Lokneeti initative

LokNeeti Initiative “Political ethics and self-efficient economy makes prosperous and peaceful society”- Chankya

About Us Lokneeti Initiative is an Apolitical Organization that focuses on developing sustainable solutions by talented and passionate youth to work in the grassroots India with the support of progressive leadership.

India has immense „demographic, environmental advantages‟ with over two-third of the population being of working age and it will be increased by 2030 by more than 70%, to work along with the political class and governments are very limited on „Lokneeti‟. Youth are primarily reliant on networking through youth wings or informal connection with political leaders. As a result, there is a gap between communications of policies with demand between two major stakeholders. Similarly, politicians have to rely on party workers for constituency level supports and have limited or no access to a large section of talented and passionate youth population, who are intending to be part of the Indian governance system, but are not involved directly in politics.

Lokneeti is the only initiative to connect youth with the political class and governments in an effort to more strengthen governance in India. To ensure the participation of youth in governance and implementation on grassroot.

Lokneeti Initiative works with political leaders to identify issues they are facing in their constituency and recruits dynamic youth to work with them, to overcome these challenges. The Fellows focus both on strategy and implementation.

Lokneeti also hosts discussion forums where youth have the opportunity to voice their thoughts and ideas about governance and development in India while also networking with thought leaders and peers. This creates an additional opportunity for youth to connect with polity and governance in India.

It will become an active forum of researchers, professionals and students to encourage debate on national issues raise their concerns and their innovative solutions. It is the platform of youth leadership of Tomorrow. It can be the celebration of best brains in the service of nation. It is a collective endeavor of creative eager minds those are ready to change the nation with vision and building nation with action.

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It will be the team of visionary young men and women who aspire for an integrally developed India, who is living into its villages. It is the team of inspired young minds who dare to dream great things for the nation and also have courage to bring change into society with innovation and vision.

Why is it important?

Indiaâ€&#x;s most of population is between agegrouop of 15 to 60s, according to cencus data 2011. The median age of India in 2011 was a young 24 years, with the median age ranging from 19 years in Meghalaya, 20 in Bihar and UP to 31 years in Kerala. This is good news for India as even itâ€&#x;s most aged state is still younger than China or the UnitedStates. Below is a map of median ages of individual states.

Figure.1. Median Age in India, 2011 (according to 2011 Cencus of India)

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We can see from the above map, that India‟s most youngest states could be much as 25 years behind its most aged states in terms of their demographic profiles. In theory, this gives states a good amount of time to learn from each other‟s employment and economic policies to do their best in taking advantage of

the

upcoming „demographic dividend‟.

India needs advantage of its demographic profile in policy making. I would like to quote here Prof. Kaushik Basu, one of eminent economist, In the year 2004 India had a population of 1,080 million, of whom 672 million people were in the age-group 15 to 64 years. This is usually treated as the “working age population”. Since outside of this age group, very few people works, it is reasonable to think of the remainder, that 408 million people, as the “dependent population”.

A nation‟s “dependency ratio” is the ratio of the dependent population to the working-age population.

In the case of India this turns out to be 0.6. ……..

What is different about India is the prediction that it will see a sharp decline in this ratio over the next 30 years or so. This is what constitutes the demographic dividend for India. [Kaushik Basu, BBC] If we plot the working age population ( anyone between the ages of 15 and 64) versus the median age, what we get is a tight correlation between the two. This implies that most Indian states are yet to reach their maximum working age population ratios. The possible exception to this might be Kerala, which might have already peaked.

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Figure.2 Correlation graph of age per state (Source: The Transition State)

The age structure profiles of

Bihar,

India and Kerala also illustrate the different stages of

demographic development Indiaâ€&#x;s states are: from a very young, bulging child population in Bihar to a more youth/ young-adult heavy national population, to a far older population in Kerala.

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The Lokneeti Fellowships are targeted towards talented youth who aspire to be change makers by devising solutions to development challenges in collaboration with progressive leaders.

