ANNUAL REPORT

2016

VISION INDIA FOUNDATION

Namaste,

2 years back, on Nov 6th 2014, Vision India Foundation was launched through a public policy workshop at IIT Delhi. That day a modern nation-building movement was born. The dream was big but the canvas was blank. A picture was yet to be painted. After two years of intense efforts and significant achievements, I am proud that we can present our progress to you through this report. The movement has now got its legs.

The single point mission of VIF is to create an army of change agents that will transform India. Our near term focus is on bringing systemic transformation by investing in talent, technology and thought. We are proud to have designed the most innovative training programs which have graduated more than 500 change agents so far. Many of our alumni have started on their mission and have begun to nudge the system in their own way. Others are preparing themselves for this role. In the coming years we will reach a critical mass of change agents in the right positions who will accelerate the transformation process. This is a silent revolution taking place, right now!

VIF is building its research capability through the fellowship program. We aim to develop indic solutions to the most challenging problems India faces. Our alumni of change agents will be the vehicles for these ideas and will put them into action. Piece by piece we are weaving together the entire framework for change.

It is a very exciting time at VIF. Though we are 2 years old today, it is still day 1 for us. We are committed to making India into a nation of our dreams, but we cannot do it alone. With your constant support and blessings, this historical mission can be achieved together.

Shobhit MathurExecutive Director

Vision India Foundation

CONTENTS

• Training Programs

• Policy BootCamp • Good Governance Yatra • World Governance Expedition • Vikasa • DeCAL at UCB • Workshop at QCI

• Fellowship

• Campus Events

• Lokal Tantra

• Change Agents Network

• Publications

• Books • Articles

• Media Coverage

• Indic Studio

• Internships

• Governance Journalism • Summer Projects 2015

• Partnerships

The Modern Nation-Building Movement

POLICY BOOTCAMP

Policy BootCamp has been designed to serve as a launchpad for policy enthusiasts and aspiring public leaders. It is a 21-day residential summer school that equips 150 bright individuals every year with an understanding of India’s policy making landscape. Policy BootCamp offers an immersive experience and sees participation from not only across the country, but from some international institutions as well.

The delegates stay together for 21 days: learning about different areas of public policy, designing solutions to real world challenges, and discovering their career trajectories in this space. The program facilitates learning from and interaction with cabinet ministers, bureaucrats, parliamentarians, community leaders, subject experts, social entrepreneurs and social reformers. The BootCamp is driven through lectures, group activities, case studies, field visits and some innovative modules designed keeping the diversity of delegates in mind.

VIF has partnered with the state govts of Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Telangana to engage talent from the Policy BootCamp on appropriate projects. Many of our alums are working on high-impact projects across the country with public as well as private sector. We sincerely believe that such programs coupled with an on-going mentorship will produce responsible change agents for the country.

Past Editions: June 2015 and June 2016 (Delhi NCR)

States visited in three editions of Good Governance Yatra

GOOD GOVERNANCE YATRA

Good Governance Yatra provides bright young minds of our nation, a platform to have a first-hand exposure to good governance models across India. Till now, we did two yatras in December 2015 and June 2016, respectively in the north and south-central states of India.

In the yatra, the delegation travels for nine days across multiple states covering more than 2500 kilometers to explore governance models from a broad spectrum of themes like rural, urban, education, defense, etc. In the two editions of the yatra, we have covered eight states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra to understand governance models in the state.

The yatras have witnessed interaction with many role-models in governance like Jitendra Singh, Ananth Kumar, Anna Hazare, Vallabh Bhansali, Arun Maira and others. GGY has seen yatris coming from diverse disciplines, age and geography leading to a plurality of ideas in discussions, peer learning sessions, and activities. The yatra has been a great motivating factor for the yatris to pursue a career in this space, and have some yatris entering the governance structure as fellows and consultants to various governments.

December 2015: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi

June 2016: Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra

December 2016: Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarsh,

Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh

VIKASAVikasa is a youth centric program, jointly developed by Anaadi Foundation and Vision India Foundation to awaken the leadership potential within. It is a week-long program set in the serene foothills of the Himalayas. We believe that leadership is not just to do with leading a team of people but developing a sense of ownership in whatever one takes up. The program has been designed to empower the youth through well developed philosophies, knowledge systems and integrated lifestyle practices.

First edition in December 2016 (Rishikesh)

DeCAL at UCBVIF has developed short courses around the public policy landscape in India. One such course was delivered at the University of California, Berkeley, as a DeCal course in fall semester, titled ‘Indian Polity and Public Policy’. Gauging the growing interest in learning about Indian governance, policy making and socio-economic aspects, we decided to design such courses. It helps the audience understand the situations and ground realities through an indic lens. We are designing more such courses that can be taken across to different audiences.

