Timeline

The spread of popular media and the lack of evidence based policy discussions have weakened people’s access to complete information about their country’s progress. The role of the mainstream media in bringing a balanced perspective is also getting diminished as certain sections are merely focused on raking controversies rather than balanced debates on issues plaguing our country. We believe that the Indian youth is increasingly becoming ill-informed on various public policy issues and are relying more on easily available social media discussions to fulfill their thirst for knowledge.

While social media has democratized communication, the format often provides only rudimentary information about important issues. The consumers of such information are easily susceptible to reaching convenient and unverified conclusions. This information asymmetry creates biased perspectives and prevents in-depth understanding of complex policy issues. Hence, there is a need for nuanced evidence based discussions on critical issues to arrive at constructive solutions.

Moreover, there are very few platforms available to engage in thorough discussions with public policy leaders and influencers. The existing policy boot camps and fellowships are creating awareness but informed and active engagement is still a relatively unexplored territory. There is a necessity to offer our future leaders a global perspective by giving them access to high quality thought leaders who will expose them to real world challenges, scope and innovations by engaging them in a learning community.

Over the years, India has become extremely dependent on the bureaucracy to solve the country’s problems. However, that is now gradually changing as state governments as well the Niti Aayog have opened up avenues for young professionals. They are now engaging them in front-end policy making roles and also in policy implementation work. Therefore, there is a need to prepare the next generation of leaders who possess competencies that transcend the public sector-private sector divide and also have a detailed understanding of the challenges that exist in the public sphere.

Fellowship Design

From our academic learnings, research and professional experience we have come across frameworks and skill sets that should be a part of the armory of our future public leaders. These include multi-party negotiation skills, design thinking, advocacy/campaign skills, evidence based decision-making frameworks, adaptive leadership, effective social media communication, public speaking and persuasive writing skills. The CPL Fellowship will have a two-pronged approach and will focus on imparting these skills as well as a conceptual understanding of various policy issues. This will be done through interactive lectures with policy practitioners, eminent professors, scholars, as well as leaders in the field of politics, media, law and social sector.

focus on nine thematic areas:

Structure

The CPL Fellowship is a one year long, part-time fellowship program with a cohort of the best and brightest minds who wish to explore or build on their skills in the field of public policy. The fellows will attend a series of lectures and group-discussions. Before every lecture, fellows will be assigned a significant component of pre-work that will include readings from books, academic journals and content from documentaries and films.

The discussions will take place online via a web conferencing platform. Over the course of 12 months, fellows will build a strong foundational knowledge on the key areas of policy with the help of course material, acquire skills through trained professionals, and interact with thought leaders through the sessions. The 12 months are divided into trimesters to enable a structured and coherent form of learning. The fellows will have the flexibility to be engaged in any full-time/part-time activities (ongoing education/full time employment) alongside the fellowship. The lectures will be conducted in the evening or over the weekend to ensure fellows can balance their work alongside the fellowship.

The year-long fellowship culminates with Capstone Projects representing a significant and comprehensive body of work by the fellows’ depicting their academic passion and professional interests explored during the fellowship. Capstone projects may take various formats, e.g. case studies, research papers/reports, policy briefs, podcasts, documentaries, etc. CPL provides end-to-end mentoring and guidance to the fellows to create substantial work useful for their career growth.

CPL will charge fellows a nominal fee of Rs. 25,000 for the year long program. We aim to build a community of leaders who can help find progressive solutions to India’s major political, economic and social challenges.