Summary on Arvind's Visit to TAMU

We had a very successful event here at TAMU which was split in three parts:

1. Arvind met with AID-TAMU Leaders and Other enthusiastic student leaders who wanted to have a deeper understanding of the issues.
2. Public talk was a great success against all odds. Despite of College Station being a small town and it being a weekday, the talk was attended by about 45 students and faculty. The audience was so interested that the Q&A session seemed never ending. Arvind could not show the VCD due to shortage of time.
3. Dinner Meeting was hosted by Friends of India Network, (FIN) which was attended by about 30-35 faculty at TAMU and Dr. Tito Guerrero, VP of diversity. TAMU. Everyone seemed very excited to see RTI work in India and showed their willingness to support Parivartan and RTI in various forms. Dr. Reddy, president of FIN is working with Arvind to coordinate the FIN member’s support to Arvind and Parivartan.

Mr. Arvind Kejriwal in TAMU

Institute of Pacific Asia, AID-TAMU & India Association

Present

MAGSAYSAY AWARD, Asia's greatest honor, winner for



EMERGENT LEADERSHIP

Mr. Arvind Kejriwal

Wednesday, October 25

MSC 201

5:30 pm

About Arvind Kejriwal:

Arvind Kejriwal is the eminent Indian leader and activist who was awarded the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership for his contributions to the landmark Right To Information law in India and for "activating the right to information movement at the grassroots". His work has empowered Indian citizens to fight corruption and resulted in community-lead efforts that have uncovered massive laundering of funds and corruption in various Government projects.

Arvind was an officer in the Indian civil services and was serving as Joint Commissioner in the Indian Revenue Services when he resigned to devote his time fully to fight corruption in India. He founded an Indian based citizens' movement Parivartan (in 2000) that has been fighting for just, transparent and accountable governance. He graduated from IIT Kharagpur with a B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering (in 1989). His other honors include the Ashoka Fellowship (since 2004) and the Satyendra Dubey Award from IIT Kanpur (2005).

About Right to Information (RTI):

The Right to Information Act 2005 was enacted by the Parliament of India giving Indians access to Government records. Under this Act, any citizen of India may request the Central Government, State Government or a Public Sector company for information related to their functioning. The government body is expected to comply within thirty days, failing which the officials responsible for non-compliance face financial penalties and, in persistent cases, jail terms. The RTI is being increasingly used by Indian citizens to expose corruption and misuse of funds in the government.

Useful Links

1. The RTI-Act
   
2. http://indiarti.blogspot.com/
   
3. http://www.parivartan.com/
   

Innovations AID-TAMU Inc.

I am really impressed by AID-TAMU volunteers, specially the mister-mind who saw the huge opportunity in football games as an avenue to raise funds for AID, whcih in trun helps developmental projects in India. For those who dont know: On every football, university keeps water and drinks stands for the crowd and these stands ae run by volunteers students. The deal is that the organization of the volunteers get 10% of the revenue raised. Volunteer gets to watch the game for free, and also he/she gets to keep the tip. The volunteers sell stuff to the crowd at certain intervals and, you may be amazed that often total fund raised in single football match is as high as $1000.

So who is the Hero? Every volnteers feel like Hero while retruning from the Game, specially after he donates the tips also to the cause of AID. It must be exciting to be part of such an efficient fund raiser. Imagine raisng Rs. 50,000 in India, in 60 manhours (6 hours, 1o men).

The guy who noticed this opportunity and cobverted this into a reality for AID-TAMU volunteers, commands high regards in my eyes.

I salute AID, AID-TAMU and most specially, each and every volunteers who is part of this movement.

So, next time you see Stephen's spamming emails around the orkut and egroups, remember the Good Cause for which the email is sent.

I was moved my Stephens spamming emails, today, I have decided to take part in it, and I am sure, this activism will never stop and there will be more volunteers who would be able to relate to this someday and act !!

Homarjun

Arvind Kejriwal's TAMU Visit

After few emails/calls, finally we convinced the AID-Houston and other chapters that there is genuine interest among people in TAMU to have a lecture by Arvind Kejriwal. Finally, we are having university level talk, to be hosted by Institute of Asia Pacific, TAMU and India Association with AID-TAMU, on October 25th at 5:30pm.

We hope to create more awareness about RTI among the indian community here.

This trip of Arvind, which is not complete yet, has made me much more aware of RTI than I previously was. Along with this, I became more aware of:

1. www.ashoka.org I think its a great great initiative.
2. Satyendra Dubey foundation, it reminded me of something I have known and forgotten. But this time I have learnt not to forget.
3. I am reading this very interesting book. I saw Arcind's profile, he was awarded Ashoka Fellow, so went to ashoka.org website., there i found this book. Titled "How to change the world: Social Entrepreneures and Power of new ideas" I find this a very inspiring anecdote of legendery people. I am enjoying it. It is more pleasing to see many indians listed on that book.

I hope, by this article, many people who would read this, would click the links and become 'aware'. This is good enough reward to prove my efforts in writing this blog a worthwhile effort.