First edition in Fall 2016

Workshop at QCIAt Quality Council of India, VIF delivered an introductory workshop on public administration. The workshop served as an orientation to a young team working at QCI, supporting high government offices in tasks like data analytics. The workshop included basics of Indian public administration, judiciary, local governance etc., along with specific sessions on data analytics and decision making. Similarly, VIF designs and delivers workshops for places such as universities and organizations.

WORLD GOVERNANCE EXPEDITION

To learn from international best practices in governance, VIF designed a unique and ambitious program titled World Governance Expedition. It is an annual travel program to explore best practices in governance. In the 2016 edition, a 25-member delegation traveled the US to meet public officials, community leaders, visit public institutions, universities, and much more.

The delegates met individuals like city councilors, mayors, state representatives, public administration professors, civic leaders, staffers, executives from federal government, public school, and charter school staff, etc. They also interacted with Justice Breyer of the Supreme Court of USA.

Travelling 2300 miles, driving through 10 states, and meeting more than 50 public officials, the delegation exchanged ideas on governance innovation and what both countries can learn from each other.

It is our hope that such programs will strengthen intellectual exchanges between different countries and showcase India on the international pedestal as a global emerging leader.

Past Edition: October 2016 (USA)

BostonNew YorkWashington DCNorth CarolinaAtlanta

FELLOWSHIPVIF Fellowship is a three-year program in nation-building. WIth the first intake in 2016, the fellowship focuses on preparing future public leaders and thinkers.

Through field work, regular training and mentorship, the fellows are exposed to a variety of tasks, ideas and people. Over the three years, this will form a unique learning experience and result in meaningful outcomes, eventually helping the fellows to make a mark in their areas of interest.

Some of the projects that the current batch is working on are as follows:

1. Constituency Management: We are working with Shri Ganesh Singh (MP, Satna) and Shri Maheish Girri (MP, East Delhi) on tasks related to good governance in their constituency. As an example, the team designed and executed an internship program at the MP’s office in Satna. Under this internship, youth from local colleges collected household feedback on various centrally sponsored schemes.

2. Urban Governance: With a particular focus on solid waste management, a team is working on identifying best practices in waste management and working with resident associations to implement them. This is in line with the national mission of Swacch Bharat and the vision is to develop replicable models of local interventions to improve urban local governance and service delivery.

3. Foreign Affairs: In this research track, an associate is analyzing the importance of strategy in India’s foreign policy and developing a framework to place our policy priorities. These inputs are regularly disseminated in the form of media articles and specific thoughts are shared with relevant stakeholders. Foreign affairs forms a critical part of a nation’s long term strategy, especially in the context of India which is trying to reemerge as a global leader.

VIF fellowship aims to not just creating individual leaders and thinkers but a group of committed and coherent change agents who work towards a common vision for the nation. In the current batch of fellowship, associates working in different parts of the country on different projects assemble together for a monthly meetup and training. These meetups include a variety of sessions such as public speaking and writing, time management, software skills, etc. More importantly, the meetups are spread with reflective discussions to instigate thoughts and ideas on nation-building and develop the common vision mentioned above.

LOKAL TANTRA

Over the years there has been a growing need to have a platform where the citizens and the elected representatives can reach out. In this world of technology, where technology is booming up, VIF came up with a mobile application to connect the citizens and the elected representatives.

The beta product named Samvaad was launched as a mobile application, and is now being redeveloped into a hyper-local platform to deepen democracy and improve governance.

The users can rate their representatives on various parameters and also raise issues which concern them. The elected representatives can use this platform to understand the issues in their constituency, track them and involve citizens in their decision making process.

In December 2015, VIF selected 50 ‘winterns’ to spend their winters on a citizen activism internship. The winterns met several councilors from the municipal corporations in Delhi and demonstrated the technology. Councilors and voters both use the application for everyone’s benefit.

CAMPUS EVENTSVIF alumni and campus ambassadors regularly organize events to spread the idea of nation-building and provide exposure to the student community.

Some of the campuses where our ambassadors organized workshops, seminars and conferences are:

• IIM Rohtak • IIT Delhi • Rajiv Gandhi National Law University • NLU Raipur • Miranda House • IIT Bombay

In addition to this, we have ambassadors in places like Azim Premji University, Jindal Global University, SRCC, Sri Sri University, IIT Madras, IIT Roorkee, BITS Pilani and many more.

With a network of around 50 campus ambassadors across the country, VIF reaches out to and engages with a young India.

PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS

I, The Citizen

I, the Citizen is a reflection of Dr Balasubramaniam’s (Balu) work over the past several decades. The book unravels the power of citizen engagement through Dr Balu’s experiences of leading civil society campaigns against corruption and towards strengthening democratic participation of people. The author also deals with the philosophical underpinnings of public policies, drawing from his on-the-ground experience as well as engagement with those in the higher echelons of policy making and implementation. The book was published jointly with Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM) and is available in print as well as Kindle.

Public Policy - A Citizen’s Guide

Public Policy - A Citizen’s Guide is first-of-its-kind book written as an introduction to public policy and governance for a common citizen. The book is authored by a team of young scholars including VIF full-time team and alumni. Covering topics such as Constitution, elections, local government, budget, foreign affairs, public grievances, civil society etc, the book gives a primer to anyone wanting to understand Indian public sphere. The book is full of real life examples and cases which make it easy for a common person to take interest in the topic and dive deeper. Two editions of the book have come out till now in print.

CHANGE AGENTS NETWORK

With over 500 alumni over the last two years and several other change agents associated to VIF though its campus networks, we have created mechanisms for like-minded people to interact and continually engage with the nation-building movement.

In the virtual world, VIF partnered with Facebook and has curated the ‘Change Agents Network’ hosted on Facebook at Work, a private platform developed by Facebook. The platform works similar to regular Facebook, allowing users to form interest groups and discuss on a variety of issues. The platform also allows everyone to post updates related to public events, career openings, etc thereby offering a unique space for change agents to pursue their passion. Individuals who share a similar passion can register on the network and many change agents from like-minded organizations have joined us over the past few months.

We often say that our investment is on people. To ensure that VIF provides all possible support to young change agents, we engage with our alumni through a host of physical modes in addition to the virtual network described above. We have conducted zonal reunions in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai. We invite relevant change agents in the network to attend events in their vicinity organized by like-minded organizations. Other than this, we

For a highly select group in the network, we organize an annual Change Agents Retreat. The first edition of the retreat took place in April 2016 in Mumbai for 25 people. In the years to come, this number will grow to include some of the most committed individuals associated with VIF.

Foreign Affairs

How PM Modi’s Afghanistan Outreach Can Help in Isolating Pakistan - DailyO (September 2016)Kamal Madishettyhttp://www.dailyo.in/politics/india-afghanistan-uri-attack-pakistan-taliban-isi-balochistan-kashmir-narendra-modi-ashraf-ghani/story/1/13034.html

Indus Water Treaty and India’s Strategic Stand - DailyO (September 2016). Republished in Modern Diplomacy and Geopolitical MonitorKamal Madishettyhttp://www.dailyo.in/politics/indus-waters-treaty-pakistan-uri-attack-cross-border-surgical-strikes-kashmir/story/1/13155.html

Goa Could be a Turning Point for BIMSTEC - The Diplomat (November 2016)Kamal Madishettyhttp://thediplomat.com/2016/11/goa-summit-could-be-the-turning-point-for-bimstec/

Governance Reforms

Reforms needed in NREGA - India Spend (April 2016). Republished in FirstPost, Business World, Scroll, Rediff etc.Shobhit Mathur and Nomesh Boliahttp://www.indiaspend.com/cover-story/worst-year-ever-for-mgnrega-23-drop-in-assets-created-90812

The MNREGA Index - The Hindu (May 2016)Shobhit Mathur and Nomesh Boliahttp://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-mgnrega-index/article8668701.ece

Why India Must Adopt Performance Management - Swarajya (September 2016)Sahil Aggarwalhttp://swarajyamag.com/economy/why-india-must-adopt-the-next-big-reform-performance-management

PUBLICATIONS

ARTICLES

The executive team at VIF and the batch of fellows regularly write in popular media on important issues. A topic-wise list of articles is below:

Education

What Teachers Must Learn - Indian Express (February 2016)Nomesh Bolia and Sahil Aggarwalhttp://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/what-teachers-must-learn/

How Efficient is Indian Education? - Live MintNomesh Bolia and Kshitij Jainhttp://www.livemint.com/Opinion/5De0NZEOAgwHV5zOYCtWNP/How-efficient-is-Indian-education.html

Higher Education in India Needs Reforms - Swarajya (May 2016)Sahil Aggarwalhttp://swarajyamag.com/ideas/higher-education-in-india-needs-freedom

Environment

Decentralized Waste Management - Down to Earth (September 2016)Apula Singh and Viral Shahhttp://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/no-more-n-i-m-b-y-55596

Greenhouse Gases and Vegetarianism - The Statesman (October 2015)Armin Rosencranz and Sahil Aggarwalhttp://www.thestatesman.com/news/opinion/greenhouse-gases-and-vegetarianism/99482.html

