AID-Chennai hosted the Annual AID India Conference from December 23 to 25 at the IIT Chennai campus. The conference started with a welcome note by Ravishankar Arunachalam, joint secretary, AID-India. President of AID-India, Dr. Vasanthi Devi, shared the progress of AID India since inception. Mr.Arvind Kejriwal highlighted the importance of the Right to Information (RTI) Act in eradicating corruption. Dr. Ravi Kuchimanchi and Pramod gave an overview about the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and shared their NREGA auditing experiences in Orissa. Prasanna explored the impact of globalization on food security and health through interventions in Public Distribution Systems (PDS) and privatization of health care. Under education, Chandra highlighted issues and their solutions in working with the government, while in "ICT for Development", Rajesh discussed the link between computing technology and agriculture extension services. Dr. Balaji Sampath reported on the work of AID-India headquarters in the "Admin and Treasury" session. Key players from various activitist movements highlighted water privatization issues using the Mehndiganj, Gangaikondan and Tiruppur incidents as examples. The AID India vision meeting, though short, resulted in the creation of action items and formation of working committees. On the final day, the attendees experienced the efficacy of the Eureka education program first-hand during trips to Koovathur and Vembakkam.

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Chandrika Ramanujam, Chennai