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Meet PM’s change agents-Amit Gupta

 Twenty-two newbie managers, fresh from B-schools across India, are raring to go. Only, they won’t make spreadsheets to sell soaps or fizzy drinks. From June, they will assist senior bureaucrats across 11 districts of Jharkhand where the Centre is funding uplift schemes.

These managers — from IIT-Kharagpur, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)-Mumbai, Visva-Bharti in Bengal’s Santiniketan, XISS-Ranchi, XLRI-Jamshedpur and others — are Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellows in some of Jharkhand’s worst rebel pockets.

Now getting trained at State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD), Ranchi, the first batch of Manmohan Singh’s change-agents in Jharkhand realise they have quite a task on their hands. But they already have some strategies in place.

Rajeev Ranjan of IIT-Kharagpur, bound for East Singhbhum, is banking on optimism, while Akshay Kashyap of TISS-Mumbai, who will work in rebel hotbed Palamau, wants to “plug” gaps between intent and implementation of schemes.

Sweta from XISS and XLRI, who will go to Ramgarh, wants to know ground realities. TISS alumnus Shila Matang, who will go to Khunti, wants to build trust.

But at a starting “salary” of Rs 50,000 a month (it will jump to Rs 75,000 two months later), all the 22 managers promise to be the bridge between the villagers and the administration.

In all, the Centre’s Integrated Action Plan (IAP) runs in 17 districts of the state. According to the fellowship programme worked out by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union minister Jairam Ramesh, each such district will have two fellow volunteers to help respective deputy commissioners.

For now, Jharkhand has roped in 22 fellows for Khunti, East Singhbhum, Ranchi, Palamau, Bokaro, Lohardaga, Hazaribagh, Ramgarh, Seraikela-Kharsawan, Gumla and Koderma. The two-year job is extendable by another year.

Managers normally do a SWOT analysis — strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats — of a project. These managers, who have all worked before, hope their previous stints will help steer the government project often waylaid by lethargy and graft.

Rajeev, an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus of the Class of 2007, has worked for Jharkhand Tribal Development Society (JTDS), PRADAN and Gram Vikas Trust.

Dehradun resident Akshay, who will go to Palamau district, said he did his masters in social work from TISS-Mumbai and worked in Bangalore. “I have worked for BASIX Consultancy in Bangalore related to livelihood promotion,” he said.

Jamshedpur girl Nilanjana Moitra, a postgraduate in social work from Visva-Bharti’s Class of 2010, will work in Ranchi district. She has worked with Udyogini, a New Delhi-based NGO to promote women’s entrepreneurship. “The experience will help me,” she said.

Deoghar girl Sweta, a PGDM from XISS-Ranchi and a postgraduate in entrepreneurship management from XLRI-Jamshedpur, will head for Ramgarh. “I have worked with Capart and Tata Steel’s corporate social responsibility wing. I know some ground realities,” said the girl whose parents — father is a doctor and mother is a teacher — are Jharkhand government employees.

“I have worked for Caritas India and National AIDS Control Organisation,” Shila Matang from Gujarat said, adding she is not scared of unfamiliar terrain.

R.P. Singh, SIRD director and an Indian Forest Service (1981) officer, is happy with their enthusiasm. “These 22 fellows are eager to bring about a change in the system,” he said.

Among their trainers are IPS Anurag Gupta (human rights, trafficking and role of policing in development), official on special duty to Governor and tribal expert Prakash Oraon (Jharkhand’s tribes and culture), development economist Ramesh Sharan (state’s economic scenario) and senior IAS Sudhir Prasad (convergence of government programmes).