India is a vibrant and constitutional democracy, and the largest of its kind in the world. At the core of its democracy is the commitment to hold regular, fair, and free elections. Elections provide citizens the opportunity to determine composition of the government. Hence, it is paramount that conditions are made conducive for citizens to exercise their polling rights. It is also important that citizens are made aware of their rights and quality of the elected representatives, besides increasing the scrutiny of the polling process. In this backdrop, the Trust has been involved in supporting organisations that propagate electoral reforms that promise to blow in the winds of change and result in clean and responsible governance.

The Trust has supported Foundation for Democratic Reforms (FDR), Hyderabad, towards supporting citizens in identifying basic services that need improvement and work towards their betterment. After identifying services, citizens undertake surveys, prepare status reports along with recommendations and subsequently implement these recommendations by partnering with the government and the media. This project covers urban and rural areas throughout Andhra Pradesh. 'Click here to read on the Active Citizen’s Training supported by the Trust'.

The Trust’s grant to the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi, has instituted the Rajni Kothari Chair in Democracy, with the objective of strengthening CSDS’s tradition of research on democracy and promoting understanding about democracies in developing countries through workshops and seminars involving grass-root organisations, activists, media and academics.