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TOI social impact awards: They make India a better place

Do we get the Anna Hazare option, the right to say, none of the above, asked Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh as soon as the TOI Social Impact Awards jury meeting started (referring to the activists demand that voters be allowed to reject all candidates on a ballot paper). Assured they could do so if the shortlisted candidates in a category didnt meet their exacting standards for one reason or the other, they got down to business. The bar would be set very high - that much was apparent. The challenge of choosing a select group of changemakers from the many excellent options available was a formidable one. Prior to the meeting, each jury member had been given a dossier of over 200 pages on the shortlisted candidates - on their work and its impact, and whether it was innovative, scalable and sustainable. In addition, there were 200 pages of firsthand field reports by TOI reporters, based on visits to one or more work sites of each candidate. And there were another 400 pages of supporting documents and executive summaries. Not only did the jury members rattle off facts and figures from these documents, in many cases they were able to add their own inputs, drawing upon their staggering collective knowledge and experience. Wherever members had the slightest doubt, they sought clarifications from TOIs editorial board,which sat in on Thursdays jury meeting.

                                                                                                               
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