Dear Friends,

India’s 65th year of Independence marks several important milestones for CCS. First, we celebrate 15 years of research and advocacy to bring critical social change through public policy reforms. Second, our School Choice Campaign enters its fifth year of advocating for parental empowerment and efficient public education spending. Third, after a decade of championing livelihood freedom for the poor, the Jeevika Campaign has encouraged implementation of the Street Vendors Bill in both Rajasthan and Bihar, protecting them from unnecessary legal charges and eviction. Last but not least, this year also marks the centennial year of Milton ‘Freedman’s birth whose call for choice and competition in education led to India’s first school voucher project.

In the first week of June, we escaped for a three-day retreat to reflect on our work, the importance of these milestones and organisational pursuits. Team-building exercises organised by Dr. Cherian Joseph helped connect our individual aspirations to the CCS mission. These exercises helped us understand each other’s motivations and brought us closer as we aspire to achieve our organisational vision and objective—bringing community and market-based solutions to advance equality of opportunity and freedom for all Indians.

These reflections came at the right time. The past 15 years have been a process of discovery and I cannot envision myself doing anything different—fighting any different cause for any different purpose. To celebrate our milestones to date and this extraordinary journey, we will get together with our trustful friends, loyal supporters and freedom champions on 16 August to pledge and toast to India’s Second Freedom Movement. We would love for you to join us and advance our efforts for social change through public policy.

In celebration of the centennial birth of Milton Friedman, we are organising twin events promoting freedom in Delhi and Pune on 31 July. Delhi will be painted with diverse colours of freedom by our voucher girls in School Voucher for Girls (SVG) pilot project. In Pune, the Freedom Caravan would tour the monuments that bear tribute to the struggles for freedom in its various dimensions—political, personal, social, economic, and intellectual.

In our 15th year, to expand our impact to ensure each child has access and opportunity to quality education, to bring livelihood freedom to the millions struggling under the weight of the licence raj, and inform future leaders on the vital need to liberalise public policy, we are making a commitment to raise USD 5 million over the next three years. Help us achieve this target by pledging your support. Here’s cheering for the Second Freedom Movement!

In liberty,

Parth J Shah
President, Centre for Civil Society

School Choice Campaign

NISA: 45 association delegates representing over 11 states and 5,000 budget private schools attended a two-day workshop in Delhi, 13 June – 14 June. Delegates were introduced to low-cost teaching techniques and committed the next six months to establishing their formal organisational structure and conducting two state-led workshops. Workshops will introduce new membership opportunities and offer best practices in education management and teaching methods to enhance student performance and institutional management.

School Vouchers for Girls (SVG): The 2011-12 assessment surveys for the SVG pilot project are in their final stages. Distribution of vouchers for the 2012-13 academic sessions is scheduled to take place in July. The SVG is a research project that aims at comprehensively evaluating and comparing the changes in learning outcomes for the treatment and control groups.

Coming Up:

• School Choice National Conference (SCNC): Delivering Education: From Policy to Practice. Scheduled for 4 December 2012 at The Theatre, India Habitat Centre, Delhi, India. For more information on the events of SCNC this past year, check out some of the moments captured here.
• We will have Dr. Jane Hofmeyr, a Senior CCS Fellow and Executive Director of the Independent School Association of South Africa, join us later in the year to contribute to NISA developments and help with the School Choice Campaign.

Jeevika: Law, Liberty and Livelihood Campaign

Rajasthan Urban Street Vendors Act 2011 Now Effective: The 2011 bill passed by the Rajasthan Assembly for the Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vendors was officially put into effect 1 April 2012. Doing so, the state will officially recognise the contribution of street vendors in the economy and society. Guidelines for implementation of the Act are yet to be listed. For more information, click here.

Jeevika Collaborates with JMC for Street Vendors: Earlier in May, Jeevika made a detailed presentation to the Supreme Court Empowered Committee to share how street vendors can be accommodated at the same place where they were vending without risk of eviction. The members of the empowered committee liked the idea and asked the JMC to work collaboratively with CCS to ensure implementation of the Rajasthan Street Vendor Act 2011.

