The end of the year is a good time to reflect on the year gone by and think about the year ahead.
 
January 2010 is an important milestone in Junior Achievement's brief history in India. JA India commenced classroom operations, at Rani Sarala Devi School in Bangalore, in January 2007. Thanks to support from volunteers, educators and the Founders Board, JA India programs have touched 27,000 students in 200 schools and colleges across Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and the National Capital Region. Today custom built and customized JA India programs straddle scholastic levels from Grade V to final year graduation. Volunteers from more than 15 Corporates deliver JA India programs to students in English,Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.
 
The initiative to generate greater local support saw the creation of JA Hyderabad Council with leadership support from Deloitte U.S. in India and senior leadership participation from Bank of America, Cognizant and Microsoft. As we refine this model, we hope to setup more regional councils  across the country. Year 2009 also saw JA India being awarded the MOST OUTSTANDING NEW MEMBER AWARD by JA Worldwide - an award that had more than 34 countries in its eligible list with 19 of them of vintage similar to JA India. JA's work in India received a welcome endorsement with engagement of JA India in World Economic Forum's Global Education Initiative session at the recently concluded India Economic Summit 2009.
 
Going forward, the focus at JA India is to deepen existing relationships and expand participation to more education institutions and organizations. Efforts are currently underway to consolidate existing presence of JA in India in preparation for stepped up growth. The need to make the student aware and learn well is urgent and well perceived. More academic institutions are opening up to the JA intervention. Over the next 3 years, we intend to reach JA programs to an incremental of 0.5 mn students and sustain momentum to reach a million students in 5 years. The priority now is to deploy the model to deliver the scale. There are several ways in which you can participate in this journey and I am eager to work with you.
 
I would like to thank each JA Volunteer, educator, academic  institution and JA Founding Board Member for their strong support in reaching this three year milestone.
 
My best wishes to each of you, and your dear ones, for a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!