What TGI is
- A field-embedded support architecture for existing governance talent.
- A curator and solution architect, not merely a listing platform.
- A builder of practical knowledge systems that can survive transfers, project cycles and partner exits.
About
A governance learning, coordination and capability-building organisation.
The Governance Initiative was built by practitioners who have worked inside and alongside government systems. We have seen how much public systems learn in practice, and how often that learning disappears when officers move, fellows exit or projects end.
What TGI is not
- A consulting firm that leaves behind reports.
- A public open directory where anyone can dump solutions.
- A permanent implementer replacing government systems.
Origin thesis
TGI starts from a simple institutional problem.
Governance work produces practical knowledge every day, but that knowledge often remains trapped in people, postings, review meetings, field notes and short-term projects. TGI exists to make that learning easier to capture, review, reuse and teach without weakening government ownership.
Built around public systems
The model is designed to support existing mandates, officials, fellows and institutional routines rather than create a parallel operating layer.
Built for learning continuity
Useful field experience becomes durable memory: cases, pathways, failure notes, role guides and evidence questions that survive handovers.
Team model
A small institutional core supported by specialised networks.
TGI is designed as an operating architecture rather than a personality-led campaign. These are the roles needed to make the model work while keeping the institution serious, careful and useful.
Founding and strategy
Sets mission, category clarity, stakeholder relationships, institutional judgement and the long-term governance learning thesis.
Solution Anchors
Work close to Gov Lab engagements, helping teams diagnose problems, prepare reviews, connect expertise and capture learning.
Learning and evidence
Maintains evidence standards, turns field material into reviewed knowledge products and keeps claims honest.
Gov Collective and curation
Builds the source-of-truth layer: playbooks, solution pathways, requests, profiles and learning capsules.
Digital and content operations
Maintains the website, content systems, analytics and privacy practices that help TGI communicate clearly and responsibly.
Advisory network
Offers critique, introductions and field-informed judgement. Public names appear only after explicit confirmation.
Founder profiles
Built by practitioners with experience across district administration, state reform, fellowships, civil society, consulting and technology-enabled delivery.
Ankush Singh and Mayank Lodha bring more than three decades of combined experience working inside and alongside public systems.
Co-Founder
Ankush Singh
District problem-solving | Programme strategy and execution | Technology-enabled delivery
Ankush has 18+ years of experience translating strategy into programmes, operating systems, partnerships and measurable delivery across government, nonprofits, corporates, startups and technology.
- Worked with district and state administrations in left-wing-extremism-affected regions on planning, convergence, monitoring and process improvement.
- Held leadership roles with Reliance Foundation, FEED and Idobro across public-private partnerships, rural transformation, impact assessment and AI-enabled programme delivery.
- Built programmes, digital products, operational systems and practitioner networks across development and technology contexts.
- Education and fellowships: MA Development Studies, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex; MSc Development Practice, TISS; BTech, Electronics and Communication Engineering.
Co-Founder
Mayank Lodha
Government reforms | Ecosystem building | Fellowship architecture
Mayank has 15+ years of experience across governments, businesses and nonprofits, building trusted partnerships and institutional mechanisms that help state and non-state actors work together.
- As Lead Governance with the Government of Punjab, worked on the state-reform agenda with ministers and senior bureaucrats, built 15+ global partnerships, and conceptualised institutional setups including an Innovation Unit, Partnership Cell and Center for Rapid Insights.
- Conceptualised and operationalised the Andhra Pradesh Social Empowerment Fellows and the Punjab Good Governance Fellows programme, collectively deploying 70+ fellows across departments and districts.
- Worked in the Chief Secretary's Office and district administration as a Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellow on grievance redressal, e-governance, livelihoods planning, IAP deployment and Aadhaar-enabled direct cash transfer.
- Supported the Government of Odisha on partnership scouting, shaped early state-government engagement thinking at The Convergence Foundation, and led governance and education reform engagements at KPMG.
- Education and fellowships: MBA, FMS Delhi; BE, NSIT Delhi; Acumen India Fellow; Teach For India Fellow; Agami Shaala.
Institutional posture
Trust comes from restraint as much as ambition.
TGI is clear about its thesis and operating model while staying careful about names, outcomes and institutional relationships that are not yet public.
Careful public communication
We share names, engagements and field results only when the people and institutions involved have agreed.
Review before publication
Field material passes sensitivity, attribution and evidence checks before it becomes a public case, pathway or learning product.
Government ownership
TGI strengthens problem-solving capacity inside the public system and avoid presenting itself as the owner of government decisions.
Principles
Curation over volume. Diagnosis before solutions. Government capability over dependency. Humility before context.
The long-term direction is simple: governance actors can diagnose, adapt, coordinate and solve with progressively less external dependence.