Leaders Quest in Jaipur: 11 Bain & Co business leaders representing over eight countries visited the Jeevika Campaign office in Jaipur on 23 April 2012 to learn about policy implications and livelihoods. Interactions with Amit Chandra, Campaign Coordinator for Jeevika and field visits to vendor markets gave insight on the informal economy, the nature of policy implementation and trials and tribulations of the street vendors. For more, click here.

Coming Up:

• Study on artisan in Bihar is currently underway to understand their barriers to livelihood.
• Study on cycle rickshaw pullers in Jaipur is currently being conducted to collect empirical data on licensing and registration implications to loss of income and market access

Academy

Visiting Senior CCS Fellow: Chris Lingle, a visiting Professor of Economics at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala, joined us earlier in the summer to provide research support and talks on economic freedom and market regulation. His talks provided attendees (students and journalists) insights on the trends of economic reform and policy-making in India. Watch his talks on Democracy: The God that Failed, and Policy Failures and the Financial Crisis, taken place at CCS Head Office.

ìpolicy for Journalists: 22 journalists attended a three day residential course (24 May  –  26 May) to learn key principles for effective public policy and develop an analytical edge to their writing. Interactive role plays and dialogues taught the critical role of both conventional and new media in influencing policy reform and provided insight in identifying harmful and counter-effective policy measures. Participants later expressed keen interest in revisiting ìpolicy and covering the Jeevika Festival in late August.

ìpolicy for Young Leaders: 37 college students and graduates participated in a four-day residential course (6 June – 9 June) to better understand liberal philosophy and the fundamentals of political economy and public policy. Dynamic group sessions and games provided the participants a platform to develop and share community and market-based solutions on issues such as over-fishing, congestion, trade and agriculture property rights.

ìpolicy for Development Leaders: 23 participants from 17 development organisations across India attended a three-day residential course (29 June – 1 July 2012) on how public policy affects civil society. Group work to develop advocacy plans for three important topics—developing a law for the governance of political parties, financial inclusion and land holding—has in turn resulted in a collective effort to advocate implementation of the policy reforms designed at ìpolicy at the national level.

Researching Reality Internship: 23 student leaders were recently selected from 300 applicants to participate in our six week summer internship program (10 June – 20 July 2012). The Internship is being coordinated by Dr. Nimish Adhia, a Researching Reality Graduate and Assistant Professor of Economics in New York. Students are learning the application of social and economic principles and gaining skills of research, analysis and critical thinking. To view the reports and studies from past internships, click here.

Coming Up:

• The Environment: Tragedy of the Collective publication as part of the Liberty & Society Series (LSS) will review environmental policy and propose how local community ownership and responsibility with privatisation can be sustainable solutions to prevalent environmental problems.
• CCS will be re-publishing the LSS on Education Policy: Choice and Competition. This publication will review the common myths on education and school choice and propose four reform solutions for an effective education system that brings quality and affordability through competition and efficient use of public funds.

Asia Centre for Enterprise (ACE)

Summer School: Public Policy Research Methods: ACE in partnership with Centre for Public Policy Research organised the first training program on Public Policy Research Methods in Cochin, Kerala, India from 30 April – 25 May 2012. Nine public policy researchers representing five think tanks from Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Lithuania, Nepal and India were apprised of new-age skills and groundbreaking practices of conducting research. Read More.

