The Policy Post this week brings you

• Two Giveaways!

• Upcoming Policy Circle in Delhi (20th June)

• A DIY guide to build a community

• A study on how Climate change may expand chikungunya risk in North America, Europe and Asia

As always, we wrap up with a curated list of opportunities.

Let’s get into it!

⁉️The PPI Policy Question: Policy or Parody?

A. A Government-certified professional queue standers.

B. A country created “Happiness Ministers” in the government.

👉 Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.

🏙️PPI’s Policy Circle in Delhi

PPI, in partnership with MIT-WPU, is coming to Delhi on 20th June!

And you walk away with:

🟣 A policy careers workshop on nuances of policymaking, and many career options to pursue

🟣 A speaker session on “Why Public Policy needs Politics?”

🟣 An evening with Delhi’s policy community, open + free

Register now!

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for all updates

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 Nītividhāna giveaway

Public policy today must be civilizationally informed, culturally rooted, and contextually relevant.

To transform policy, we must first understand the ideas that shape governance itself.

Bṛhat is now accepting applications for an Advanced Certificate Course in Governance and Statecraft: Nītividhāna, with joint certification from ŚIKṢĀ – IITK Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, Sri Sri University, and Bṛhat.

Designed for policy enthusiasts, researchers, practitioners, civil services aspirants, and governance professionals, Nītividhāna explores how Indian Knowledge Systems can enrich contemporary policy analysis, governance thinking, and institutional design.

Why join the Cohort?

🟣Strengthen your policy analysis through civilizationally informed and contextually relevant frameworks

🟣Explore Indian perspectives on governance, leadership, administration, and statecraft

🟣 Develop the ability to think critically about policy design, implementation, and transformation

🟣 Learn from distinguished scholars, practitioners, and policy experts

🟣 Join a multidisciplinary cohort of professionals, researchers, students, and changemakers

Learn more about the course!

Apply now, mention “PPI” under “Referral Details,” and avail a minimum 50% scholarship.

Apply now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the scholarship.

👀Spotlight of the week

Janaagraha

Why do some cities thrive while others struggle with the same challenges year after year?

Everyday urban problems are rarely just about roads, water, waste, or housing. More often, they are symptoms of something deeper: weak systems, limited institutional capacity, and fragmented governance.

Which is why this week’s spotlight features Janaagraha, an organisation working to build better cities!

Read more about Janaagraha's work!

🏙️Giveaway: PPI’s City Chapter Coordinator position

PPI has built 35+ chapters across India’s 25 largest cities. If you’re an individual enthusiastic about policy and impact, you have the opportunity to participate in and build the policy ecosystem in your city, and emerge as a leader!

What you’ll get:

🟣 Open, direct access to the PPI team including the founder, Yash

🟣 Priority given for internship, fellowship and consulting projects done with PPI

🟣 Official PPI title - add a credible leadership role to your LinkedIn and CV

🟣 Co-lead events and build your profile as a policy leader in your city

🟣 Connect with think tanks, universities and government stakeholders nationwide

Participate in the Giveaway now!

🎥 Video of the Week

Research reveals that strong community and social connections can lower the odds of premature death by up to 50%. In fact, social isolation poses a mortality risk comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

This video discusses the three Rs needed to build a community: Rituals, Rhythm, Rules.

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of resources

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

Climate change may expand chikungunya risk in North America, Europe and Asia, study says

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, identified north-eastern North America, central Europe and East Asia as emerging risk zones. At present, chikungunya is not endemic to Europe or North America.

Read the essay here!

💼Careers Corner

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database

⁉️Policy or Parody?

Answer: B - The United Arab Emirates established the position of Minister of State for Happiness (later titled Minister of State for Happiness and Wellbeing) in 2016. The role focuses on aligning government policies with citizen satisfaction and social good.

The Policy Post this week brings to you

• Upcoming Policy Circle in Bengaluru

• “State of India’s Environment: In figures” Report

• PPI Executive - a focussed community for policy professionals with 5+ years of experience

As always, we wrap up with a curated list of opportunities.

Let’s get into it!

⁉️The PPI Policy Question: Policy or Parody?

A. A government created official “nap rooms” in workplaces to improve productivity.

B. A city banned people from walking while looking at their phones.

👉 Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.

🏙️PPI’s Policy Circle in Bengaluru on 13th June

Free, in-person policy and development management careers workshop coming soon to Bengaluru!👇🏼

PPI, in partnership with ISDM, is coming to Bengaluru with a curated workshop on how to navigate policy and development management careers. If you’ve been curious about the space looking for the right community, then this is for you!