OBJECTIVE “Nation can be only nourished with its inteligencia and youth”- Swami Vivekananda, Prabuddha Bharat The Lokneeti Fellowships aims to engage youth in governance by launching them in constituency development engagements. Fellows will work directly with Members of Parliaments, Members of Legislative Assembly or Cabinet Ministers on specific engagements. The topic of the engagement will range through the entire spectrum of governance.

Fellows will work on an issue identified by the client (MP, MLA, Cabinet minister) and will be expected to provide a final deliverable to the client. In order to conduct research, gather data or implement programs, Fellows are expected to travel within and outside the constituency to interact with constituency level stakeholders and external organizations. In order to support the work of Fellows, we also assign Lokneeti Mentors, who provide guidance and support to Fellows, throughout the engagement. Mentors are field experts who bring with them the resources to better guide the engagement.

The pilot for Lokneeti Fellowship will work with the support of the National Youth Congress (NYC) and Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and other political parties. The tremendous feedback from applicants and the responses from Members of Parliament led to the creation of a structured Fellowship program, wherein youth will expect to travel to constituencies and work on grassroots issues with the support of political leaders.

Lokneeti Fellows are nurtured through the course of the program to become leaders in polity and governance and contribute significantly to the development of India.

AIM

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Design and development of strategies for sustainable growth of rural India.

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Action based vision to meet the environmental, cultural and security needs of India and the world.

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Initiate and sustain India-centric thoughts and activities in campus and among intelligentsia.

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To meet the challenges of rural technology initiation of rural tech fest for empower rural India.

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“The next century will be India’s because of its unique intellectual and economic power leads by its youth” How to change the Indian Politics without being into Politics?

Lokneeti Initiative is originally conceived with the goal of opening up the Indian government. Currently we have three core areas of focus: opening up the government to people (Fellowships), opening up the government for information (Lokneeti Lab), and opening up the government for dialogue (Talks and Online Platforms “Jan Samvad”). Technology is a cross cutting components through three of our core areas and we are looking for individuals who are passionate about making a difference through technology.

What we are building?

As a first project, we are developing a platform to inform, encourage and enable various stakeholders to take benefit of Central Government sponsored development schemes. National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) are two popular ones among 200 existing schemes. This is a huge task and can have enormous impact on society. Not even they are providing economic benefit to the dependent society, also ensuring environmental conservation and reducing the impact of climate change.

We are looking for you if: You believe that technology can play a big role in making governments more efficient, bringing in transparency and making this world a better place to live You are passionate about technology and developing most amazing web applications 

PHP is your tool of choice to solve problems.

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You are able to model relationships using MySQL with ease

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You can engage users by building interactive Javascript interfaces

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You care about pixels and command their organization via CSS

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You feel the sense of ownership for the products you build and projects you undertake.

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Data visulaisation, Decision Support using advance mathematical techniques, like AI, Fuzzy etc.

What is Sodh Yatra?

Shodh Yatra is a journey for the search of knowledge, creativity and innovations at grassroots and technological help to make easier as well as improve their technology. Shodh Yatra is an attempt on the part of Lokneeti Initiative to reach out to the remotest part of the country with a firm belief that hardship and challenges of natural surroundings are the prime motivators of creativity and innovations.

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Shodh Yatra aims at unearthing such traditional knowledge and grassroots innovations that have not only simplified the lives of men, women and farm labourers but have also significantly contributed towards the conservation of bio-diversity. Shodh Yatra is a journey of mutual exchange and sharing of knowledge. Whatever knowledge and practices that we have pooled in, over the years are shared with the villagers during the Shodh Yatra.

We also share the technological expertise with the villagers. Shodh Yatra is a journey to spread green consciousness and we do it by involving women and children to display their ecological knowledge through various competitions.

Objective 

To learn about the challenges and experiences of the farmers engaged into agriculture.

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To encourage the technology intervention with tradition way of conservation of bio and crop diversity among rural India.

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To meet the people who solve their problems through their presence of mind and share their story with youths

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To compile and disseminate the knowledge, which is fast disappearing and establish a dialogue between old generation and future.

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To establish co-benefit relationship with rural inventors and young technologist to solve the complex problems with cheap and sustainable technology.