New faces at CCS

	Adarsh Sharma: Senior Coordinator, Development Adarsh is marketing and digital strategist and comes with copywriting experience. One of his first contributions to CCS has been the coining of 'School Choice Champions' to refer to individual donors for the campaign. At CCS, Adarsh will focus on building our retail fundraising strategy and provide strategic guidance for the marketing of programs.
	Akshika Bansal: Associate, Research Akshika has received a Masters in Economics from the Gokhale Institute in Pune where she wrote her thesis on the Effectiveness of Voucher system in the education sector. At CCS, Akshika will help on research projects on School Choice.
	Daphne Vallado: Associate, Programs (Marketing) Daphne holds a Bachelor’s of Commerce (Honors) from Jesus and Mary. At CCS, Daphne will provide publicity support to increase the outreach and brand visibility of the Academy, especially our ìpolicy courses.
	Karmanye Thadani: Associate, Research Karmanye has received a Bachelor’s of Honors in Law from Gujarat National Law University (GNLU). He has interned with many groups in India include CCS, CRY, AADI, Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, the National Human Rights Commission and High Court Judge. At CCS, Karmanye will help research legal and legislative aspects of our campaigns.
	Sudershan Singh: Associate, Research Sudershan holds a Masters in Economics from the Gokhale Institute in Pune. He comes with research experience as he recently interned with NCAER in Delhi and worked on the India Human Development Survey including drafting questionnaires and conducting field studies. At CCS, Sudershan will be part of the research team and will do cross issue research.
	Abhishek Bhattacharya: Associate, Advocacy Abhishek is an engineer by training and a graduate from the LAMP Fellowship conducted by PRS Legislative Research. During his Fellowship, he worked for a year with Dr. P.L. Punia (MP & Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Castes) and on parliamentary questions/bill debates while leading CSR related activities in the MP’s constituency. At CCS, Abhishek works on advocating for school choice with political leaders and government officials.
	Abir Joshi: Associate, Advocacy Abir has received his Bachelor’s in Government and International Relations and a minor in Economics from Clark University where his research and writing focused on transnational judicial globalisation and democratic accountability. He previously worked as a Legislative Assistant in the parliamentary office of Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar, MP, providing customised research support to strengthen his legislative agenda. At CCS, Abir works on advocating for School Choice with political leaders and government officials.

13 - 15 July 2012

A two-day residential course for journalists to uncover the root causes of social problems and unseen consequences of government policies in the areas of education, livelihoods for the poor and good governance. The course equips journalists with analytical tools for providing a sharp, competitive edge in delivering unconventional angles and story ideas.

9 - 12 August 2012

A four-day residential course in liberal philosophy and its application to public policy. The course provides students with tools to understand the political economy of current policy issues in areas such as school choice, livelihood freedom for the poor and good governance.

31 August - 2 September 2012

A three-day residential course for filmmakers that aims to provide a clear understanding of current barriers to livelihood for the economically weaker and identify new advocacy means to advance the freedom struggle of the poor. This program is being carried out in conjunction with the Jeevika Asia Livelihood Documentary Festival.

Jeevika - Documentary Film Festival

31 August-2 September 2012

Creating awareness on public policy measures to clear the path for free enterprise. Film-makers bring light to policies and social, religious and cultural practices which prevent people from earning an honest living and pursuing their individual happiness. Are you a film-maker fighting for Livelihood Freedom for the Poor?
Apply now!

Help CCS Win the Milton Friedman Video Contest!

CCS is participating in a video contest to pay tribute to Milton Friedman’s centennial year, marked 31 July 2012. View our YouTube video to see how his ideas on choice and freedom have inspired our work for India’s only School Choice Campaign. Help CCS further the School Choice and watch the video now!

15 Years of CCS for social change through public policy will be celebrated on16 August 2012. For more information, contact ccs@ccs.in.

• Manoj Mathew, Jeevika Festival Director, quoted in, Living a dream called America, Times of India, 3 July 2012

• R.C. Jain, NISA National Coordinator and Shantanu Gupta, School Choice Advocacy Coordinator on NISA Two-Day Training, The Indian Express, 14 June 2012

• NISA association members argue Govt plays vote bank politics under guise of RTE reservations, Deccan Herald, 14 June 2012

• Christopher Lingle interview, “Citizen, not parliament, is supreme in true democracy”, Governance Now, 23 May 2012

• ìpolicy course for young leaders and development professionals was publicised in The Hindu, Beyond Headlines and India Education.

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