And you walk away with:

🟣 A careers workshop with Yash Agarwal on navigating paths in policy

🟣 A speaker session with Ravi Sreedharan (Founder and President, ISDM)

🟣 An evening with Bengaluru’s policy community, open + free

🗓️ Saturday, 13th June 🕕 6-8 PM 📍Dialogues Cafe, Koramangala, Bengaluru

✅ Free to attend ☕Coffee’s on us!!

Register now!!

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for all updates

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

📝 Essay of the Week

Nearly 13 per cent of Indians suffer from some kind of disease. Young girls and women are reporting more illness than men in both rural and urban areas.

This essay discusses the “State of India’s Environment: In figures” report published by DTE and CSE on 4th June, 2026.

Read the essay here!

🏙️PPI Executive for policy professionals

PPI started as a space for people early in their policy journey. Now, we’re building something for the people a few chapters ahead.

PPI Executive is a close-knit, pan-Indian community for policy professionals with 5 to 15 years of experience (Masters and full time fellowships are counted as years of experience).

Ex. A person with 2 years of masters and 3 years of work experience would be eligible to join the community.

It’s sector-agnostic, free to join, and being kept deliberately small to start.

Members get access to:

- A peer directory, searchable by sector and city

- Off-the-record conversations on what’s actually happening in the ecosystem

- Speaking opportunities at PPI events and Policy Sangam

- First consideration for consulting collaborations through PPI

- Intelligence from PPI’s 150,000+ grassroots community

(It’s not another networking group. It’s a vetted room where people actually doing this work can find each other, exchange real intelligence, and collaborate).

Join PPI Executive now!

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of resources

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

State of Environment report 2026 on Heat

India experiences about 48 extremely hot days each year. Even if countries meet their Paris agreement pledges, this could rise to 71 days under a 2.6°C warming scenario.

Read the article here!

💼Careers Corner

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database

⁉️Policy or Parody?

Answer: A - Japan has actively encouraged workplace napping culture.

“Population” has always been a dynamic and multidimensional subject of study. Population decline is an issue, but so is population explosion. Replacement migration is viewed as a solution, but also as an issue of its own.

The Policy Post this week brings to you

• The vanishing of the youth - an essay on decline of birth rates

• The upcoming Policy Circle in Pune

• A spotlight on Minerva Impact

• A note on how the Policy Circle in Delhi happened

As always, we wrap up with a curated list of opportunities.

Let’s get into it!

⁉️The PPI Policy Question: Policy or Parody?

A. A city used bright lights to reduce crime rates.

B. A city introduced “silent buses” where talking was prohibited.

👉 Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.

🏙️PPI Policy Circle in Pune

On 6th June, Public Policy India is coming to Pune for a policy workshop.

In-person development, policy and NGO sector careers workshop next Friday evening in Pune👇

PPI, in partnership with Anant National University, is coming to Pune with a curated workshop on how to navigate policy and development management careers. If you’ve been curious about the space looking for the right community, then this is for you!

And you walk away with:

🟣 A policy careers workshop on nuances of policymaking, + many career options to pursue
🟣 A careers workshop with Yash Agarwal on navigating paths in policy
🟣 Loads of chats + an evening with Pune’s policy community, open to all

📅 Saturday, 6th June
⏰ 6–8 PM
📍 Starthub Cowork space, Koregaon Park

and yess, Coffee’s on us!!

Register now!

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for all updates

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy?

Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is currently accepting applications.

This two-year residential programme focuses on understanding how policies are designed, implemented, and shaped by political and institutional realities.

KSPP offers scholarships for eligible candidates, and applicants applying through PPI may be considered for fee waivers depending on the school’s evaluation, including academics, interview performance, and financial background.

Apply now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

👀Spotlight of the week

The Policy space is filled with organisations doing impactful work, in innovative ways, forging their own paths.

Through PPI’s Spotlight feature, we try to focus on such organisations and this week we talk about the interesting intersection Minerva Impact works in.

Minerva Impact works at the intersection of business and public policy — helping discover infinite possibilities for India. Its work is rooted in strengthening the five Es: Education, Employment, Entrepreneurship, Economy, and Environment.

Read more on Minerva Impact!

If you’re an aspiring policy professional interested in independent research under mentorship, write to Minerva Impact at hello@minervaimpact.org.

🏙️PPI’s latest Policy Circle - Delhi

On 27th May, Public Policy India came to Delhi for a Policy Circle in collaboration with Indian School of Development Management (ISDM).

