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Why the need for Manthan?

The United Nations declared the year 2011-2012 as the International Year for Youth. In 2012, the Indian government drafted the National Youth Policy in 2012. Out of the 79-membered team that formulated the policy, not even one belonged to the age group that could be called young. Interestingly, youth comprises about 34% of Indian population. It is thus imperative to have their opinions incorporated in the national policy making framework to achieve the objective of inclusive governance.

However, our country lacks a credible platform through which youth can have their ideas disseminated across the political establishment. Realizing the need to fill this gap, Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), has decided to engage Indian youth in a nation-wide movement, Manthan, spread over a period of more than two months.

What is the format of Manthan?

Manthan aims to ‘churn out’ the most relevant recommendations for inclusion in the agenda of the upcoming elections. It will be held in three stages –

1) A pan-India competition with students from all across the country participating to come up with solutions to 14 most critical challenges India faces today, 2) Regional conventions at renowned university campuses across the nation, and 3) A culminating national convention at Thyagaraj Sports Complex, New Delhi on 2nd October, 2013, to be attended by about 10,000+ students from across the country and dignitaries from different walks of life and leadership from top two principal national parties.

With its extensive outreach program, Manthan will reach out to more than 10 crore people through print and electronic media, to more than 5 crore people through digital and social media, and to more than 50 thousand students through on ground engagement.

What does Manthan offer to the youth?

The winners to the competitions will get an opportunity to present their recommendations to two representatives from the leading political parties. They will also get a chace to intern with leading policymakers in the nation. CAG feels that this shall be an innovative way to make the youth a part of the agenda setting for the upcoming General Elections.

Who planned Manthan?

A not-for-profit organisation called Citizens for Accountaable Governance conceptualised Manthan. In May 2013, a bunch of young professionals from world renowned educational and professional institutions founded Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG). The thread which binds this not-for-profit organisation is the passion to facilitate the cause of accountable governance in the nation.

CAG volunteers are from diverse professional and educational backgrounds. CAG volunteers have graduated from top educational institutions such as the IITs, IIMs and other leading universities across the world. Prior to joining CAG, these volunteers have made their mark in some of the most prestigious organizations across domains like management consulting, investment banking, technology, law, public policy, social development, media, etc.

Currently, CAG comprises of 60 plus full time volunteers from different parts of India. In addition there are about 100 part time volunteers who are remotely associated with the group. CAG aims to grow steadily in the coming months and years. Prior to Manthan what did CAG do? CAG organized its first event - Young Indian Leaders Conclave (YILC) - on 29th June 2013 at Gandhinagar. The event was graced by Hon’ble Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Ex-President of India as one among the keynote speakers to discuss and deliberate extensively on “How government and business can change to provide better opportunities for the Indian youth”. The success of this event strengthened the resolve and paved way for our next public event, Manthan.

Voting process :

after the final date of online submission of slides, voting process starts for the selection of students for the final round. A total of 30 teams will be selected for the final round out of which 15 teams will selected on the basis of assessment of expert panel and 15 will be selected based on popularity index. Link for the voting process looks like this http://indiancag.org/manthan/entry/upesians .( votes are taken through facebook u can get an example from the above link.)