Harvard Grad Leaves The Employment In The World Bank

In July 2012, Rwitwika Bhattacharya's contract with the World Bank came to an end.

For the postgraduate course at the prestigious Harvard Kennedy School, the choice was between corporate consulting and starting his public policy company in India.

In the six months since he finished with the World Bank and joined Accenture, the Swaniti Initiative, a social enterprise, began working with politicians and elected representatives to offer development solutions throughout the country.

So far, this data-driven public policy company has worked with parliamentarians and state and district administrations to positively impact the lives of 50 lakh of common Indians.

BJP Deputy Jayant Sinha and Congress Deputy Shashi Tharoor at the launch of Rwitwika Bhattacharya's book "What a politician does". (Source: Facebook / Manu S)

"My experience at the World Bank was excellent, but I wanted to do more. My father, Ranjan Bhattacharya, was active in politics, so I grew up seeing and meeting the parliamentarians. Therefore, it made sense to reach them. I wanted to see how they were, what the development looked like in their constituency, "says Rwitwika, speaking with The Better India.

Although parliamentarians do not implement schemes in the field, they have two things that work for them.

One is that they are closely related to the community. Therefore, if you need to carry out an intervention related to sustainable development at the community level, you should go to the MP office. Second, if you want to push a bureaucrat in a particular direction, his influence helps.

Swaniti works very closely with parliamentarians through its Fraternity of Support for Parliamentarians in Analysis and Research in the Constituent Body (SPARC) in sectors such as agriculture, education, livelihoods, renewable energy, social welfare, water, health and nutrition.

Today, the Swaniti Initiative extends to state and district governments.

Problem Statement

At the core of what the Swaniti Initiative does is to work with government systems to improve public services.

Take the Construction and Other Construction Workers Act (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service), 1996, and the Social Welfare Act of BOCW, 1996.

These two promises access to social benefits such as life insurance, health insurance and basic housing for workers in the construction industry. However, according to the Ministry of Labor, in the 22 years since this law was passed, governments have managed to spend only 35% of the corpus, resulting in almost 28,000 million rupees unused.

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://www.thebetterindia.com/179292/lok-sabha-elections-swaniti-initiative-harvard-india/amp/