| Jaya Prakash Narayana | |
| Office: | President, Loksatta Party |
| Term Start: | 2 October 2006 |
| Known For: | Lok Satta Party, political commentary |
| Office2: | Member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly |
| Constituency2: | Kukatpally, Hyderabad |
| Term Start2: | 2009 |
| Term End2: | 2014 |
| Office3: | District Collector of East Godavari |
| Term Start3: | 1989 |
| Term End3: | 1990 |
| Office4: | District Collector of Prakasam |
| Term Start4: | 1986 |
| Term End4: | 1989 |
| Birth Date: | 14 January 1956 |
| Birth Place: | Nagbhir, Bombay State, India |
| Spouse: | Radha |
| Children: | 2 |
Jaya Prakash Narayana (born 14 January 1956) is an Indian liberal politician, activist and a former public administrator.[1] He is the founder and president of Lok Satta Party. He served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from Kukatpally constituency of Andhra Pradesh in India.[2]
He is a physician by training. He served as an officer of the Indian Administrative Service from 1980 to 1996, later took voluntary resingation from the service and started the Loksatta Movement, which had been instrumental in bringing several important national reforms. He is also the founder and General Secretary of Foundation for Democratic Reforms(NGO), an independent public-policy think-tank and research-resource centre.[3]
Narayana is also a political reformer and columnist. He is well known for his role in electoral reforms and the Right to Information (RTI) act. He has also written columns in Indian newspapers, such as Times of India, The Economic Times, Financial Express, The Hindu and Eenadu, and hosted television shows covering elections and politics such as "Pratidhwani", and also acts as a mentor to Vision India Foundation.[4]
Jayaprakash Narayan was born on 14 January 1956, in Naghbir, Maharashtra into a Telugu speaking family, and was raised in Godavarru Village from the age of 3, near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, and pursued his education in Telugu Medium. Then after the age of 7, he along with his parents moved to another village, Vemanda near Indupally, Krishna District. He joined Andhra Loyola College in 1969 for his intermediate education. He obtained his medical degree from Guntur Medical College.
Narayana joined public administration after making it to IAS in 1980 standing All India Rank 4. He worked on agriculture, irrigation, technology, and youth rehabilitation projects in various capacities and in various districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Some of his achievements during his 16-year-long career in government include:[5]
He also has several major policy initiatives to his credit.
Narayana's experience in the government convinced him that the faulty governance process is the biggest hurdle in India’s path of progress and Indians achieving greater success. What India needs today is a fundamental change in the rules of the game and not a periodic change of players. In order to translate his vision into practical reality, he resigned from the I.A.S in 1996 so that he could work on the grassroots movement for good governance.[6] [7] Narayan talked about the efficacy of reforms in the governance and Economy of Andhra Pradesh among several other issues on various platforms in educational and political institutes. He emphasizes that democracy is for the people, of the people and by the people.
Narayana has served on the following panels:
Narayana is the founder member of Foundation for Democratic Reforms (FDR) and currently serves as its general secretary. FDR is one of India's leading think-tanks and research-resource centers for formulating and promoting fundamental reforms in political, electoral and governance spheres and in critical areas of state policy.
Narayana is Adviser of India's Future Foundation, A free market educational foundation that promotes ideas those inspire by Swatantra party and its founders such as individual liberty, a market economy, limited government.
He has spoken at multiple events of Indias Future Foundation on economic development and wealth creation and good governance.[8]
Narayana is Adviser of Youth Parliament Program (YPP), Youth Parliament is an ideal platform for socially conscious youth to express their Views, Ideas and to act as a change agent in National building process.
See main article: Lok Satta Movement. Narayana started the Lok Satta Movement in 1996 to educate the citizens of India about voting, rights and government. Lok Satta, a non-partisan movement for democratic reforms in India, worked on various activities[5] like election reforms, police reforms, right to information act and voter registration procedures. The movement initially started in Andhra Pradesh and later spread across the country, including Mumbai and the Vote JUHU campaigns.[9]
Lok Satta has emerged as India’s leading civil society initiative for governance reforms and is at the forefront of key initiatives like disclosure of candidate wealth and criminal history details, political funding reform, decriminalization of politics, improvement of electoral registration, comprehensive judicial reforms including local courts and national judicial commission and citizen's charters.
Lok Satta movement has also been the driving force in achieving the following governance reforms in recent years, among others:
Narayana started the Lok Satta party on 2 October 2006 with clean politics, good governance and improvement of India as the main goals. When he launched the party, he stated that this party aimed to enrich the political scenario in India with its true spirit. He felt that it could be considered as an alternative to any other political party, since it aimed to create a true and faithful political picture in India without involving illegitimate money, liquor, and caste in elections.
In 2008, the Lok Satta Party ran in the Assembly by-elections for the first time, and was able to secure second place in two of the four places (Khiratabad, Terlam) it contested seats.[10]
Narayana is one of the vocal leaders in assembly proceedings. Some of the major contributions to Andhra Pradesh 13th assembly are:
Narayan has been felicitated with several laurels. These include:
Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan has served on several national panels. Notable among them are: