Dr. Jayaprakrash Narayan
Founder-General Secretary, FDR
Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan is a physician by training who joined the Indian Administrative Service in the aftermath of the Emergency and failure of the Janata experiment. He had a tremendously successful tenure spanning 16 years and held many important positions in the government of erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh.
Some of his major accomplishments while in government were:
- As Joint Collector and Special Officer, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, he created full and permanent employment for 8,000 youth from displaced families of the Plant.
- As Collector of Prakasam District, he was instrumental in irrigating a record 2,00,000 acres of land, the largest such program, with direct participation of people.
- As Collector of East Godavari District, he spearheaded the reconstruction of drainage and irrigation networks in Krishna and Godavari deltas.
- As Managing Director of Andhra Pradesh State Cooperative Bank (APCOB), he worked towards strengthening credit cooperatives and ensuring their autonomy from government control.
His accomplishments as a civil servant also include several major policy initiatives, notably:
- Empowerment of parents in schools
- Speedy justice through rural courts
- Economic reform and restructuring of the erstwhile AP
- Development of the Infocity in Hyderabad
- The much acclaimed Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies law for self-reliant cooperatives in the erstwhile AP (1995)
- Empowerment of local governments and stakeholders
Dr. Narayan’s experience in government convinced him that faulty governance process was the biggest hurdle to India’s transformation and what is required is a fundamental change in the rules of the game and not a periodic change of players. He left the civil services in 1996 and with like minded colleagues founded the Foundation for Democratic Reforms (FDR) and Lok Satta – a people’s movement for governance and political reforms. Since then Foundation for Democratic Reforms (FDR) and Lok Satta have emerged as the leading civil society initiatives for governance reforms.
Together, they have been the driving force in achieving major governance reforms such as limiting the size of Council of Ministers (91st Constitutional Amendment, 2003), Electoral Funding Law (2003), disclosure of criminal antecedents of electoral candidates (2003), enactment of notable legislations such as Right to Information Act, 2005, Gram Nyayalaya Act, 2008, and the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, according constitutional protection to cooperative societies (97th Constitutional Amendment, 2011), democratising the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary ( 99th Constitutional Amendment, 2014).
Dr Jayaprakash Narayan has served on several national panels. Notable among them are:
- National Advisory Council (NAC), 2004 – 2006
- Vigilance Advisory Council, 2004 – 2008
- Second Administrative Reforms Commission, 2005 – 2007
- National Rural Health Mission of India Task Force, 2005 to 2007
- Sardar Sarovar Project Relief and Rehabilitation Oversight Group (Shunglu Committee), 2006
Defining the objective of politics as nothing but reconciling individual goals with public good, and short-term gains with long-term well-being, it is his strong conviction that politics is a noble endeavour. He forayed into electoral politics to provide genuine alternatives to voters. He was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of (the erstwhile) Andhra Pradesh from the Kukatpally constituency in Hyderabad for the 2009-2014 term.
He is currently the General Secretary of FDR, working towards several systemic governance and political reforms, informed by his uniquely diverse experience in Indian governance of being a civil servant, a social movement leader as well as a politician. Dr. Narayan has been actively pursuing reforms in critical areas such as education, healthcare, electoral and political system, police and judiciary, safeguarding public finances and empowerment of local governments.
