Karnataka picks 11 private sector executives for administration fellowship

A venture capitalist, a quizmaster and a neuroscientist are among the 11 private sector professionals who have been selected for the state government’s Indian Administrative Fellowship (IAF) programme.

Karnataka is the first state to accept the IAF, which is being anchored by Bengaluru-headquartered nonprofit The/Nudge Foundation.

These 11 fellows will spend 18 months rubbing shoulders with senior bureaucrats and policymakers to work on projects in the areas of sustainable development goals (SDG), agriculture, rural development, e-Governance and so on.

The fellowship will start July 1. The 18-month fellowship will offer a stipend of up to Rs 20 lakh per annum.

“The fellows have held leadership positions in some of the world's most admired organisations and have academic credentials from Stanford, Harvard, IIMs and Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and more,” Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said in a note.

There were more than 2,000 applicants from across India for the IAF and they were selected “through a rigorous selection process,” the government said in a statement.

The fellows and their assignments are: Venture capitalist Ravi Trivedi (agriculture); consumer neuroscientist Dr Gayathri Swahar (horticulture & sericulture); quizmaster Giri Balasubramaniam (education); Fidelity Investments CFO R Balasubramanya (Karnataka Administrative Reforms Committee - II); former Jubilant Motorworks CEO Rohit Malhotra (rural development); technologist Vani Narayan (e-Governance); IT evangelist Sreenivasa Madenhally (planning, programme monitoring & statistics); entrepreneur Ramachandran Narayanaswamy (woman & child development); entrepreneur Aruna Sampige (skill development, entrepreneurship & livelihood); Bosch finance head Sunil Kumar Vaya (State Planning Commission), and environmental economist Shobha Ananda Reddy (panchayat raj).