A lot of people keep asking me about the last one year that I have spent working in the Government as an insider. From being a person outside the system constantly interacting with it and seeking their support for ensuring human development at the grassroots, friends including myself are surprised on how my journey has brought me here. From being a angry young man in the early eighties to feeling disillusioned at the ‘trickle down effect’ that never truly happened, to working inside Government in building the capacity of people and systems at the Capacity Building Commission, I have indeed come a long way in my understanding of human development. From seeing Govt as not very efficient and sensitive, to wanting to work with Government, to now seeing it as taking proactive steps in making governance citizen centric, things have indeed evolved a lot. I am now of the firm view that human development can only happen when people and processes from the public sector, private sector, civil society, citizenry, academia and the media come together and synergistically work to ensure it. This is now possible with the vision of the Prime Minister in inspiring ‘Team India’ to build a ‘New India’ in a spirit of partnership, or ‘Jan Bhagidari’ in his words.
And Mission Karmayogi is doing all this and more. You can get to know more of my thoughts and views from this video interview of ISB (in English) and the radio program broadcast today as a part of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations by fourteen Community Radio Stations across the state of Karnataka (in Kannada).