Category: Journey
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Making Remote Volunteer Teams Work Across Time Zones – Lessons from Civic Compass
What is Civic Compass Like every Zen project, Civic Compass provides essential, crucial, yet hard-to-find information. In this case, tool where you could just enter an address in Bengaluru and instantly see the BBMP, BDA, Revenue, BESCOM, BWSSB offices, and Police stations, for that location. All in one place. How it started: A “lazy question”…
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An Experiment That Took on a Life of Its Own
What began as an experiment is now shaping into an open-source model for a single department in one state, that others can adapt across departments, states, and countries. Zen Citizen began as an experiment to see if clear, comprehensive, and practical information could help curb corruption. We set out to provide a practical fix, a…
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Why We’ve Chosen to Remain Unregistered and Do Not Seek Funding – For Now
The administrative burden of registration does not seem worth the effort; we operate frugally; we continue to attract volunteers regardless of our size; we want the freedom to explore meaningful solutions without being steered by the pressures that often come with external funding. Launched with a full-time volunteer in August 2024, Zen Citizen operates as…
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Zen Updates – Feb ’25
February 2025: A Vision Taking Shape When we started Zen Citizen, our goal was to help at least 50-100 people; a small way of contributing to society. But as the idea gained momentum through dedicated volunteers, encouraging messages, and even a proactive grant from Dr. Malpani, we feel inspired to aim higher. Beyond writing guides,…
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Zen Updates – Jan ’25
Kaveri Village Finder What began as the ‘EC tool’ for Bangalore has now grown into ‘Kaveri Village Finder’ for all of Karnataka. This tool solves the issue of Kaveri using a different mapping system than the one used during property registration. Huge shoutout to Abhik and Nishit for scaling it up from the prototype built…
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Zen Updates – Dec ’24
A Generous Grant from Malpani Ventures This month, we were thrilled to receive a grant of ₹1 lakh from Dr. Aniruddha Malpani, of Malpani Ventures. Dr. Malpani is an angel investor and reached out on his own, expressing his alignment with our mission, and offered the grant with no strings attached, simply saying, “I trust…
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Zen Citizen is Taking Off, One Success and Setback at a Time
Zen Citizen’s goal is to provide clear, practical guidance on government procedures, enabling citizens to confidently navigate the system, stand their ground, and resist bribery. While we’ve received encouraging praise, the impact has been limited so far. We can’t control website bugs or prevent office clerks from inventing reasons to reject applications; yet, having a…
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Spectrum of Reactions for Zen Citizen: Strong Support to Outright Dismissiveness
I’ve had some interesting conversations over the last couple of weeks – three heads of civic engagement organizations, one retired bureaucrat, and a high-ranking bureaucrat. All the civic organizations actively supported ZenCitizen. A couple even offered their resources, including office space. The retired bureaucrat was lukewarm about the outcome but still encouraged me to give…
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Why Khata and Allied Services
For Phase 1 of ZenC, I’m focusing on detailing processes for Khata transfers and related services, like updating names on electricity and water bills, and generating Property IDs. This decision stems from feedback I received on Reddit when I asked for suggestions on bribe-heavy services to prioritize, with a recurring theme of property-related services. One…
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“What do you see as the ‘end-state’?”
I get this question a lot. If the pilot is successful, my ideal end-state vision for Zen Citizen would be: For now, though, my focus is on the proof of concept with ZenC. One breath at a time! 🙂