Deep Joshi Biography 
Deep Joshi is a social activist from present-day Uttarakhand best known for rural development activities. He was awarded the 2009 Magsaysay award for Community Leadership for his pioneering work for development of rural communities. He is also a recipient of Padma Shri for his contributions towards social service. He received the award in 2010. He is best known for bringing professionalism to NGO movement in India, by effectively transforming rural communities, thus bring a great change to the society. He got recognized for his vision and leadership to make this idea possible. He served as the Chairman of the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) in 2012.
Deep Joshi was born in 1947 in a rural village, Puriyag, Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand. His father was a farmer. He had 6 siblings. His early days were spent in his village, where he did schooling in a local village school. For higher studies he moved to Allahabad, where he took engineering degree from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology. He took Master’s in engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and took a management degree too. He joined Systems Research Institute as a programme officer, once he returned back to India.
Later he took some tremendous efforts and contributions towards the field of rural development and livelihood promotion. He co-founded a non-profit organisation, Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) in 1983. Through this NGO, he recruited college graduates to do community work. Pradan won India’s first ever India NGO Award for the year 2006, and later received many recognitions too. He also received Harmony Silver Award the same year. Currently he serves as an advisor to Government of India on poverty alleviation strategies.
Published: October 16, 2018
Updated: October 16, 2018