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Encourage to create environment for social entrepreneur- ship among community.

Jan Samvaad Jan Samvaad is aimed at making Indian agrarian crisis a key national concerns needing immediate attention. Without active participation of public, the democracy cannot be strengthen and will not get the sense of the “wisdom of the masses”. Ensuring the people‟s participation into democratic structure played very important role in terms of gauging the real time pulse of people, public sentiments and receiving their feedback on a host of issues. Some of major issues which we come with are: 

Abhiyuday: Realizing the growth potential in North-East states

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Arogyam-The healing touch: Universalizing access to primary health care

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Gender equality and justice: Ensuring safety and empowerment of women

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Antyoday: Improving reach and the efficiency of Public Distribution System

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Udyamita: Increasing the employability of youth

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Annapurna: Boosting agricultural productivity

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Akshyapatra: Reducing malnutrition

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Providing drinking water and ensuring proper sanitation facility to all

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Shaping tomorrow: Enhancing the primary education

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Social Justice for all: providing social security to informal sector workers

The Ideal Candidate Who are we looking for?

Lokneeti is looking for young, passionate and motivated individuals, who demonstrate leadership and a desire to make a difference. We recognize that people come from different backgrounds and therefore show these skills through different experiences.

However, we believe that there are some core qualities we seek. We look for individuals with: 1.

Passion for making a difference

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Understanding of the complex political and social terrain

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Exceptional analytical and organizational skills

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Willingness to work in different environments

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Strong communication skills

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Creative ideas and resolutions

Through our application we also seek evidence for professionalism and integrity.

Basic Application Requirements Young professionals and graduate school students are welcome to apply for Lokneeti Fellowships.

Undergraduate Requirements Applicants are expected to complete at least an undergraduate degree (Bachelor‟s or equivalent) from an accredited college or University prior to applying for the Lokneeti Initiative.

Academic and Professional Standing Lokneeti will request to review your academic and professional standing through transcripts and references. It is important that you are prepared with each prior to applying for the Fellowships.

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Indian national/foreign national status Lokneeti accepts 1.) Indian Citizens 2.) Foreign national of Indian origins However, foreign applicants must have arranged appropriate documentation to working India for the Fellowship.

Commitment and Location All Fellows must be committed to working in assigned locations for the duration of their Fellowships. Fellows will be considered staff members of their respective teams and must abide by policies in the respective environments.

Age Limit Since Lokneeti is targeted towards youth; all applicants must be under the age of 35 at the time of submitting their application.

Selection Process The Fellowship Selection Process is very competitive and requires Fellows to submit an application and go through interview(s).

In preparation for your interview, it is recommended that you: Know Yourself 1.

Evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, skills, interests, values and goals and how it links to the Lokneeti Fellowship

2.

Identify the skills or experiences that you can bring to the Fellowship that will differentiate you from other applicants.

Know Lokneeti 1.

Spend time assessing Lokneeti and our work through various channels including the website.

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Understand the objective of the initiative and seek clarifications during the interview.

Know Your Engagement 1.

Understand your role as Lokneeti Fellow.

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Research about the client, the context behind the engagement and think through structuring solutions to the problem at hand.

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On the Field Prior to the start of an engagement, Lokneeti Fellows will be trained to prepare for the engagement. They will also be expected to connect with the client a few weeks before the start date to better understand the expectations of the engagement. Typically, a Fellow will be required to be in the „field‟ (constituency) shortlyafter the first meetings and is expected to immerse himself/herself within a few days and understand the core issues. Not all Fellowship engagements will require the Fellows to spend their entire engagement duration in the field. Fellows can be expected to provide recommendations to clients on how to strengthen an existing program and/or implement a new or existing program effectively.

A Fellow‟s range of activity may include (but is not limited) to the following: 

Conducting ground level research on specific challenges

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Developing recommendations on how to overcome bottlenecks/issues being faced

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Creating programs to resolve the challenge

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Implementing new programs suggested as a part of the recommendations

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Executing existing programs more effectively

Since most of our fellowships are 8 to 12 weeks long, Fellows are expected to be quick learners and problem solvers.

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