Digitizing Government Offices for Improving Execution: Notes from Rampur village
The current government has launched a variety of schemes for the development of poor and rural communities. An expansive marketing strategy based on an adroit usage of social media has made the common man aware of these schemes. While every government frames policies...
Angular 2: Reading the language of our times
I had been itching to learn a new computing language for quite some time, when a friend told me about Angular 2. I was aware of Angular’s existence for it has been universally praised, and more and more websites were choosing it as their front end language. Even...
Breaking the waiting game: Technological tools for increasing access
Delay is a constant road block to development in India. It plagues almost every area of the life of a common man – whether it be getting permits, licenses, justice in courts and so on, and also impacts administration, governance and the effective implementation of...
Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY): Bridging the perception gap
SAGY is an initiative by the Central Government of India in which honourable Members of Parliament adopt a Gram Panchayat and develop it into a model village or “Adarsh Gram.” As a SPARC (Supporting Parliamentarians in Analysis and Research in Constituency) Associate...
DISHA- Putting Development on the right track
Do you remember the character Mushaddi Lal portrayed by the critically acclaimed actor Pankaj Kapoor in the famous TV series ‘Office Office’? The series took a dig at how government officials work and how projects and grievances of citizens keep moving around from one...
Thinking Out Loud – Working with an MP
This is the season of weddings in Tamil Nadu, the time of the year when I meet my long-lost relatives and face their curiosity of what’s happening in my life. The most awkward moment in these interactions at family functions right now is to explain my job to my...
Taking on the Development Challenge
Working for social impact, was an unfulfilled goal that I hoped I’d be able to do something about before I turned 30. Fortunately, it happened at 26. In November last year, when I got the opportunity to work with Swaniti Initiative, an organization working towards...
Development and Governance: Challenging Beliefs
It was a strongly held belief - that carrying out any work under government systems is next to impossible, that government structure were too complex to navigate and that institutional mechanisms were ridden with archaic systems. Fortunately, by working on ground with...
Handlooms as a tool for Empowering Women of North East India
For more than 100 years, International Women’s Day has been celebrated to mark the extraordinary struggles faced by women worldwide for gender equality and to accelerate empowerment in the society. This is a day to reflect on the progress made, to call for a change...
India truly lives in its villages
“India is not Calcutta and Bombay; India lives in her seven hundred thousand villages.” Mahatma Gandhi mentioned the above statement more than half a century ago. Even today, the statement holds true. As per the Census of 2011, nearly 70% of the country’s population...