Founder, Lok Satta Party
Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan is a physician by training who went into the Indian Administrative Service in the aftermath of the Emergency and failure of the Janata Experiment. He was a topper in the IAS exam. During the 16 years of distinguished public service in various capacities, he acquired a formidable reputation in the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh. His experience in government convinced him that faulty governance process was the biggest hurdle to India and Indians achieving greater success. And what India needs today is a fundamental change in the rules of the game and not a periodic change of players. In order to translate his vision into practical reality, he resigned from Service (IAS) in 1996, and worked with like-minded colleagues for the formation of Lok Satta. Lok Satta has now emerged as India’s leading civil society initiative for governance reforms. Dr Narayan, through Foundation for Democratic Reforms, Lok Satta movement and other fora has been actively pursuing reforms in service guarantees in government offices, education, healthcare, local government empowerment, judicial and police reforms, various anti-corruption measures, and political reforms to transform governance, particularly at state and local levels.