We have shortlisted number of places to visit, you can see the tentative map of our travel plan here.
View Larger Map
The final set of places we ended up visiting can be seen here (Got references from people we visited for some more people to visit and also ended up not visiting a few due to several reasons):
View Larger Map
How are we selecting the places to visit: Both of us have been involved in both industry, academic and non-profit sector for the last 7 years. We plan to leverage our contacts developed during these past experiences. Additionally, several people we know have done similar travels across different parts of India trying to learn from local communities and performing problem assessment. We are taking leads from all of them and doing our research to shortlist the places and people we would like to visit. Following form a key role in this decision making:
- Limited time: We will limit our travel to 2-3 months. We would like to spend at least 4 days at each place which limits us to selecting only 15-20 places.
- Regional Diversity: We will like to include all the diversity in terms of geographical locations, political environment and religious and cultural makeup of the local communities. With a possible disadvantage in terms of overcomplexity, we hope that it will provide us with a unique opportunity to study diverse environments and try to find possible interconnections that may address the problem of scalability across diversity in India.
- Background diversity: When meeting with people, we will like to meet people with diverse backgrounds – politicians, policy makers, bureaucrats, researchers, social activists, entrepreneurs and of course local community wherever we visit. This will provide us with a diverse understanding of the complex Indian environment.
Tentative List of places/people to visit: Following is a tentative list of places/people we plan to visit. We hope that we will adapt this list as we move along while selecting approximately 15 of the final list such that we can spend some considerable time at each of the places.
- Michael and Swati (Mozda)
- Sunil Kaul, Action Northeast Trust (ANT), Assam – http://new.theant.org/
- Dayamani Barla, Rural Journalist Jharkhand
- Byrraju Foundation (http://www.byrrajufoundation.org/html/deliverymodulae.php?cat=d16). Talked with Jacob Verghese
- Anil Gupta (IIM Ahmedabad, Srishiti, Honey Bee Network)
- Rural Innovation Network (Chennai) http://www.rinovations.org: Vineet Rai
- Prof. AW Datte – IIT Bombay – started CTARA (http://www.iitb.ac.in/~ctara/). Will be meeting up with other people working in the center as well
- Rajendra Singh (Alwar, Rajasthan) – Uses technology for social activism e.g. rainwater harvesting, ganga rejuvenation plan. Started Tarun Bharat Sangh – http://www.tarunbharatsangh.org/about/rs.htm.
- Ravindra Sharma, Adilabad, Andhra Pradesh – Kala Ashram
- Anna Hazare – Social activist
- Dinesh Abrol (National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), Delhi)
- National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Hyderabad
- Rishi Mohan Sanwal: Bhuj rehabilitation
- Shree Padre: Rain water harvesting in south India, mostly karnataka and Kerala
- Vigyan Aashram Pabal, Pune: vocational based training to schools.
- Bare Foot College: Tilonia Rajasthan
- Vellore: Meet Srinivasan and discuss his hill restoration and zero waste management projects
- Sabahat Azim ( CEO – Sahaj e-village project) www.sahajcorporate.com
- Osama Manzar (Digital Empowerment Foundation)
- Ankur Garg (DM, Tirap, Arunachal Pradesh) and also visit one of the PHC managed by Karuna Trust in AP. He will also help visiting a few places in his district and spending time with the communities there.
- Eureka Project – AID Chennai, AID Bihar (Eureka is just started in AID-Bihar on the success of similar model in Tamil Nadu. It will be interesting to observe the two diverse regions with similar model in different stages of development). Dharmendra (from AID-Bihar) and Dhamu (from AID-Chennai) have agreed to take us around.
We have mapped these places on a single map. View India Tour in a larger map
Hi Amarjeet & Rajesh,
Best wishes on your journey. I would like to suggest one more place for you:
KHETI VIRASAT MISSION
Street No 1, Baba Farid Nagar
JAITU-151202
District-Faridkot, Punjab
You may contact Kavitha Kuruganti who is working there on sustainable agriculture, documenting impacts of pesticides and mobilizing against GM crops.
Aravinda
Amarjeet and Rajesh.
Good luck and enjoy your tour. I envy you guys. All of us at LA chapter will keep cheering you and checking the blog.
Dheeraj
All the best on your journey. Ridhika and I will be following your progress, successes, and learnings on your blog.
I am a South African now traveling in India. I am working in the rural, 2nd, 3rd … economic development agenda for the past 25 or so years. My interest is in the development of repeatable models for community empowerment for local (economic) development. Obvious extension to this interest are – south -south, community -community partnerships accross Asia and Africa for meaningful interactions and exchanges. I am interested to meet social and economic entreprenurs who are operating in these areas.
I thank you for the opportunity.
Hey Goli,
Do contact me when you are around Delhi. I sent you my number by an e-maill.
If you are planning to visit KVM, I might tag along. I’m anyway gonna have a talk with Kavitha about this.
Know more about the unexplored North Eastern part of India Where Virgin Forest Weds Cultural Diversity Located on the foothills of the eastern Himalayan ranges.
Thanks for this info, I really enjoyed reading it!
Excellent post ! and thanks a million for the mention, I’m seriously honored!
in india there are so many places in india for travelling….
Good Information. Thank you for sharing and I want to share information about Tandoori Chef which is An authentic North Indian, fine dining restaurant, Tandoori Chef offers Hackensack and the surrounding area a wonderful taste of Indian cuisine.
Hi my name is yogesh kumar. I like this blog website due to the quality of a description about Tandoori Chef. I say thanks to that person who made this
Good Information. Thank you for sharing and I want to share information about Madras Bistro which provides our guests with an authentic North and South Indian vegetarian dining experience. We are located in Hackensack, New Jersey and serve a wide selection of dishes representing the tastes of India.