeable about CPL!

Second, it was wonderful to see a small democratic process throw up a genuine and capable candidate – Hansel D’Souza. Informed participation at its best!

The greatest takeaway from the evening however was the experience of how passionately JNM and other participating groups were involved in this exercise. It is so rare these days to see hundreds of educated urban citizens – young and old – turn up on a Sunday evening on the promise of bringing about change. Yet, the event hall was full with more than 300 people, all raring to hit the campaign trail the immediate next day.

If this exercise is successful, it would throw up one good MLA in an assembly of 288 MLAs. Partisan politics will always ensure that this MLA would have little say in the affairs of the state. Yet, I feel it is a worthwhile and much needed attempt in state level politics. Besides prodding the existing political setup, it would serve as a role model for what citizen groups, anywhere in India, could achieve when they choose to work together with passion, dedication and towards a common goal.

At the Outset

2009-09-27T15:45:00.004+05:30

Welcome to my blog in its new avatar!

I had been brooding over the metamorphosis of this space for long. Since I have gotten down to doing it finally, let me set out the kind of things you will find me writing here. But first, a brief flashback to what I have been upto.

It was over 2 years back, in July 2007 that I decided to follow my heart and give a career in public service a serious try. I took a few months off from my previous job and began as a full-time volunteer at Janaagraha. I soon realized that my passion for public change deserved a long term commitment, and joined Janaagraha as an employee in November 2007.

Before I came across Janaagraha, I had NEVER volunteered for any cause nor did I have any first-hand knowledge of the kind of work happening in India’s non-profit / NGO sector. So I began my journey within Janaagraha with a very modest agenda.

First and foremost, I wanted to test if I was really cut out for a career in pubic service. Yes, there was a degree of self-doubt whether my passion for public service was a brief fantasy or a genuine desire to make a difference.

Second, I wanted to seriously engage in issues of urban governance. Janaagraha is widely regarded as a thought leader on urban issues today in India, and I wanted to get an insider’s view to what the real issues were and the solutions to the same.

Finally, and this is what relates closely with the theme of this blog, I wanted to test my own effectiveness in making a difference. I had a reasonable belief in my capabilities (sheepish grin!), but viewed “making a difference” as something completely out of reach. For one, I had no idea of how one goes about making a difference!

Today, after 2 thrilling years within Janaagraha, I can comfortably answer the first two points above. I have firmly committed myself to a lifelong career in public service, and have gained a good understanding of the fundamental issues plaguing India’s urban governance. I know the learning will continue over the coming years.

On the third point however, I have realized that there are no set answers. There is no recipe for “making a difference” but the ingredients are well known – passion, passion and passion. Everything else I think, follows. The context for each issue is different, and so are the stakeholders and their motivations.

But I have a resounding belief in one thing, that one individual CAN make a huuuuuuuuge difference. I know this sounds cliché but I am speaking out of a deep conviction based on experiences from the last two years, seeing many individuals and organizations doing fabulous work in India and abroad.

I haven’t achieved much personally, but I try to apply myself passionately on all the issues that I work on. I get delighted when a new challenge presents itself, and love to “experiment” various solutions and find which one works. This then enriches my way of thinking in future. Hence the title of this blog – A young Indian’s experiments with public change.

This is what you will find me writing frequently about in this space:

The inside story of how my team and I go about building “Jaagte Raho! campaign” – an ambitious initiative to redefine how urban India engages on active citizenship
My experiences at Janaagraha while engaging on various urban issues
My experiences with working in the grassroots at Bangalore, trying to organize communities towards greater participation on civic issues
Any interesting activity or initiative I come across that is aligned to my interests i.e. urban governance and civic engagement of the youth

Happy reading!