About Mayank Gandhi

Namaste,

Since childhood, I have been brought up reading about our freedom fighters and the greatness of our nation. My inclination and interest in drawing on a larger canvas made me dream of working to transform the country. At the cost of my studies, from 1975 to 1977, I fought against the Emergency, with success. But the failed Janata Party experiment was pure disillusionment, and I withdrew to the humdrum of life, making money, and building the family, till fate intervened, in 2003.

Our Misson

Mayank Gandhi was an International urban planner. He worked with Anna Hazare to draft the RTI & other bills In 2011, he was part of the leadership.

Increasing farmers incomes manifold by
changing cropping patterns
Mass plantation of fruit trees also fighting climate change
Farmer training by agricultural experts
Enhancing overall prosperity of farmers

Genesis

It was around 2003 when I got deeply immersed in spirituality. I started studying, meditating and reflecting on profound subjects of existence, visualising some unusual epiphany events in my head. I started slipping into long hours of meditation (5 to 8 hours a day). During these states of trance, I found answers to the four existential questions that had nestled in my head (1) Who am I? (2) What is existence? (3) What is my role in existence? and (4) How best can I play this role?

international Urban planner

By 2007, I had established a career in Urban Planning and I had started working for "Remaking of Mumbai" based on a cluster approach, especially in the inner city. Soon, I was appointed as an Advisory Board member" of CTBUH, Chicago, one of the world's largest bodies of Architects and Planners and was working in multiple developed countries as an urban planner with specialization in Inner City Planning. It was my sojourn in working in these countries that reinforced my belief that there is no greater worldview than the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) and transforming India would strengthen not just the country, but the world. I decided to put all my energy into transforming India.

Realisation

Over time, it became apparent to me that the prosperity of our nation and the value system that we had harnessed over many millennia had degraded beyond recognition. Until 1722, India was the "Sone ki chidiya" with 33% share of the global economy and 30% share of the global trade. Today, we are just 3.75% share of the global economy and 0.8% of the global trade. The Indian Knowledge System (IKS), which I completely subscribe to, has a huge emphasis on knowledge, validation, conflict resolution and interconnectivity as the dominant worldview. India being the only country with this world view today is grappling with poverty and inequalities. I believe that the only way to increase our relevance in the world is to improve our economy and demonstrate prosperity for all. And for that, it is important to improve our governance and systems to uplift the poor out of the poverty trap. Working towards that goal of building our nation became my purpose and I took the decision to spend my life trying to transform our nation.

Our Vision

GVT is passionately committed to transforming the Indian economy back to the 'Sone Ki Chidia' period by multiplying farmers' income through sustainable agriculture at scale.

Creating a proof of concept

Showcasing improved farmers' incomes through manifold success case studies

Replication and scaling up

Spreading the success model of increments in farmers' incomes and prosperity across rural areas of the nation

Creating villages for replication

Spreading the success model of increments in farmers' incomes and prosperity across rural areas of the nation

Youth as rural change agents

Showcasing improved farmers' incomes through manifold success case studies

Education & skill development

Collaborating with Union, State and autonomous organisations to successfully set the path for increased farmers' incomes

Journey of Mayank Gandhi

Mayank Gandhi has transformed over 150 drought-hit villages through holistic rural development. He empowered over 20,000 farmers with sustainable farming practices and water management.

2010
Entry into Public Life
Became a prominent face advocating for the Jan Lokpal Bill to tackle corruption.
2012
Formation of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
Co-founder and key National Executive member of Aam Aadmi Party
2014
Electoral Politics
Contested Lok Sabha elections from North-West Mumbai constituency as an AAP candidate
2016
Birth of Global Parli &
Rural Transformation Mission
Launched Global Parli project in drought-hit Beed district (Parli taluka, Maharashtra)
2019
Establishing Global Vikas Trust (GVT)
Formalized his rural transformation work under the Global Vikas Trust (GVT)

Reforms

My journey began with an idealistic approach of changing the policies in this country. I worked with Shri Anna Hazare and campaigned to draft and pass the "Maharashtra Right to Information" bill along with many other seminal reforms. I also worked on successfully passing the bill for decentralisation of power in urban areas as per the 74th amendment.

India against corruption (IAC): But soon I came to the conclusion that just making laws and reforms is not adequate. What touches the lives of the poorest? It is the government. And the government was not functioning well. So, we needed to force the government to reform and act properly in the interest of the people. Therefore, myself, Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal started the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement which was the biggest movement in the history of independent India. I was part of the core committee of IAC and in the team that was driving the movement. But after a lot of shenanigans, those in power fooled the people of the country and did not do what they had promised.

Aam Aadmi Party(AAP)

When we realised that those in power were not interested in reforms, I thought to myself that this is our country too. If they are not interested, let us get inside the system and change it. With that in mind, we formed a political party, AAP and entered electoral politics. I was part of the National Executive Committee of the party that had instilled hope and energy in the country. PM Modi had won the national elections in 2014 and his party was winning state after state. In this atmosphere, we took on the challenge of stopping his march in Delhi. When the New Delhi assembly election took place in 2015, I and Sanjay Parmar reached New Delhi with 16,000 volunteers from all over the country and campaigned passionately for over two months. The party won 67 out of 70 seats and there was a ray of hope for transformation in the nation. Unfortunately, after the unprecedented victory, Arvind Kejriwal, who was heading the party, chose to take some decisions that took the party towards power over principles. And AAP became another compromised power-hungry political party. At which point I decided to step down from politics completely and continue my focus on building the nation.

Global Vikas Trust (GVT)

With the fire for transforming India still burning inside, I rejected offers from both the BJP and the Congress to join their highest bodies, and instead adopted a non-political nation-building role. The reason? It is not rocket science to understand that in an agrarian country like India, the only way to change its economy was to increase the rural economy multifold times. If 70% of the population becomes self-sustaining and prosperous then the nation will become prosperous and thus began my journey of establishing Global Vikas Trust, a charitable organisation working on rural development where we have uplifted over 29,000 farmer families out of poverty across 5,000 villages in the past 6 years. Helping them earn 10X of their annual income (as per TISS 2024 report) and having managed to conserve 800 crore litres of water through various interventions.