Comment Pieces

Swati Ramanathan to be honoured as Civic Innovator in Washington

Posted on December 03, 2013

Swati Ramanathan, co-founder Janaagraha is being honoured as a ‘Civic Innovator’ by the National Democratic Institute (NDI), Washington DC; for her innovations in using technology, internet and social media to hold governments accountable, give citizens a voice and improve democratic governance.

At the dinner, and as a special honour, Swati Ramanathan, along with four other awardees, will take part in a panel discussion about how technology can increase citizen participation and help governments respond to citizens.

The awards will be presented at NDI’s 2013 Democracy dinner on Dec. 10 in Washington, D.C.

The leading civic Innovators to be awarded at the event include Jared Cohen - Google Ideas, Jennifer Pahlka - co founder, Code for America, Rufus Pollock -  Open Knowledge Foundation, Tom Steinberg - Open Government Partnership, Ellen Miller - Sunlight Foundation and Toomas Hendrik Ilves, The President of Estonia.

Jack Dorsey, chairman and founder of Twitter will deliver the keynote address while Samantha Power, the US Ambassador to the United Nations will deliver the keynote remarks at the dinner event.

These civic innovators are using technology to crowdsource ideas on legislation, increase government transparency, connect citizens and support freedom of information online.

NDI will present its Democracy Award to the ‘Civic Innovator’ in recognition of an emerging class of creative and entrepreneurial individuals who are using technology to help advance and improve democracy in the digital age.

The National Democratic Institute is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization based in the US, working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.