Swatantrata Center, an Indian-based liberal think-tank, focuses on Ideas and Policies that cause Human Flourishing. Swatantrata envisions building a peaceful and prosperous society where every individual has a choice and opportunity to lead a decent life with dignity. The organization strives to achieve its goals and advance ideas of liberty through Policy Education, Digital Activism, and Grassroot Advocacy. Swatantrata Center works with young leaders interested in Economic Reforms and Good Governance through research and advocacy.
The organization works with other aligned organizations and development and policy practitioners to advance fields such as Education, Agriculture, Livelihoods, Social Entrepreneurship, and Governance in India. Swatantrata Strive to advance ideas and policies that cause human flourishing through policy education, Digital activism, and Grassroot Advocacy.
Swatantrata Center takes its roots from the Indian Liberal Movement, owes its name to the Swatantrata and its leaders. They felt that they could achieve welfare by giving maximum freedom to individuals with minimum state intervention.
The Conventional Approaches aren’t simply sufficient to the daunting problems that the world faces today, hence Swatantrata Center believes that advancing individual freedom with minimum State Intervention can help build a peaceful and prosperous society where every individual has a choice and opportunity to lead a life with dignity.
The organization upholds the principles of Individual Liberty, Property Rights, and Limited Government. The organization’s values emphasize individuals’ freedom of choice irrespective of culture, religion, or gender. Swatantrata Centre aims to promote a just society by maximizing political and economic freedom by bridging policy and action.
The idea of setting up this liberal, public policy think-tank was born out of the curious mind of well-known Indian liberal activist Venkatesh Geriti, later joined by Raghavendar Modala and Satya Bhargav Nekkanti as Co-Founders. Currently, the organization board consists of Venkatesh Geriti, Raghavendar Modala, Satya Bhargav Nekkanti, Sougandhi Bogupally, Mohammad Anas Khan, Ranjith Kumar Duguntla, and Kiran Reddy are Directors.
In a brief period of inception of Swatantrata Centre, it has hosted several events such as Policy Meetups, Policy Conclaves, and Youth Parliament Programs. Swantantra’s flagship events Leadership Bootcamp and Swatantrata Yatra, received immense support from liberal intellectuals and Educational Institutions and were highly successful in spreading the idea of liberty.
During Pandemic Lockdown, Swatantrata Center kept intact with young leaders across the globe, educating them on policy practices and development ideas. The organization achieved the objective by hosting E-Policy Conclaves and celebrating the #SWACON Swatantrata Annual Conference, the largest online gathering discussing liberty and policy practices ideas.
Swatantrata Center Policy Meetups:
Swatantrata Center Initiated with the concept of Policy Meetup, an informal discussion platform for young people interested in policy reforms and themes of Swatantrata such as Education, Agricultural Reforms, Livelihoods, Decentralisation, and Liberal Democracy.
These policy meet-ups are aimed to improve understanding of public policy as a tool to change society and a greater understanding of various existing policies and Swatantrata solutions. Swatantrata organized the first Swatantrata policy meet-up on the National street vending policy and its implementation.
The Swatantrata team led by the co-founder of Swatantrata, Raghavendar Modala, discussed with Mahabubnagar collector Ronald Rose (IAS) on the street vending act and its implementation at the district level and city level.
Swatantrata Center Policy Conclave:
In January, Swatantrata Center organized its first successful Policy Conclave to address Significant Economic Slowdown in India on 3rd January 2020 in Hyderabad, Vnrvjiet with Sriram Karri, Nalamotu Chakravarthy, Raghavendar Modala.
The objective of the conclave has been to reinvigorate the reforms to boost inclusive and sustainable growth. The conclave devised an action plan on liberal grounds to address the issue. The conclave was not meant to be a single event. Still, a series of such discussions have been planned to pave the way for the students, entrepreneurs, development practitioners, and academicians to rethink the current context in a liberal setup.
