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Ramesh Ramanathan is co-founder of Janaagraha Centre

for Citizenship and Democracy, a non-profit organisation

focused on improving urban governance in India. In addition

to Janaagraha, Ramesh has worked in the Indian microfinance

sector for close to a decade, with a special focus on urbanmicrofinance.

He is Chairman of Janalakshmi, an urban microfinance

institution in India.

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His current positions with government include being the

National Technical Advisor, Government of India for the

Jawarharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, the

largest urban initiative in the countrys history; the PrincipalAdvisor, State Urban Agenda for the State of Rajasthan;

member of the High Powered Expert Committee on Urban

Finances

Prior to these social initiatives, Ramesh worked with Citibank

in New York and London. When he left to begin his socialactivities in India, he was MD and Head, European Corporate

Derivatives, and a member of the Global Markets Leadership

Team, collectively running a business with an annual revenue

of over $1 billion.

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Ramesh has an MS in Physics from BITS Pilani, an MBA

from Yale University, and a Certified Financial Analyst (CFA)

degree from the Association of Investment Management &

Research (AIMR). Ramesh has co-authored a book titled, 'Urban Poverty

Alleviation in India' & writes regularly about public

governance issues in leading national publications. He was

nominated as one of the Young Global Leaders by the World

Economic Forum in 2007.

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Banking and Microbanking:

Board Member, AXIS Bank

Vice-Chairman, Sanghamithra Rural Financial Services: One

of a small group of leading MFIs (Microfinance Institution) inthe country. Helped operationalise this institution that was

founded by Myrada, and anchors its Urban Microfinance

activities.

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Related to National, State and Local Government

institutions:

National Technical Advisor, Jawarharlal Nehru National

Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Ministry of UrbanDevelopment, Government of India

Principal Advisor, Government of Rajasthan, State Urban

Agenda for Rajasthan (SUARAJ)

Was a Member of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) Was an advisor to the Finance Department, GoK in its

interactions with the 12th Finance Commission, and for the

drafting of the Local Fund Fiscal Responsibility Act (LFFRA)

in Karnataka.

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Related to civil society initiatives:

Founder, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, a

non-profit institution aimed at improving the quality of public

governance by deepening democracy. Launched in December

2001, more than 100,000 citizens have participated in

Janaagrahas activities, and more than 5,000 volunteers have

given their time to support the idea.

Trustee, PROOF(Public Record Of Operations and Finance):

Conceptualised the idea of PROOF as a disclosure platformfor local governments. Currently, PROOF is in its 4th year,

being coordinated by 4 civil society institutions including

Janaagraha. PROOF has been recognised as one of successful

practices in accountability and right-to-information

mechanisms by a variety of global institutions.

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Ramesh Ramanathan followed his heart from Newyork to

Bangalore. He left a successful career heading a $100 million

business at Citibank in New York and later in London as

Managing Director and European Head of Corporate

Derivatives, returned to his hometown and started an NGO,Janaagraha.

Janaagraha is a Bangalore based not-for-profit organisation

that works with citizens and government to change the quality

of life in Indias cities and towns. The term quality of life has two separate aspects, distinct

and inter-related: the first is quality of urban infrastructure

and services: the roads, drains, traffic, transport, water

supply etc in our urban areas.

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The second aspect of quality of life is the quality of

citizenship: the role that urban residents play by participating

in civic issues, deepening democracy and holding our public

institutions accountable in delivering various goods and

services. This second aspect includes very importantly the

aspect of voluntarism.

Janaagraha seeks to change urban quality of life by improving

urban governance, and seeks to do this by applying a well-

defined framework of change that is based on a systemsapproach.

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An apt metaphor would be that of a TREE- the roots are

democracy, the trunk is the systems approach, and the fruits

are a better quality of life. What nurtures this tree in a

democracy is citizenship.

Founded in 2001 by Ramesh Ramanathan and Swati

Ramanathan, Janaagraha started as a movement to include

people's participation in public governance and has now

evolved into a robust institution for Citizenship and

Democracy.

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Janaagraha is a not-for-profit venture started six years ago by

Ramanathan and his wife Swati and supported by an initial

corpus of Rs 2.5 crore from the couple.

This model combines the roles of a think-tank, capacity-building organisation and a grassroots movement, which in

most cities are split into separate organisations that struggle to

coordinate efforts.

For this reason, Janaagraha can consistently deliver practical

proposals and results, drawing on the best of urban practice

around the world and adapting it to uniquely local challenges.

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The urban development field is burdened by dominant logics,

lingering ideologies, competing strategies and professional

biases. Janaagraha aims to generate fresh solutions through a

truly inter-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach, and it

promotes its solutions boldly with a spirit of entrepreneurship.

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Expand the reach and scope of Janaagraha from just Bangalore

to other metros that are going through similar growth pangs.

Grow the 20-strong team at Janaagraha and push others(besides the Ramanathans) to the forefront of this growth

Make Janaagrahas initiatives measureable and repeatable

across localities and eventually cities

With 600 million people expected to live in urban India by2030, hasten the pace of urban reform to meet the expected

rush

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