Jana Group
The Jana Group works on a variety of fronts, through a variety of institutions, to address India’s urban challenges. The common thread that runs through all our work is that it is always about connecting PEOPLE and PLACES, driven by a vision to transform the quality of life in our cities and towns.
About Us .
Indian cities face a plethora of challenges. But broadly, these challenges can be thought of as falling into two categories.
The first set are those issues that affect ALL urban residents (be it rich, middle class or poor) and ALL urban enterprises (large, medium, small or micro). These issues are related to how our cities are planned and governed, and they include the quality of our urban infrastructure and services: our water supply and power distribution networks, transportation systems and traffic management, safety and social infrastructure. Today, India’s cities fare poorly on all these fronts and hence each and every city stakeholder – individual or business – is affected.
Beyond these common issues, however, are a second set of challenges that affect primarily those at the lower half of the pyramid – the urban poor and lower middle class. These are people who don’t have access to high-quality financial services or housing, education or healthcare – in the same way as the middle class or rich do. On the enterprise front as well, our millions of micro-enterprises are still facing a licence-permit raj even as India’s larger enterprises are talking of the second-generation of reforms.
Some of these challenges (like education and healthcare or micro-enterprise policies) will require the government to take the lead and deliver public goods in a far more efficient way. Others, like financial services and housing, can harness the forces of the market, but in a carefully calibrated manner.
Jana Group is focused on addressing both these sets of challenges that Indian cities face. Given the multitude of complexities, we have set up several institutions, each focused on a specific aspect of the urban challenge.
for all urban stakeholders.
Janaagraha Center for Citizenship and Democracy
For urban governance and participation
Jana Urban Space Foundation
For urban planning and urban design
for the urban underserved.
Jana Small Finance Bank
A social business focused on urban financial inclusion
Janaadhar
A social enterprise focused on affordable urban housing
Connecting people and places; driven by a vision of transforming the quality of life in our cities and towns.
Both Jana Small Finance Bank and Janaadhar are structured as for-profit social enterprises that harness market forces to solve key social issues affecting the urban underserved. Importantly, the promoter stake in both these for-profit institutions is held in a Sec 8 not-for-profit holding company (Jana Urban Foundation), to ensure that even as we look to harness the power of the market, we protect against any negative effect on the mission or purpose of these social enterprises.
In sum, the Jana Group works on a variety of fronts, through a variety of institutions, to address India’s urban challenges. The common thread that runs through all our work is that it is always about connecting PEOPLE and PLACES, driven by a vision to transform the quality of life in our cities and towns.