The Solution-oriented conclave has aimed at devising an action plan to address the issue of Significant Economic Slowdown in India. Swatantrata Policy Conclave (SPC) brought together expert speakers, thought leaders from multilateral organizations, civil society organizations, and the private sector to discuss a wide range of policy issues that contribute to Slow Economic Development. SPC provided a unique platform that helped to nurture young leaders to work on various policies that catalyze to transform real-world challenges.
SWATANTRATA YATRA
Working Globally and Living Locally, the Swatantrata team stepped forward to go the extra mile to connect the people across the country, not just in the ways of meeting and greeting but discovering the passion of liberty and free markets. Swatantrata Yatra started with a Campaign for Responsible Spending, Free Enterprise, and Decentralization. The Yatra took place in February and March.
The Swatantrata team launched the Yatra by visiting Rajaji Memorial House, Hosur, and later touring across 4 Indian States Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, reaching out to 3000+ people. The Yatra received tremendous support from various institutions like IIT Madras, Reva University Bangalore, Padmavathi University Tirupati, Aadhisankara Institute, Gudur, and VNRVJIET, Hyderabad.
The mission of the Yatra was to connect young leaders with the libertarians and leading policymakers to co-learn various aspects, try to understand the policies of different states, and strive to reinvigorate the reforms to boost inclusive and sustainable growth.
Swatantrata Yatra hosted several speakers such as Chakravarty Nalmotu (Centre For Individual Liberty), Vipin Veetil (Assistant Professor IIT Madras), Raj Cherubal (Smart Cities CEO Chennai), and Balakrishnan Chandrasekaran.Venkatesh Geriti, Raghavendar Modala from swatantrata center.
Swatantrata Center E- Policy Conclave
In amidst the Covid19 Pandemic Lockdown, Swatantrata Center believed an urgent need to look at Covid19 in a more comprehensive and integrated manner. Hence, it hosted several e-policy discussions that brought together several policies and development practitioners and researchers to evaluate real-time problems caused due to Covid and the way forward.
In May 2020, Swatantrata hosted a series of e-policy discussions. Swatantrata had prominent speakers such as Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, Bhuvana Anand, and Dhiraj Nayyar discussing reopening and reforming India’s economy after Covid-19, Best Policy Practices in the Era of Pandemic and Covid19 Pandemic: Time for Structural Change. In collaboration with Free Private Cities by Titu Gebel, the event also discussed the Free Private Cities and Covid19 impact, which engaged several students, policy practitioners, and academicians all across the globe.
#SWACON
Swatantrata Center annual conference #SWACON has been the largest virtual liberty conference in India on Human Flourishing hosted from 4th June to 29th July 2020. It was hosted with 35+ Libertarian champions worldwide, involving world-leading Think Tanks and various leading scholars, policy, development experts, and entrepreneurs. SWANSON set the platform to discuss the ideas of Liberty, Economic Freedom, Governance and Development policies, etc.
The event paved the way in understanding the importance of liberalism and its vital necessity for human flourishing. #SWACON was hosted by Swatantrata Center in collaboration with South Asia Students for Liberty.
Youth Parliament Program:
Youth Parliament Program (YPP), an integral part of the Swatantrata Center from 2019, has created a platform for the youth to speak up and impact social change in the country. The initiative was taken forward by Raghavendra Modala, Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, Venkatesh Geriti to empower the youth and create leaders for a brighter future. YPP provided the platform for the youth to debate with policymakers and opinion-makers, and it has inspired the youth to express their views in an organized way.
It paved the way for the emergence of bright future leaders. YPP engaged youth on various aspects such as Education, Health, Electoral and Political Reforms, Judicial & Police Reforms, Local Governments & citizen-centered governance, Governance Reforms, etc.
Model Youth Parliament Program:
The Model Youth Parliament Programs (YPP) laid a bridge between youth/like-minded people working for society/socially conscious and government by providing a common platform. They fostered healthy discussions on political reforms, parliamentary activities, policymaking, education, and employment. Through this initiative, YPP has successfully acted as a catalyst in building leaders for a better society.
