Grassroots Nation, is a series in which we deep dive into the life, work and guiding philosophies of some of the country’s most great leaders of social change.

What does it mean to use professional knowledge not just to build a career, but to build institutions that work for people at the grassroots?

In this episode of Grassroots Nation, we trace the remarkable life and legacy of Deep Joshi, a development practitioner who has helped reshape how professionals could contribute to rural India.

A Magsaysay award winner, Padma Shri Deep Joshi was born into a farming family in a remote Himalayan village. Deep went on to study engineering in India and then management in the United States. But it was his return to India that set him on a different path. In 1983, alongside Vijay Mahajan, he co-founded PRADAN, Professional Assistance for Development Action, pioneering an approach that placed skilled professionals alongside rural communities to tackle poverty, livelihoods and institutional challenges.
In conversation with Tarun Cherukuri, founder of Indus Action, Deep reflects on his ideas about talent, institutions and development and how they took shape in practice. Deep and Tarun talk about why he believed young professionals could find meaningful work in the field, what it meant to build PRADAN around that conviction, and what he learnt from working alongside communities over decades. It is a conversation across generations about leadership, professional purpose and the enduring question at the heart of Deep’s work: how do we build an India that works for everyone?

This episode was recorded at the PRADAN offices in Delhi. Grassroots Nation is a podcast from Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies. Learn more at www.rohininilekaniphilanthropies.org or follow @ RNP_foundation on social media.