Annual report 2003-2004 - India Foundation for the Arts

and Shonali Advani have been appointed tothese Programme Associate positions. Theywill provide administrative support for ourprogrammes, but also be encouraged to contributeto the substantive aspects of our grantmaking. It is our hope that Judy and Shonali,and those who come after them, will get atIFA the kind of exposure to the world of thearts and philanthropy that will prompt themto consider pursuing careers in these areas.We feel that it is important to draw the attentionof the talented young to new opportunitiesthat are opening up outside the familiarprofessional domains of civil service and corporatemanagement. New wealth is beingrapidly generated in India, some of which hasalready gone into the establishment of newphilanthropic organisations and ventures. Artsorganisations can also be expected to grow innumber, partly because of the increasing relevanceof creative professionals to the expandingknowledge industry.The year witnessed the retirement of fiveof IFA’s longest serving trustees, some ofwhom have been with the foundation fromits earliest stage, even before it was formallyestablished. The retirees include the first twoChairpersons of the Board, Mr Abhijit Basuand Mr Mani Narayanswami, who were largelyresponsible for putting in place IFA’s managementsystems and policies; MrGulammohammed Sheikh, whose perspectiveson arts education contributed immenselyto our grant making in this area; Ms TaraSinha, who chaired the DevelopmentCommittee and gave direction and energy toour promotional and fundraising endeavours;and Mr Vijay Crishna, who brought to theBoard’s proceedings an incisive sense ofirony and a necessary dose of realism. It wasunfortunate, too, that other commitmentscompelled Mr A Ravindra, erstwhileChief Secretary of the Government ofKarnataka, to resign from IFA’s Board soonafter he had joined it. We are profoundlyindebted to our outgoing trustees for theirunstinting commitment to IFA’s cause.The rest of IFA’s first generation oftrustees will leave the Board next year. Weare naturally concerned about losing theexperience and perspectives of people whohelped to envision and set up IFA, andsteered it through the first decade of its existence.For this reason, we are extremelygrateful to Ms Simone Tata for agreeing torejoin the Board, despite having earlierserved as a trustee for six years. At the sametime, IFA appreciates the need to draw onfresh ideas as it contemplates redirectingand expanding its work, both as a grantmaker and a fundraiser, in the coming tenyears. We are therefore very fortunate that MrGurcharan Das and Mr Romi Khosla agreedto become trustees of IFA during the year.Like many of our trustees past and present,they occupy many different worlds at once:Mr Das is a well-known playwright, novelistand management consultant, whileMr Khosla’s professional work has encompassedeconomic development and architecture.IFA hopes to harness their diverseexperience and interests to strengthen andreconfigure its work at various levels.In closing, I would like to congratulateMs Nandita Palchoudhuri on her election asthe new Chair of the Board and look forwardto working closely with her as IFA begins toconsider afresh how it could best carry outits mandate to support the arts in India inhitherto unimagined ways.Anmol VellaniExecutive DirectorNovember 2004