Thank you for visiting the website of the Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay.
Policy Studies is a relatively nascent discipline in India. But its importance is bound to increase given the increasing complexities of the economy, technology and governance that will require, more and more, in depth inputs from different stakeholders. A Centre such has ours has an important role to play in this regard in terms of bringing these inputs together, analysing these with academic rigour, and inform the policy making process.
Capacity building in the policy sector is crucial in this context. Policy making in India has, for quite some time now, been the domain, often exclusively, of the permanent bureaucracy. In many sectors, thanks to the complexities involved and the expertise needed, consultations with the wider world of experts and professionals do take place; but the process needs considerable streamlining. For this we require trained professionals who understand the various aspects of policy processes: the theory of it, the practices, the nature of the policy – whether regulatory in nature or otherwise, various factors that influence the process of policy formulation, its implementation, monitoring, and, at the end of the day, its evaluation. Our Centre hopes to contribute to this process of capacity building.
As envisaged, we started our PhD programme from the Autumn Semester of 2017. The first two batches have 17 students pursuing their doctoral studies including one under the IITB- Monash joint PhD programme. We are now about to start the Masters Programme in Public Policy from the Autumn Semester of 2019.
One important feature of our academic programmes is the summer internships with policy desks in different government departments, policy think tanks and large advocacy organisations. The first batch of Ph.D. students have already interned with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the Department of North East Region, the Centre for Policy Research, Safai Karmachari Andolan, National Housing Bank, and IT for Change, among others. This gives them a hands-on experience of the policy process.
A Centre for Policy Studies in an institution such as IIT Bombay has certain advantages. It is a publicly funded Institute and can have autonomy in its policy related work. In fact, the Centre has so far functioned without any external funding. Secondly, the strong tradition of interdisciplinary research in the Institute is of help in shaping the working style of the Centre in a hub and spokes fashion. The Centre can focus on the core policy area while drawing upon the expertise available within the Institute in various sectors and disciplines, in the form of associate faculty. We have a set up number of policy study units anchored by faculty from different disciplines. These include study units on information economy and governance, water and sanitation, energy, gender, child nutrition, public health, and CSR among others. The Centre provides core policy support to these units.
One important focus area of the Centre is the information economy and governance. The ingress of technology in the governance arena is increasing, complex, and is a matter of concern. There is a strong need to study this process and build the capacity of civil society and of policymakers to engage with the information economy. We also need to study the emerging data commons and deal with these. IIT has a strength in this regard, that of having subject matter experts who can dialogue with faculty from Humanities and Policy Studies to look at the emerging frontiers of high tech as it impacts the social and political processes.
Another important perspective we wish to develop is of policy histories. As we take up different policy areas, the importance of the context, current as well as historical, becomes clearer. For students of Policy Studies, this is both an important learning and in some cases sobering learning. Needless to say, the policy ought to learn from its history.
Apart from its academic functions, the Centre is taking up policy dialogues to create awareness about policy matters, within the Institute to begin with and beyond it eventually. We have also begun a series of thematic ‘Policy in Practice’ workshops that will provide a platform for different stakeholders i.e. policy makers, practitioners, researchers and funding agencies together; in order to identify various policy gaps and challenges and ways to overcome these so as to improve governance in that arena.
With the announcement of the MPP programme and the intake for the third batch of Ph.D., we will now have a critical mass of scholars who can begin to share their work and place it in the public domain. This website will be our vehicle for such dissemination. We hope to see more and more visitors, discussions and conversations, for, as the saying goes “wade wade jaayate tatwabodhah” — continuous debate takes you to the essence of a matter.
I welcome you to join us in our endeavour to become a Centre of Excellence that facilitates evidence-informed and inclusive public policy.
Head, Centre for Policy Studies and Professor, CTARA