ARUN JAIN'S DIARY

Our purpose gets clearer and more relevant every day.

Just three years ago, armed with compassion and a massive transformative purpose, Mission Samriddhi set out to learn and understand the patterns, gaps and opportunities for holistic community development in rural India.

That was Mission Samriddhi 1.0. We are happy to say that we are now ready for Mission Samriddhi 2.0 where we are looking to scale.

Welcome to Mission Samriddhi’s Summit 8 on ‘Design for Scale’

#ruralindia #indiapanchayatforum #clusterdevelopment

Article: Published on January 29, 2020
Our purpose gets clearer and more relevant every day.

Just three years ago, armed with compassion and a massive transformative purpose, Mission Samriddhi set out to learn and understand the patterns, gaps and opportunities for holistic community development in rural India.

That was Mission Samriddhi 1.0. We are happy to say that we are now ready for Mission Samriddhi 2.0 where we are looking to scale.

Welcome to Mission Samriddhi’s Summit 8 on ‘Design for Scale’ with 4 distinctive sessions.

1. We kick off with an Expert Workshop where stakeholders from the government, social impact organisations and individuals will deliberate and work out a potential roadmap for each of the following tracks: India Panchayat Forum, Cluster Development Programme, Livelihood and Agri allied, Integrated Education, Healthcare, SHG and Rural Entrepreneurship.
2. The outcome of Expert Workshops will be discussed in Panel Sessions along with Expert Speakers.
3. A Sarpanch Roundtable with inspiring leaders from around the country will be part of the event to celebrate The PoleStar Awards honouring winners in the social impact space.
4. The need for networking time indicated in Summit 7 is being met with a Power Breakfast Session.

Some of the experts who will be part of these sessions are stalwarts in rural transformation in the region.
Shri. Sunil Kumar, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Panchayat Raj, Government of India
Shri S. M. Vijayanand, IAS, Former Chief Secretary, Govt of Kerala, Chairman Sixth State Finance Commission, Kerala 
Dr W. R. Reddy, IAS, Director General, National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj
Mr. Siddharth Tripathi, IFS, Commissioner, MGNREGA, Government of Jharkhand
Mr. Bala Murugan D., IAS, CEO of BRLPS Jeevika, Government of Bihar
Mr. Tausif Ahmed Quraishi, Senior Manager, Ultra-poor Graduation Programme, BRAC, Bangladesh

We look forward to each of the sessions with positivity in the hope that we will build a more prosperous India together!

Today, we met Noble Laureate Mohd Yunus, the father of Micro Finance and Self Help groups. He started this initiative in 1976 just after Bangladesh’s independence in 1971. Started Grameen Bank formally in 1983 and the rest is history.

He believes in creating social business vs charity. He says charity has one life cycle while social business has unlimited. Now this concept is very active in Germany, France, Africa and Japan. Many German corporations have joint ventures with Grameen Bank for social businesses.

He has published a new book – “A World of Three Zeros: Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, Zero Carbon.” We were lucky to get this copy after spending over an hour with him.

Life is the means by which a man develops himself and expresses himself through his creative faculty.

Life in other words is like a great canvas on which man, the artist with his peculiar brand of paint of many values, and the firm strokes of free will, brings into existence his indelible work of art, which either helps enhance human progress or retards it.

If he uses a large mixture of self-centred values, which are like water colours, they fade away with age. On other hand, if he uses mainly altruistic values or objective values, which are like earth paints used at Ajanta that have retained their freshness through the centuries. That’s the process of creating economy of permanence. – J C Kumarappa

Today is a significant day as we celebrate the National Panchayati Raj Day to commemorate the historic Constitution Act (73rd Amendment) passed in 1992 which came into existence a year later on April 24, 1993. The launch of the e-GramSwaraj portal and app today makes this a doubly important day. The portal shows us the vastness of India’s local governance framework.

We have over 2.66 lakh Gram Panchayats across the length and breadth of our country. This is where ‘the rubber hits the road’ and this is where, as Gandhiji said, India lives. On the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, we at #MissionSamriddhi launched the India Panchayat Forum (IPF) at Gandhi Ashram, Sewagram in Wardha. I felt that the 73rd Amendment that provided a Constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj Institution is yet to realise its full potential.

On this significant day, let us work with them and help them achieve effective local governance, and become examples to the world.

ruralindia #IndiaPanchayatForum

Article: Published on April 24, 2020
National Panchayati Raj Day

Today is a significant day as we celebrate the National Panchayati Raj Day to commemorate the historic Constitution Act (73rd Amendment) passed in 1992 which came into existence a year later on April 24, 1993. The launch of the e-GramSwaraj portal and app today makes this a doubly important day. The portal shows us the vastness of India’s local governance framework.

We have over 2.66 lakh Gram Panchayats across the length and breadth of our country. This is where ‘the rubber hits the road’ and this is where, as Gandhiji said, India lives. On the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, we at #MissionSamriddhi launched the India Panchayat Forum (IPF) at Gandhi Ashram, Sewagram in Wardha. I felt that the 73rd Amendment that provided a Constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj Institution is yet to realise its full potential.
The need for the India Panchayat Forum stems from this gap and is envisioned to promote the Gandhian vision of Panchayat Raj. This upholds the constitutional values, social justice and the highest standards of governance with a special focus on Antyodaya.

In our federal structure, our Gram Panchayats are the unsung heroes. Devolution of power to local government continues to be a contentious issue, but the launch of this portal ensures transparency, and thereby a level playing field. Each Panchayat has different challenges, and most do come up with innovative solutions.