Miscellaneous

Integral Humanism - Swarajya (March 2016)Ajaey Sharmahttp://swarajyamag.com/ideas/why-is-integral-humanism-restricted-only-to-coffee-table-discussions

Sports Reforms in India - The Logical Indian (September 2016)Anuva Agarwal and Dhairyasheel Jagtaphttps://thelogicalindian.com/story-feed/sports/india-and-a-double-digit-medal-tally-at-tokyo-2020-olympics-possible/

Gopi is Not Just a Coach, he is a Change Agent - Hans India (August 2016)Kamal Madishettyhttp://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Sports/2016-08-24/Gopi-is-not-just-a-coach-he-is-a-change-agent/250268

Nash Equilibrium and High Beam Travel - The Logical Indian (October 2015)Sahil Aggarwalhttp://thelogicalindian.com/story-feed/awareness/a-high-beam-for-a-high-beam-leaves-the-whole-world-blind/

Judicial System

In India’s District Courts, A Crisis is Revealed - India Spend (April 2016). Republished in Business World, FirstPost etc.Shobhit Mathur and Nomesh Boliahttp://www.indiaspend.com/cover-story/in-indias-district-courts-a-crisis-is-revealed-79079

Clogs and Clots of India’s Judiciary - The Indian Economist (August 2016)Shobhit Mathurhttp://theindianeconomist.com/clogs-clots-indian-judiciary/

Local Governance

Decoding Delhi’s Demand for Full Statehood - The Wire (August 2016) Apula Singhhttp://thewire.in/58286/decoding-delhi-demand-for-full-statehood/

Devolution of Funds to Local Government - Swarajya (March 2016)Sahil Aggarwalhttp://swarajyamag.com/economy/devolution-of-funds-to-local-govts-budget-2016-reflects-a-shift-in-policy-thinking

Let’s Talk About AMRUT Before We Get To Smart Cities - Huffington Post (August 2016)Apula Singhhttp://www.huffingtonpost.in/apula-singh/lets-talk-about-amrut-before-we-get-to-smart-cities/

MEDIA COVERAGE

Vision India Foundation’s activities and mission have been covered by several media houses over the past two years, including television, print and web media.

Bloomberg TV

Bureaucracy Today

Dainik Bhaskar

Dainik Jagran

Madhya Pradesh

Jan Sandesh

Navbharat Times

Press Information

Bureau

TechStory

The Better India

The Economic

times

The Hindu

The Logical Indian

The Times of India

Some of the agencies which have covered VIF are:

INDIC STUDIO

Today, more than at any point in human history, people gather information and knowledge through electronic sources. Keeping the reach and relevance of digital media in mind, VIF has created a studio within its Delhi office. A compact room with acoustic and audio arrangements, the studio is titled ‘Indic Studio’. The objective of the studio is to host people who can provide new knowledge to the world and create content to support the nation-building movement. The studio is already being used to create lectures and short videos for dissemination.

The studio is open for anyone to use, given the production content does not go against the interests of the organization.

Location: West Patel Nagar, New Delhi

INTERNSHIPSGovernance Journalism

To catalyze the nation building process, we started a research-cum-journalism project called: Governance Journalism. This was a two-month extensive field research project to build case studies on the model governance projects across India.

The output of the program will be in the form of a compendium of case studies on projects that have been impactful in delivering governance to its citizens. The research happened in 10 different states covering 15 models of governance.

The journalists have been closely interacting with officials and other stakeholders of the project and got an opportunity to have a closer look at the governance models. It is our hope that this experience will motivate them to understand governance better and pursue a career in this space, and the compendium will act a resource book for governance leaders to replicate these models in their respective capacities.

Summer Projects 2015

Soon after the launch of VIF, we opened a variety of projects to pilot our idea of engaging youth in nation-building. 8 different projects were designed and 15 interns were selected to work on the projects for a period of two months.

The interns worked on the following projects:

• Center for e-Governance, Government of Karnataka

• Smart Classrooms, Government of Andhra pradesh

• Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, Member of Parliament, Gurdaspur

• Rural Development, Baran, Rajasthan

• Energy Audit, Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh

• Community Consultations and Local Development, Mysore

• Livelihood Protection for Marginalized Communities, New Delhi

• Constituency Management, Member of Parliament, Satna

PARTNERSHIPS

In addition to working with several government agencies and public officials, VIF has partnered with private, public and nonprofit organizations to move ahead in the vision. Some of such organizations are:

1. India School of Business (Bharti Institute of Public Policy)

2. Jindal Global University

3. Facebook

4. Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM)

5. Uber

6. Stayzilla

7. Bloomberg

8. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)

9. Wadhwani Foundation

#BeAndMake