Jaya Prakash Narayana Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Jaya Prakash Narayana

 

• Jaya Prakash Narayana belongs to a Telugu-speaking family in Naghbir, Maharashtra. At the age of 3, he moved to Godavarru Village near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, where he lived with his maternal aunt.

• At the age of 7, he moved along with his parents to Vemanda village in Andhra Pradesh.

• While serving as the Joint Collector, he generated employment for 8,000 youth from displaced families of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.
  

  Jaya Prakash Narayana (extreme right) with his colleagues

• He has led various projects while working as an Indian Administrative officer including the reconstruction of drainage and irrigation systems in Krishna, Prakasam, and Godavari deltas, motivating farmers to take up irrigation schemes to bring a record two lakh acres under irrigation, and strengthening the credit cooperatives by making them independent of government control.

• He has also served as the Secretary for Governor Krishna Kant and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N.T. Rama Rao.

• According to him, while working for the Indian government as an IAS officer, he realised that the faulty governance process was the major reason for the country’s improvement and decided to resign from the Indian Administrative Services.

• In 1996, he resigned from the Indian Administration Service to work on the grassroots movement for good governance. In the same year, he started the non-partisan movement titled the Lok Satta Movement for democratic reforms in India.

• The Lok Satta Movement started in Andhra Pradesh and later spread to different parts of the country including Mumbai. During the Lok Satta Movements, there were many reforms including election reforms, police reforms, the Right to Information Act, and voter registration procedures.
  

  Jay Prakash Narayan (extreme right) with party’s Mumbai youth wing head Ruben and other members in Mumbai

• In 1996, he founded the non-profit, nonpartisan, and independent research institution The Foundation for Democratic Reforms and began serving as its General Secretary.

• In 2004, he became a Member of the National Advisory Council and remained till August 2006. In November 2004, he also became a Member of the Vigilance Advisory Council and remained until February 2008.

• In September 2005, he became a Member of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission and remained till August 2007.

• Jayaprakash has led the initiation of various policies including Economic reforms and the restructuring of Andhra Pradesh, the development of the Infocity HITEC City (Hyderabad Information Technology Engineering Consultancy City) in Hyderabad to facilitate the growth of the software industry, and the Empowerment of local governments and stakeholders.

• He has also served as the founder member of the Foundation for Democratic Reforms and an Adviser to the Youth Parliament Program.

• In November 2022, he addressed various people at the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) 15th Quarterly Lecture in Kochi on the topic ‘Governance and Politics – Need for a New Paradigm.’
  

  Dr Jayaprakash Narayan delivering CPPR 15th Quarterly Lecture in Kochi

• According to Jaya Prakash Narayana, although he is agnostic, he follows many principles and philosophies of Buddhism.

• He has also written columns for various Indian newspapers including The Times of India, The Economic Times, Financial Express, and The Hindu.