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Ved Arya

Founder – The Buddha Institute

Ved Arya graduated from IIT Kanpur (1979) and IIM Ahmedabad (1981). After spending a couple of years with TCS, he decided to give up his corporate career and devote his life to improving the life of people at the very bottom of the socio-economic ladder. In 1997, He started an NGO, SRIJAN (Self-Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action, https://srijanindia.org/our-work/), with the aim of alleviating poverty in villages. SRIJAN has branches in 6 states and has impacted 125,000 rural poor families through reviving traditional water bodies, nano orchards (horticulture), and marketing of milk, custard apple and pomegranate.

While SRIJAN continues to focus on development projects in six states, in 2018 Ved stepped away from actively running SRIJAN to start another initiative, the Buddha Fellowship Program/ The Buddha Institute. The Buddha Fellowship Program (BFP) aims to nurture a network of 1000 social entrepreneurs that in turn uplifts the poor economically and restores their dignity. BFP aims to impact 5 million people by 2030 (https://www.thebuddhainstitute.org).

During the pandemic, Ved founded an NGO collaborative, RCRC. It has brought together more than 80 NGOs that have collective outreach of 16 million people in 15 states of India. RCRC raised over 7 million USD for helping the Covid-affected population. (https://www.rcrc.in.) Over 144,800 families benefitted from accessing entitlements under the government scheme called Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) and 4 million people were trained in Covid-appropriate behaviour.

Ved was invited by the US government as Humbert Humphrey Fellow in 1990. During this Fellowship, he went to John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and worked at The World Bank.

He is a member of several policy making bodies including the Advisory Committee, Promotion of Producers' Enterprises, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. Ved was a member of the Technical Group on Social Stock Exchange set up by SEBI.

In 2014, CNBC TV18 and ICICI Foundation adjudged SRIJAN to be the Best Emerging NGO and in the same year, Vodafone Foundation gave SRIJAN Mobile for Good Award. In 2018, Business Standard chose Ved as Social Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2020, IIT Kanpur conferred on him the Distinguished Alumnus Award. His articles have been published by IFPRI, Washington and ODI, London.

The Amulya Jeevan Foundation is an organisation that lends a helping hand to the most vulnerable section of the society. Upholding the ideology that every life is precious, AJF reaches out to people in need and distress and supports them. From providing free meals to the hungry, quality education to the poor, healthcare to the needy, livelihood to the downtrodden and shelter to the deserted, AJF tries to bring a qualitative change in the lives of people in distress. AJF has a dedicated team of volunteers who reach out to people far and wide with helping hands and a smile on their faces.

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