We started with an icebreaker around policy issues that were personal to the participants, and conversations of “Oh, where do you work?” and “What did you write about?” flowed over coffee.

We then sat down for a Policy Showcase - where participants spoke about the cool initiatives they are a part of, followed by a speaker session by Mona Dikshit and a workshop on navigating careers by our founder Yash Agarwal.

What followed was our favourite part of Policy Circles - people interacting after the session, forming changing shapes that were always accompanied by exciting conversations, and none of us wanting to leave the community we have quickly grown fond of!

Want to join the Policy Circle in your city?

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for all updates

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

📝Essay of the Week

In all developed countries, fertility rates are well below 2.1, the ‘replacement rate’ needed to maintain a stable population.

This essay discusses the precipitous decline of birth rates throughout the world which is considered to pose a serious threat to humanity.

Read the article here!

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of resources

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

India, the world’s largest population - for how much longer?

India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR), has fallen below the replacement level of 2.1, according to the Sample Registration System Statistical Report 2024.

Check how the TFR has transitioned over years and how it stands in different areas presently, in this article.

Read the full article here!

💼Careers Corner

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database

⁉️Policy or Parody?

Answer: A — A Philadelphia streetlight crime study, beginning in August 2023, observed that upgrading around one-third of city’s streetlights had an observable and statistical effect on crime citywide.

Policy is an emerging space in India. Nonetheless, there are 600+ think tanks in India that are looking for policy professionals. With only 2,000 policy graduates produced annually, there is plenty of policy careers open and waiting to be explored. This week’s edition focusses on empowering you with the data, tools, and information needed to crack the policy space.

The Policy Post this week brings to you

• 4 new PPI City Chapters: Goa, Patna, Coimbatore, Ludhiana+Amritsar

• Policy Navigator: a one-stop solution to navigating careers in Policy

• Upcoming Policy Circle in Dehradun (29th May, 2026)

• How is India Trying to Address Air Pollution?

As always, we wrap up with a curated list of opportunities.

Let’s get into it!

⁉️The PPI Policy Question: Policy or Parody?

A. Cities introduced “walking lanes” based on walking speed.

B. National laws regulating how quickly people can walk in airports.

👉 Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.

🏙️4 New PPI City Chapters: Goa, Patna, Ludhiana+Amritsar, Coimbatore

PPI is so thrilled to announce that we are adding 4 new chapters to our PPI community!

Goa. Patna. Coimbatore. Ludhiana + Amritsar.

With these chapters, we aim to build a community in these cities where policy is budding steadily as a career option!

Like always, these chapters will see

🟣 an online community notified of all the exciting opportunities happening in these places

🟣 Policy Circles: in-person meet-ups of PPI that hosts Policy enthusiasts in these cities to gather, learn, and make conversations

🟣 an invite to all PPI initiatives, giveaways, and workshops

If you wish to track the policy and social impact developments in these cities, or know someone who is curious about policy opportunities, join our PPI community’s new chapters!

Join the Chapters now!

🎓 Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy?

Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is currently accepting applications.

This two-year residential programme focuses on understanding how policies are designed, implemented, and shaped by political and institutional realities.

KSPP offers scholarships for eligible candidates, and applicants applying through PPI may be considered for fee waivers depending on the school’s evaluation, including academics, interview performance, and financial background.

Apply now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

💼🔎Policy Career Navigator

The Policy Space is so vast and always building that you could be here 10 years and still unaware of all the roles that are open.

The good news is, we at Public Policy India, have made a Policy Career Navigator that has an expansive list of all the roles open to graduates (but also very simple to use).

The Navigator is more than just a directory. Through the Policy Career Navigator you can:

• Take a 2 minute quiz and identify your skills.

• Find roles that are the best fit for your skills.

• Find the entry points for your dream role in the policy and social impact space along with the compensation.

If you need to know anything about a career in policy in India, the Policy Career Navigator is the only thing you need.

Check out the Policy Career Navigator!

🏙️PPI Policy Circle in Dehradun

On 29th May, Public Policy India is coming to Dehradun for a policy workshop.

In-person development, policy and NGO sector careers workshop next Friday evening in Dehradun👇

PPI, in partnership with ISDM, is coming to Dehradun with a curated workshop on how to navigate policy and development management careers. If you’ve been curious about the space looking for the right community, then this is for you!

And you walk away with:

🟣 A policy careers workshop on nuances of policymaking, + many career options to pursue
🟣 A speaker session with Sanjana Kaushik (Manager, Admissions/Outreach, ISDM)
🟣 A careers workshop with Yash Agarwal on navigating paths in policy
🟣 Loads of chats + an evening with Dehradun’s policy community, open to all

📅 Friday, 29th May
⏰ 6–8 PM
📍 IKSANA Workspaces, Sahastradhara Road

and yess, Coffee’s on us!!

