Janaagraha

Janaagraha is one of India’s most influential urban governance organisations, working for nearly 25 years to transform the quality of life in Indian cities and towns. Its core strengths lie in municipal finance reform, government capacity building, and unlocking funds for effective delivery of municipal services.

Key public artefacts include CityFinance.in — a national municipal finance portal conceived by Janaagraha for city financial statements, benchmarking, and peer learning — and the 15th Finance Commission online grant management system that digitised city-grant eligibility, compliance, and disbursal. Janaagraha also developed the Odisha Municipal Accounting Manual 2.0 for improved reporting and accountability, and a Property Tax Reform Toolkit mapping best practices across the full property-tax lifecycle.

Its programmes span own-revenue augmentation (whole-of-systems transformation of property tax and user charges), civic participation (making it easier for citizens to engage in neighbourhood and city governance), and climate-responsive city planning — including creating climate-friendly city action plans in 10 cities of Assam with Rainmatter Foundation’s support. Janaagraha’s “whole-of-systems” lens treats municipal reform not as piecemeal fixes but as end-to-end redesign of city finance and governance systems.