An open thought experiment for India
Owned by no oneWhat if the best people of our generation ran the country?
Not politicians. Doctors, teachers, scientists, farmers, athletes and builders who have already proved what they can do — backed by the people who know each field best. You decide who. We imagine what India could become. This project makes two arguments: a five-year plan with every number sourced, and a case for a citizen-lottery reform that takes the money out of selecting power.
An aspirational, non-partisan civic project. Not a real or claimed government, and not affiliated with any person or party.
Sabka Sarkar is an aspirational thought experiment: a dream cabinet of India's most accomplished people, chosen by the public. Nominate who you'd trust to run each ministry.
- 1.4B
- Indians this affects
- 12
- ministries reimagined
- 50+
- practitioners per ministry
- 5yr
- sourced plan, ready now
The receipts
The numbers they would rather you not see.
46%of new MPs
face criminal cases.
Source — Association for Democratic Reforms, 2024
₹1.35lakh crore
the costliest election ever held.
Source — ADR, 2024 General Election
7×more babies
die in UP than in Kerala. Same country.
Source — SRS / RGI, 2023
18%got a job
out of everyone trained by Skill India.
Source — IndiaSpend, PMKVY analysis
What this project argues
Two ideas. One project.
Idea I — the plan
A plan for the next five years
Evidence-based plans for health, education, and jobs — every number sourced, every intervention costed, every target traceable to a real-world benchmark. What could actually change if the right people were in charge.
Idea II — the reform
A reform for the next fifty
Ending the auction for power — a legislature of ordinary citizens chosen by lot, not by fundraising and party machinery. Already tried in Ireland, France, and Belgium. It sounds radical until you see how it works.
Read the sortition page first — the end goal only makes sense once you do.
How it would work
A government designed so no one can capture it.
Picked on merit, by the people
Every ministry is led by someone who has already done the work — nominated and ranked by the public, not handed out as a favour.
50+practitioners behind every minister
A Council of 50 behind every minister
Each minister sits with ~50 real practitioners every month — the people actually inside that field — so decisions come from the ground, not a bubble.
Radically transparent by default
Open books, open data, open code. Every rupee, every decision, every meeting — public unless there is a genuine reason it cannot be.
Power that checks itself
A free press as the fourth pillar and a real separation of powers: everyone can question everyone, and no one can quietly take it over.
The Dream Cabinet
The people's cabinet, so far.
One leader per ministry — whoever the public has pushed to the top. Tap a ministry to see every nominee, the shadow minister, and the Council of 50.
A 5-year plan for India
What could actually change in five years.
Concrete goals, sector by sector. These are aspirational targets for this thought experiment — a direction of travel, not promises.
Education & Skilling
Full evidence brief — 44 sources, 5 costed interventions
Read the brief- Y1
- Launch a public, real-time dashboard reporting learning outcomes for every government school
- Set a national foundational literacy and numeracy target with district-level baselines
- Audit teacher vacancies and publish a transparent recruitment plan
- Y2
- Roll out remedial reading and arithmetic programs in the lowest-performing districts
- Link every ITI to at least one local employer apprenticeship partnership
- Begin annual independent learning surveys with openly published results
- Y3
- Aim for a majority of Grade 3 children meeting grade-level reading targets
- Modernise vocational curricula in partnership with hiring industries
- Expand digital and library access to underserved schools
- Y4
- Scale proven remediation models nationwide
- Establish placement-tracking for skilling graduates with public outcome data
- Strengthen early childhood education links with anganwadi centres
- Y5
- Target near-universal foundational literacy and numeracy by end of primary school
- Publish a five-year transparency report on school outcomes and skilling placements
Idea II — the reform
A parliament that looks like India, because it is India.
When representatives are drawn by lottery — stratified so the assembly mirrors the country by gender, region, caste, age, and income — power stops being a prize that money or connections can buy.
Lok Sabha seats
citizen legislators
Already tried here
- Ireland
- France — Citizens' Convention
- Ostbelgien, Belgium
- OECD deliberative wave
Read the sortition page first — the end goal only makes sense once you do.
Our principles
The rules we would never bend.
- 01
Open source government
Code, budgets and data published openly. If the public paid for it, the public can see it.
- 02
Radical transparency
Default to disclosure. Secrecy must be justified, not assumed.
- 03
A free fourth pillar
An independent press that can criticise us without fear is a feature, not a threat.
- 04
Separation of powers
No single office can override the others. Everyone is questionable; no one is untouchable.
- 05
Merit over loyalty
Roles go to the most capable, not the most connected.
- 06
Nobody owns it
No dynasty, no permanent rulers. Service is a term, not a throne.
Be part of it
Pick the India you actually want.
Add your nominations, share the cabinet you'd vote for, and help shape the 5-year plan. The louder this gets, the harder it is to ignore.