
With the introduction of the National One Health Mission, India has taken the first step towards building a one-health approach to preventing future pandemics. According to the World Health Organisation, "One Health" is an "integrated, unifying approach to balancing and optimising the health of people, animals, and the environment," a concept that recognises the inextricable link between human, animal, and environmental health. In recent decades, the emergence of different diseases transmissible from animal to human (Zoonotic disease), such as rabies, Nipah virus, and others, has served as an indicator for us to accelerate efforts and implement the One Health framework.

A Four-Week Immersive Online Introductory Certificate Training Course on Fundamentals of PUBLIC POLICY was organised by #IMPRI as a special initiative in the month of March from March (3, 4, 10,11, 17, 18, 24, 25), 2023.

There is a surreal quality to the whole episode as India-Canada relations hit rock bottom after Canadian Prime Minister (PM) Justin Trudeau linked India to the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a charge that New Delhi termed as “absurd”. This allegation by Trudeau has exposed the fundamental fault line in the bilateral relations between the two nations, resulting in tit for tat diplomatic expulsions, travel advisories being issued by the two, Canada deciding to reduce the number of personnel in its embassy in India and India deciding to suspend issuing of visas to Canadian citizens.

The session on 'Goods and Services Tax in India: Rationale and Reform Directions' was conducted by Prof Sachchidananda Mukherjee. He began the session by mentioning the indirect tax reform that the introduction of Goods and Services Tax has brought about.

The session on ‘Evolving Global Trade Architecture and Return of Industrial Policy’ was conducted by Dr. Aashish Chandorkar. He began the session with an introduction to Neoliberal times where government interventions in the economic policies became a bit of a taboo. The current economic and trade system that we see today is a result of a series of events that mainly happened post World War II, but mostly after the establishment of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Mr. V. Ramakrishnan started the session by comparing Public Policy as a compass and strategy as GPS. He says that policy has to be derived from strategy. Your strategy is to improve the life of the citizens and everything is derived from it, be it security, health, food, transport, etc. He says that in any public policy, the elements of economic dimensions, political requirements and social factors have to work in a synchronized manner. It is only at the interface of all these aspects, that actually defines what a citizen is.