Start-ups & Initiatives
GRAMA
GRAMA — Governance Research and Accountability for Meaningful Advancement — is an organisation I founded, built on a simple premise: governance works better when those closest to it have a voice. Based in Patna, GRAMA works to strengthen the accountability of public institutions by amplifying the perspectives of last-mile citizens, frontline workers, and local elected officials.
GRAMA pursues two lines of work: rigorous field-based research on how local governance actually functions, and partnerships with large public programs to build citizen-centric data systems — reshaping administrative and feedback mechanisms so that local knowledge enters institutional decision-making. GRAMA partners with JEEViKA (Government of Bihar) and is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through an institutional partnership with the University of Maryland, alongside collaborations with J-PAL and the National University of Singapore. GRAMA is housed under the M V Foundation, the child-rights organisation whose work has moved over a million children out of labour and into full-time schools.
SACCI
SACCI — the Sita Anandam Cancer Care Initiative — brings early cancer detection, awareness, and treatment support to the most marginalised. It was started by my father, Dr M S Vidyasagar, former Head of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, who funds the initiative and provides medical oversight. Its premise: cancer is treatable, but for millions the belief that it isn’t becomes a death sentence.
SACCI works across Muzaffarpur district: screening to identify cancers early, counselling to counter myth and stigma, and financial support — travel, diagnostics, treatment — alongside linkage to government schemes such as Ayushman Bharat. I support SACCI’s work through GRAMA, which coordinates the initiative and tracks each patient’s journey, working with MNREGA Watch, which anchors its grassroots operations, and Dr Ravikant Singh’s team at Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital, Muzaffarpur, which provides clinical care.
MNREGA Watch
MNREGA Watch is a workers’ collective in Muzaffarpur — led largely by women from Dalit and most-backward-caste communities — that fights corruption in the NREGA, one of the world’s largest rural poverty alleviation programmes, and helps workers claim what is theirs. Their story is at the heart of my book, Last Among Equals.
I have been a long-term supporter of MNREGA Watch, raising resources for their work and collaborating with them on research and initiatives — most recently as the grassroots partner anchoring SACCI’s operations across Muzaffarpur’s blocks.