[Reader-list] Invitation to a Lecture by Mani Shankar Aiyar at CSDS on 11 January 2013, 4 pm

[Praveen Rai]

*Centre for the Study of Developing Societies*
Publics and Policies Programme
invites you to a lecture


*Devolution for Democracy and Development*
by* **Mani Shankar Aiyar*
**
***Shail Mayaram* will Chair


Friday, 11 January 2013, 4 pm


CSDS Seminar Hall,


29, Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054


Please join us for tea at 3.30 pm





The inclusion of panchayats in participatory governance is the unfinished
work of India’s democracy. The initiative to make Panchayat Raj the very
foundation of democracy had the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi but it was
resisted by noted jurist and Chairman of the Constitution drafting
Committee Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, who believed that the villages were “the
ruination of India.” The issues of devolution of power today are
intertwined with those of inclusion and exclusion of the poor and peoples’
participation in determining their destinies.


Mani Shankar Aiyar is an Honorary Fellow, Trinity Hall, University of
Cambridge, and a former Minister of Panchayati Raj in the Manmohan Singh led
Congress Government from 2004 to 2009. The diplomat-turned-politician is
also an author, a public intellectual and a Member of Parliament.

*Season's Greetings and Best Wishes for the New Year 2013.*

Praveen Rai
Academic Secretary
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29, Rajpur Road
Delhi - 110054
Phone: 91-11-23942199
Fax: 91-11-23943450
www.csds.in