Ravi S Saxena, IAS retd.
Founder Chairman – RISE (Removing Ignorance for Social Empowerment) Foundation
Ravi Saxena is the Founder Chairman of RISE Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation working for the empowerment of underserved communities by organising their access to resources of knowledge and information. An IAS of the 1978 batch, Ravi Saxena last served as the Additional Chief Secretary – Department of Science & Technology, Govt of Gujarat. Post his retirement from Civil Services in March 2013, he set up RISE Foundation at Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
He is anxious about the present decade of the ICT revolution causing a divide due to absence of connectivity to the internet in major part of the developing world which may lead to a fractured society. He strongly feels that it is incumbent on the society to ensure that every citizen of the country gets an unfettered access to the internet.
He advocates the need to address rural developmental issues through policy level ICT implementation. He believes that inclusive policies cannot but be holistic. Bridging the digital divide is, therefore, crucial to move towards holistic inclusion where the health, education, food, drinking water, sanitation, housing and livelihood issues of the underserved will also get addressed.
Through RISE Foundation, he aims to make an impact in the lives of underserved communities by organising their access to the resources of knowledge and information, primarily the worldwide web, and building their capacities to both be inspired and empowered to use the internet for taking informed decisions about important aspects of their lives and enable them to compete and succeed in the digital age.
The vision and mission of RISE is to improve the productivity and employability of the underserved communities by changing them into ‘Knowledge Societies’ – Societies where people are equipped with knowledge required for taking informed decisions about important aspects of their lives including education and occupation.
