Dr. Abdul Kalam's Lead India 2020 Expands Globally, US Chapter Unveiled an Innovative Model to Engage 25 Million NRIs to Transform India as a Developed Nation by 2020

Rockville, MD, May 31, 2013 --(PR.com)-- In a private ceremony in Rockville, Maryland, Lead India 2020 Chapter Executive Team along with a group of vibrant young students and supporters of Li2020 Foundation met with Bharat Ratna Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the former president of India and Chief Mentor of Lead India 2020 and seek guidance on expanding the Lead India 2020 activities globally. The event was organized by noted philanthropist Hari Eppanapally, founding President of Lead India 2020 US Chapter and his team members consists of Srinivas Ganagoni (Vice President), Chaya Pamula (Secretary), Hart Singh (Treasurer) and others unveiled an innovative framework to engage 25 Million NRIs to transform India as a developed nation by 2020. Often cited as the largest social change program in history, Li2020 aims to transform the lives of 540 Million children through an innovative, long term program that converts them into “Change Agents.”

Dr. Kalam appreciated the Li2020 global model extended his full support to extend the Lead India 2020 activities. The youth was amazed by Dr. Kalam’s wisdom and vision of Lead India 2020 movement. He interacted with all the youth and answered their questions.

The 10-point program of Li2020 has already been implemented since 2004 and has benefited more than 1 million children in 5,000+ schools in Andhra Pradesh’s Medak and Karimnagar Districts. Corporate sponsors like Infosys and GE as well as social service organizations like Lions Club fund the training of Trainers, with 100,000 trainers in 2013 alone. These Trainers are responsible for 5 schools each with about 500 children, and remain with the students from 6th to 12th grades, training and coordinating field work. Initially focusing to train in 10 schools in each Mandal (Taluk), and Andra Pradesh alone has 1004 Mandals across 23 districts.

Mr. Hari Eppanapally, President of the US Chapter shared the vision, and the roadmap to achieve the mission of the organization which is to see a developed India by the year 2020, with great enthusiasm, he said, “We have a great support from the NRI community, however, our goal is to engage our 25 million NRI’s residing globally, and this would require greater efforts.” Mr. Eppanapally appealed to the NRI community to join this great movement. Currently, organization has successfully expanded into five states and eight districts, and in the process to have additional presence in central and northern Indian States. Moreover, Mr. Eppanapally was excited to share that the US Chapter has been collaborating with various NGOs for promoting the Lead India initiatives and PURA (Providing Urban Amenities to Rural Areas), and also working with major universities in US for summer internships and youth exchange programs.

Srinivas Ganagoni, Vice President of the Lead India 2020 US Chapter, then introduced the U.S. Chapter's Executive Committee members, directors, and regional coordinators and thanked all the members for their selfless contributions of time, talent and treasure in promoting the Lead India 2020's initiatives. Mr. Srinivas also appealed to NRI community, if any is interested to participate in this program please visit www.Li2020.org and signup for any of the coordinator positions for State, District and Taluq/Mandal to coordinate the Li2020 Leadership training.

Chaya Pamula, Secretary said that this was a historic opportunity to give back to your state and impact the minds of children at their most formative so that the next generation could be imbued with lasting values. Hart Singh, Treasurer wanted to assure donors that Li2020’s policies, software and structures would ensure transparency and continuously track key metrics to show measurable impact of each dollar spent. Mr. Hari introduced the State coordinators Vinson Palathingal (Kerala), Venkatesh Sadogopan (Tamil Nadu) and Rajan Marathe (Maharashtra).

Pooja Eppanapally, Youth Committee Chair and Anusha Pamula, Youth Committee member led the vibrant dialog and Q&A session between young Li2020 members and Dr. Kalam where the former President and India’s first true “Rocket Scientist” asked for the sharing of experiences from middle school all the way through successful entrepreneurship so that the young Indian minds would be more job creators than job seekers.

For Media inquiries: Anurag Jain, media@Li2020.org (908) 630-0144.