Megaprize- an IPod

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Consider this a little bit of a fact, in the U.S. all forms of giving in charity formed 1.8 % of the GDP approx. $180 billion while in India it is 0.1-0.2 % of GDP.

They have Rockfellers, Carnegie , Bill Gates and we have TaTas, Birla who give out to charity but it is astonishing that it is the 'poor people' who give the most as the percentage of their income.

This became the foundation of a new journey for Venkat who graduated from IIM and wanted to join an Aatta Chakki. He would have if the chakki owner not expected him to help him in saving taxes.

But this was not his first attempt in making some difference to the society, he begin by starting a school in Ahmedabad along with three of his IIM friends.

The school Eklavya when opened on the first day barely got any response inspite of the advertisements and lot of expectation.

They just got 34 students to start with by working passionately and going door to door explaining the school philosophy.

They worked very hard , teaching with commitment and passion. Next year the school was full with 240 students. Today it is one of the best schools in Ahmedabad.

After spending 4 years with the school , he realized that there are so many NGOs who do good work but nobody knows about them. Correspondingly there are people who want to give, but do not know any credible agency to give.

GiveIndia -this is a new idea with the help of internet -was formed. It is an organization which showcases NGOs good work and enable those who wish to give to charity, a platform to connect with these NGOs.
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GiveIndia also became the charity partners of Delhi and Mumbai marathon and raised a substantial amount of money.

Venkat, firmly believes in the culture of giving by Individuals. He strongly believes that it is the individuals who change the nature of the country.

GiveIndia insists that everybody chooses where to give. Whether it is education or livelihood or health . This way the donor recognizes there is a problem for which they need to contribute.

In 2007-2008,GiveIndia expects to channel roughly Rs. 18.5 crores from 50,000 donors.

Let us be one of the first donors to GIVE in the new year 2009 and have a sense of ownership. The link is http://giveindia.org

All of our middle class education has been subsidized by the "poors" by imposing taxes and we can at least try to pay back a little bit by giving back to them. After all this is all about the contribution of the ordinary citizen like us.

Reference:Stay Hungry Stay Foolish -Rashmi Bansal