It’s been a long time since we updated you all on the latest developments with Jagriti Yatra so here I am with an update.

A lot of new developments have been taking place over the last few months. The biggest news I have for you all is that we have finally opened our India office in the Prabhadevi area of Mumbai and we have appointed our project director and operations director! This is great news for us as we can now direct operations from the ground in India and meet people face to face. The project is now being directed by Gitanjali Banerjee and operationally directed by Swapnil Dixit. The office opened at the end of October and is going strong.

The second important announcement I am excited to share with you all is that we recently got our first major round of sponsorship. It’s a start but there’s still a long way to go for us. However, this kick-start has given us the ability to book the train for the journey and get our operations staff paid. We’re hot on the chase for corporate sponsorship and also courting interesting with individual donors. I can’t over emphasize enough just how important it is for us to get your support for this project as it will enable hundreds of young adults in India to realise their talents and help catapult them in to the world of bottom up, grass routes entrepreneurial thinking.

Moving on, I have the pleasure in announcing that Shashank Mani, he who was responsible for the 1997 Azad Bharat Rail Yatra in India,  and the inspiration behind the Jagriti Yatra is launching his book, India - Journey Through a Healing Civilization. The book chronicals the events leading up to the 1997 Yatra and goes in to the trials and tribulations of organising such an epic journey. There is plenty of insightful information about the importance of grass roots entrepreneurship and Shashank’s own professional views on how India must progress economically and culturally in the future if it is to grow a sustainable and diverse economy and compete on the world stage. The book is published by Harper Colins and will be launched at Waterstones, Picadilly on 1st December 2007 between 2-5pm. Come along and meet the author and purchase a signed copy of this great book.

I’m quite a keen blogger and also listen to many podcasts out there on the web. A recent one which caught my attention a few weeks ago was on the SmallBozPod, a blog and podcast dedicated to small business startups and entrepreneurs. I was reminded today about the story they ran back in October this year on Asian entrepreneurship by my colleague Ben so I thought I’d share it with you all.  The podcast talks about collaboration between Indian and British business and how the Indian entrepreneurial spirit is being seen globally today. Highly recommended so go take a listen when you have a moment.

That wraps things up for now. I promise to post more regular updates from now on and your comments are all very welcome so please don’t shy away from filling out the comments form.

Greetings, fellow bloggers. Preparations for our first round of pitches to potential funders is under way. This is a crucial time for the yatra. Our aims it to present our initial pitch documents and hold two talks to potential individual sponsors on the 14th of April at a venue in central London, followed by a second round of presentations to more individuals on the 21st of April. Our intention, during these presentations, is to talk about our vision, intent and ultimate aims. During the presentations, we will be talking about why we’re doing the yatra, when the journey will start, where the journey will go, who the people are we’re going to meet along the way and details about the Jagriti institute we hope to set up from the proceeds raised during the yatra.

If you’re an individual who wishes to contribute to positive change in the future of India’s development and are interested in finding out more about the yatra and how you can help us, then please contact us in London.