Hyderabad : The Kautilya School of Public Policy, Hyderabad, hosted a webinar on Policy, Politics, and Purpose – India’s biggest Policy Challenges in the next ten years and what can be done to solve them.The session dovetailed into formidable challenges thrown by the global pandemic and recent socio-political developments, leading to the need for a public policy ecosystem capable of manoeuvring uncertainties of the 21st century. The panel discussion also marked the official launch of the Kautilya School of Public Policy inviting aspiring students for a career in public policy .
The session gave insights on how growing unemployment levels, increasing inequality, and stagnant demand, coupled with crumbling health, education, and social services infrastructure, require bold policy solutions grounded in a reliable evidence base. As the panelists discussed, the country today is in dire need of rethinking public policy given the current situation of the farmers and doctor protests.
The panel discussed how policy making in the current top-down approach is not a sustainable model for India. Public consensus is the backbone which needs to drive it and therefore, it is crucial to restructure the country’s policy making model. Paradigm shift of the field is what will propel the country to greater heights. Bridging the current process gaps can happen only by training professionals who are empowered to tackle the challenges of modern India. The idea of public policy being technocratic must be changed to understanding the art and science behind it.
The session was moderated by Faye D’Souza with board members of the Kautliya school Ms. Priyanaka Chaturvedi, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha; Mr. Rathin Roy, Managing Director for Research and Policy, Oxford Development Institute; Mr. Navtej Sindh Sarna, Former Foreign Ambassador to the US, Ministry of External Affairs and Mr. Dilip Cherian, Political Campaign Advisor and Communications Consultant. The panel also consisted of the founding members of Kautilya School of Public Policy Mr. M Sri Bharat, President of GITAM; Mr. Prateek Kanwal, Co-Founder and Mr. Sridhar Pabbisetty, Founding Director.
“The country is losing its aspirations and dreams. The people in power are hiding behind layers of protection from farmers who are peacefully protesting a policy 30 kms away from them,” said Mr. Rathin Roy, Managing Director for Research and Policy, Oxford Development Institute.
Ms. Priyanka Chaturvedi Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha stated, “The immense lack of intellectual bandwidth of the government in policy making is a major concern. We need more people who understand policy making, subjects of the state and center as well as concurrent issues.”
Mr. Dilip Cherian, Political Campaign Advisor and Communications Consultant said, “There exists a skill gap among people today to fine tune policy making and make it more lucrative . The voices questioning the ones making them are multiplying every minute and so must the effort in bettering people’s skills.”
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a very small body. Most of the think tanks are established by our retired diplomats when they leave the ministry. They have their own limitations and are a product of the system in place. We need people who can come up with well thought out, evidence based options that will guide our public policy, which is what we are trying to do at Kautilya,” said Navtej Singh Sarna, former ambassador to the United States.
Speaking of public policy education, M Sri Bharat – President of GITAM stated, “Public Policy is not straightforward as a STEM career and requires concentrated efforts and application skills. Many do take it up and head out of the country, but those who stay, implement their learnings and help change the course in place, do true justice to this vertical.”
Addressing the concern around job opportunities in the field, Prateek Kanwal, Co-Founder of Kautilya School of Public policy said “There are ample opportunities that the government provides with their fellowships and many think tanks now are looking for fresh talent to train up from the grassroots level. Tech policy has also become an important aspect with various companies hiring personnel to head their policy division and ensure efficient functioning.”
“The shared passion that we had is what helped in the creation of the school. The country really needs all of us to come together and form better policies for a better tomorrow. The wisdom of many people is what makes Kautilya School of Public Policy really stand out,” stated Sridhar Pabbisetty – Founding Director on the establishment of the institute.
Kautilya School of Public Policy recently announced their admission for the 2021 batch. The institute is offering a 2-year residential Master’s in Public Policy Program (MPP) and a short-term Management Development Programs in public policy for working professionals (applications for the latter will open in January 2021).
