The campaign “Catch The Rain” initiated by Asok Kumar in 2020 is to nudge the states and stake-holders to create appropriate Rain Water Harvesting Structures (RWHS) suitable to the climatic conditions and sub-soil strata, with people's active participation, during the pre-monsoon and monsoon period. 

Under this campaign, drives to make check dams, water harvesting pits, rooftop RWHS etc; removal of encroachments and de-silting of tanks to increase their storage capacity; removal of obstructions in the channels which bring water to them from the catchment areas etc; repairs to step-wells and using defunct bore-wells and unused wells to put water back to aquifers etc are to be taken up with active participation of the people. DO letters requesting to take steps were written by AS&MD, NWM to Chief Secretaries of all states on 27 February 2020, to all Collectors on 12 May 2020 and to heads of  institutions like IIMs, IITs, Central Universities, Railways etc having large tracts of lands. To facilitate these activities, “ Rain Centers” are to be opened in each district, at least for 4 months from May 1, in Collectorates/Municipality/GP  offices.  During this period, these Rain Centres will have a dedicated mobile phone number and will be manned by an engineer or a person well trained in RWHS. This centre act as a technical guidance centre to all in the district as to how to catch the rain, as it falls, where it falls. The success of the campaign initially confined to institutions with large land areas during 2020 Covid period, caught the attention of the government. Hon'ble Prime Minister Modi mentioned it in his "Mann Ki Bath" on 28-2-2021.

This was then launched as  “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch The Rain” (JSA:CTR) to cover all the country  by Hon’ble Prime Minister Modi  on 22 March 2021, the World Water Day, in a function in New Delhi, in which he addressed officers of Departments concerned in the Central and State Governments, District Magistrates/ District Collectors/ Deputy Commissioners of Districts and Sarpanchs of Gram Panchayats of all States (except those where model code of conduct was in place) via  Video Conferencing. JSA:CTR campaign had five focused interventions-(1) rainwater harvesting & water conservation (2) enumerating, geo-tagging & making inventory of all water bodies; preparation of scientific plans for water conservation (3) Setting up Jal Shakti Kendras in all districts (4) intensive afforestation and (5) awareness generation

Efforts were made so that all buildings in the districts should have rooftop RWHS and that maximum quantity of rain water falling in any compound should be impounded within the compound itself. The basic aim should be that No or only limited will water to flow out of the compound or  #NotADropFromMyCompound. This will help in improving soil moisture. In urban areas it will reduce water gushing out to roads, damaging them and will also prevent urban flooding.

Under the “Catch The Rain” initiative, all water bodies in the districts are to be enumerated, (checked with revenue records) and encroachments to be removed.

Under the campaign, Since the launch on 22 March 2021, till 31 December 2021, both urban and rural areas put together:  a total of 46,70,271 water related works were completed/are on-going, in addition to 36,75,68,460 afforestation activities carried out.  The expenditure under MNREGS alone is Rs 65,666 Crores. 306 Jal Shakti Kendras have been set up in various States/UTs. As reported by the Ministry of Rural Development, more than 2.03 lakh GPs out of the 2.69 lakh GPs have prepared water conservation plans. 15.32 lakh water bodies have been enumerated with its details like its latitude and longitude, ownership, state of health, photos etc. Over 16.67 lakh photos on the activities undertaken/works done under the campaign have been uploaded on the portal jsactr.mowr.gov.in created for collation of information about the campaign from the field level