Janaagraha receives $3 mn grant from Omidyar

Bangalore: Janaagraha, a not-for-profit organization based in Bangalore, has received a grant of $3 million from philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network.

The grant, spread over three years, would be used to take Janaagraha’s citizen engagement and urban governance model that it had developed for Bangalore to other cities, Ramesh Ramanathan, founder of the non-profit body, said on Friday.

The grant will also support a national online civic-engagement platform, iJanaagraha, that will be launched on 2 October, as well as a bribe-reporting website, ipaidabribe.com, which was launched on 15 August.

The grant is Omidyar’s first government transparency grant in India and its largest outside the US in this space, said Jayant Sinha, managing director, Omidyar Network India Advisors.

Omidyar plans to invest $100-200 million in India over the next 5 years, equally divided between for-profit and non-profit firms.

deepti.c@livemint.com