A Man called Macha!

Manjunath Shanmugam is a name and face that not many from the batches of MBAs that passed through IIM Lucknow during 2002-2004 were going to forget. Then he went and made sure that not just these MBAs but the entire country would remember him forever.

An IIM Lucknow (2003 batch) alumnus,Manjunath was a popular student, noted for his passion for music, sincerity and integrity.An Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL) employee, he was working to curb oil malpractices in his territory; and was murdered on 19th November 2005 by a petrol pump owner and his accomplices.
The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust was registered on Feb 23rd, 2006. It is an international IIM alumni initiative; and works to improve governance in Indian public life.

A.JUSTICE FOR MANJU

Armed only with determination, we worked relentlessly to ensure quick justice in the case. With complete support from the legal, media and professional communities, the trial was completed in a record nine months. All eight accused were found guilty.The main accused - the petrol pump owner - was given the death penalty. The others were given life imprisonment.

B. RIGHT TO INFORMATION (RTI) ACT NATIONAL HELPLINE

The RTI is probably the most significant legislation enacted since independence, allowing citizens to demand information from almost all Government departments/agencies. It acts as a powerful tool enabling transparency and preventing corruption
The national RTI helpline was set up on November 19th 2006, to mark Manjunath's first death anniversary. MST worked in association with noted NGO Parivartan (www.parivartan.com), whose founder and IIT-Kgp alumnus Mr. Arvind Kejriwal won the 2006 Magsasay award (emerging leader category).
The vision of this helpline was to disseminate information about the RTI Act across India. The helpline was serviced by a professionally trained call center team in English, Hindi,Tamil and Kannada, 8 a.m - 8 p.m, 7 days a week.
Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys and Ms. Kiran Bedi, Director General, Bureau of Police Research & Development, made the inaugural calls.
Update, December 2007:The Helpline disseminated information to over 6000 citizens.After one year's functioning, it is now closed, due to poor response. We plan to use the same funds in a decentralised manner, funding local RTI activists. The first such funding wef March 2008 is to Kabir, an NGO engaged in spreading awareness of the RTI Act, in Delhi. We are funding the salary of one employee, who will answer queries on the RTI Act and application process, and will also work with people to help them through the application and follow up.He is available on 0-97181-00180, 10 a.m - 8 p.m and can answer queries in Hindi and English.

C. THE MANJUNATH SHANMUGAM INTEGRITY AWARD

The Trust has instituted the Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award to honour and encourage person/s or institutions who are working to uphold the values of truth and honesty in Indian corporate, government or public life. The award carries a citation and a cash prize of Rs. One Lakh.
The first Integrity Award was presented to Prof. R.P Singh, (then)Vice Chancellor of Lucknow University, for his sterling work in cleaning up the University;on 24th March 2007, by N.R Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor, Infosys Ltd.
The second Integrity Award went to Akhil Gogoi, Secretary, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, Assam; for extraordinary commitment and courage in working to clean up malpractices in various public schemes like the PDS, Indira Awas Yojana; on 28th Macrh 2008 by Dr. Kiran Bedi.