Chaitanya Abstract India has a known history of water scarcity, droughts, and also, waterborne diseases. Various efforts have been made to address issues related to drinking water from the government side. The latest addition to this list is an ambitious…
An informative and interactive panel discussion on Data and public Policy was presided by Dr Soumyadip Chattopadhyay, Associate Professor, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan; Visiting Senior Fellow, IMPRI. To set the tone of the discussion he began with the challenges associated with data evolution as with the increase in online activities large section of the population is leaving digital footprints as a result of which numerous inauthentic and unreliable data are being circulated in the economy and for accessing the authentic data various data tools and policies are needed.
Fiza Mahajan, a research intern at IMPRI, had the honor of introducing Ms Urvashi Prasad. She discussed the dilemma associated with public policy formulation at the practical level by taking into consideration the example of COVID-19. At the onset of the pandemic, there was a lot of confusion regarding whether to go for masks or not or to implement lockdown or not. With the insights about policy implementation from the practitioner's point of view, she discussed various factors that need to be taken care of while implementing policies such as proper assessment of available resources, along with its impact on civil society at large.
Prof Mukul Asher took an informative and interactive session on Introduction to Public Policy. He is a Former Professor, at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, and a Visiting Distinguished Professor, at IMPRI. He began by pinpointing the weak areas where people especially civil servants lack while formulating public policy as they lack quality data, poor economic reasoning, and poor legal backing. The key to good policy-making is relevant content along with thought logic. Then Intelligently he described the art of public policy with the help of a graph in which various indicators were highlighted such as population density concentrated in some parts of the country especially Uttar Pradesh and accordingly policies will be formulated, he pointed out the development activities near coastal areas vai Sagarmala, Bharatmala.
The session on Bureaucrats’ Reflections on Public Policy was taken by Dr. Nivedita P. Haran who is the Former Additional Chief Secretary, of the Government of Kerala. She began with the definition of Public Policy as what actually Public Policy means. It refers to the systems in place be they economic, political, or social and the information and data available with the same. Further, it includes the mindset of the government and the governed as it looks into the prioritization aspect as well in the financial sector to promote the public sector or private sector that ensures efficiency and effectiveness in the bureaucracy. The policy is considered the bedrock of the governance which comprises vision, mission, policy, programs, and projects.
Holding the current Presidency of the Group of 20 or G 20, India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s able leadership has adopted a number of fresh initiatives to bolster ties with the leading economies of the world. The adoption of the New Delhi Leader’s Declaration has been making headlines since September 10. Another major initiative of the summit is the announcement of the mega India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). This article tries to reflect upon the various details of the proposed economic corridor and the major reasons behind announcing such a massive project.