Jagadananda (President)

Jagadananda is the president and founding convener of National Social Watch. He served as the State Information Commissioner of Odisha from 2008-2013. He has been a social activist for more than two decades. He is the member secretary of CYSD (Centre for Youth and Social Development) a grassroots organization working with the tribal and rural poor in Odisha.

At the International level as a member of the Civil Society Advisory group at the Commonwealth Foundation, he has brought several social policy issues and concerns of the Civil Society at the level of Commonwealth Heads of the Government (CHOGM). He was also a contributor to the UN Summit on Social Development (Copenhagen) as well as the UN Conference on Financing for Development (Mexico) and participated at several round tables at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

He has played a key leadership role in the Civil Society sector. He was the Chair person of the Voluntary Action Network of India (VANI) and was the Chair of Sa-Dhan, the national network of community development micro finance institutions. He is still serving on the Board of Rejuvenate India Movement and the Credibility Alliance, a national level network formed to promote accountability and credibility norms within the Civil Society organisations . His publication on Civil Society legitimacy and Accountability is available in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic Languages.

 He provided the initial leadership of the 'Wada-na Todo' campaign at the National level. He was part of the national campaign on Drive against Bribe using RTI (2007) and National Campaign for Electoral Reform on the voters right to know about the antecedents of their candidates (2002).