YPP Leadership Bootcamp:
The Leadership Boot Camp was a flagship project of the Youth Parliament Program (YPP) and Swatantrata Center in association with the Council for transforming India and 100 Smiles Foundation; supported by JD Foundation, Abhaya Foundation, and VNR VJIET. The event took place from 21st February to 23rd 2020 at VNRVJIET Institute Hyderabad, bringing together 100+ delegates across the nation and hosting 30+ policy experts from various domains such as public policy, business, and academia, non-profits, civil society movements, and media.
The Boot Camp focused on the three areas: Policy Development, Sustainable Development Goals, and Technology. Bootcamp provided the new generation with an understanding of contemporary reforms in the world and helped them grab the networking opportunities to facilitate knowledge-sharing, connections, and real-time action on these issues.
It created a platform for the youth to share knowledge, ideas, dispose of criticism, and openly speak about the crucial needs of developing countries. The Bootcamp has been a highly successful one that got together like-minded individuals and helped them identify their strengths in policy and nurture their leadership character.
For Full Report: https://yppindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/YPP-Leadership-Bootcamp-2020.pdf
Policy in Practice:
Youth Parliament Program organized an event on National Education Policy 2020. It hosted a series of virtual conversations from August to September, which involved more than fifty thousand policy enthusiasts and youngsters. The event was addressed by Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, Gurcharan Das, P Murali Manohar, Venkatesh Geriti, Sheelu Raj, Dr. Amit Chandra, Nadendla Manohar, and Shantanu Gupta.
IMPACT:
Citizen’s Charter bill / RIGHT TO SERVICE ACT:
Many ideas have been implemented to stop the practice of corruption since independence. One of the most significant steps towards achieving it was the Right to Service Act, which has been proposed by Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan in the form of a bill to the central government body through FDR (Foundation for Democratic Reforms). FDR has been conducting a series of youth parliament sessions in various colleges, reaching thousands of students under the leadership of Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan.
Through these sessions, the Youth Parliament Program team successfully collected opinions from many educated people and innovative youngsters on the Right to Service Act. The Act gained success when the Telangana government took the step for implementing it and handed the draft proposal work to Nalsar Law University. Dr. JayaPrakash Narayan, with the support of youngsters, played a crucial role in finalizing the RTS act bill, as it contains opinions and new ideas from many sections of society. Finally, Telangana implemented the Telangana & Andhra Pradesh state Public Services Delivery Guarantee Bill in 2017.
National Education Policy:
The Youth Parliament Program didn’t cease to be a learning program. The Education Policy from Youth Parliament was the first, entirely prepared by youngsters adding various needed elements about the education system, and was finally submitted to the state legislative committee, National human resource development. For the first time, youngsters were introducing the policy into parliament. The team monitoring the preparation process had taken suggestions and proposals from more than 40000 students across the country.
Agricultural Policy:
In the area of the Agricultural Policy, Youth Parliament Program organized discussions focused on finding solutions on “Agricultural Crisis & Farmer suicides” in Telugu states. It involved many agricultural NGOs and farmers. The organization submitted the grassroots organizations and farmers’ opinions to Foundation for Democratic Reforms for real-time policy solutions.
Impact on Society:
Through Youth Parliament sessions across Telangana, the organization identified, engaged, and nurtured some of the brightest minds. Swatantrata Center and Youth Parliament Programs (YPP) mentored the youngsters and helped them pursue careers in policy through internships, opportunities in Civil Society Organizations, Think Tanks, and CSR initiatives.
Swatantrata Center and YPP were successful in creating the next generation of leaders. Many of them are changing society in real-time through the Right to information act- RTI and Public interest litigation -IPL and creating Policies. YPP and Swatantrata Center also witnessed some of its members contesting elections in Telugu states.
The work of the Swatantrata Center and YPP was able to deepen Democracy and enhance community participation. The organization’s work has been a pioneer in mentoring the youngsters and building their character and competence for Nation Building. Today the alumni and members of the organization are shouldering key responsibilities in various government departments, think tanks, and Civil Society Organisations.
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