Register to join us at Dehradun!

🎥 Video of the Week

There are 6 million+ vacant government positions across central and state governments in India.

However, only 2,000 dedicated policy graduates are produced annually.

UPSC is not the only way to shift to public policy. This video discusses how to start a career in public policy.

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of resources

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

How is India Trying to Address Air Pollution?

This essay sets the context of how air pollution is a major health risk in India, discusses the action taken by the Government and 6 ways in which India can #buildbackbetter. It also mentions the support World Bank has provided to India in this aspect.

Read the full article here!

💼Careers Corner

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database

⁉️Policy or Parody?

Answer: A - Cities introduced “walking lanes” based on walking speed.

Liverpool, UK trialed designated fast lanes in 2015. Marked out by a major retailer outside the Liverpool One shopping center, it encouraged brisk walkers to bypass shoppers and tourists.

National Geographic conducted a social experiment in Washington, D.C., USA in 2014 by splitting a busy sidewalk into two paths: “No Cell Phones” and “Cell Phones”.

The Policy Post this week brings to you

• PPI Executive

• Giveaway for the community!

• Common Mid-Career Mistakes That Limit Advancement And Growth

• Chronic indoor heat exposure: an under-recognised climate threat

As always, we wrap up with a curated list of opportunities.

Let’s get into it!

⁉️The PPI Policy Question: Policy or Parody?

A. A city paid citizens to grow rooftop vegetables and report harvest data.

B. A country created “Ministry of Loneliness” officers to combat social isolation.

👉 Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.

🏙️PPI Executive

Most professionals in this space are generous when you reach them. The problem is reaching them at all.

PPI Executive is a new chapter from Public Policy India (PPI), built to change that.

What is PPI Executive?

A close-knit, pan-Indian community for policy professionals with 5 to 15 years of experience, a vetted, high-trust space where people who are actually doing the work can find each other, think together, and move faster because of it.

Members get:

• A searchable directory of peers, indexed by sector, city, and expertise

• Periodic off-the-record conversations on what’s actually happening in the ecosystem (Chatham House rules)

• Speaking and working opportunities at PPI events and at Policy Sangam, our annual gathering

• First consideration for policy consulting assignments/collaborations through PPI’s work

• Synthesised intelligence from PPI’s 150,000+ grassroots community: where emerging talent is moving, what they’re prioritising, what skills are in demand

• Confidential senior-level opportunities that circulate through trusted networks, not job boards

Who should apply?

If you have 5 to 15 years of experience in public policy, development, government affairs, impact consulting, CSR, research, or adjacent spaces and you value depth over volume, this is for you.

We are building this carefully, keeping it small to start. Every application is reviewed individually.

Join PPI Executive now!

🚨Giveaway Alert: 70% Scholarship!

Rashtram School of Public Leadership, Rishihood University is organising its 10th edition of the Policy Bootcamp from 13th to 28th June, 2026 at Delhi NCR.

The Policy Bootcamp aims to deepen democracy and gear-up governance through:

• Residential Bootcamp

• 100% Placement Assistance

• Extensive Policy Network

• Top Policy Superstars

The Policy Bootcamp has limited seats. So, Public Policy India has partnered with the Policy Bootcamp to save 10 seats for the PPI community. The first 10 people to apply and get selected for the Policy Bootcamp through PPI get a 70% scholarship.

Use Scholarship Coupon Code: PBC26PPI to get a 70% discount on the bootcamp for 10 people.

Read the Brochure

Application Deadline: 31st May, 2026

Apply now

🏙️PPI’s Policy Circles this week

On 9th May, Public Policy India came to Hyderabad for a Policy Circle in collaboration with Anant Fellowship in Sustainability and Built Environment.

Post the speaker session on “What can cities learn from user research"?” and a policymaking workshop led by our founder, Yash Agarwal - conversations flowed over coffee!

PPI’s Policy Circle is coming to Guwahati today, join us at Beyond Offices, Guwahati at 5pm today for a free, in-person, policy and development management workshop!

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for all updates (including exciting new editions of Policy Circles)

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy?

Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is currently accepting applications.

This two-year residential programme focuses on understanding how policies are designed, implemented, and shaped by political and institutional realities.

KSPP offers scholarships for eligible candidates, and applicants applying through PPI may be considered for fee waivers depending on the school’s evaluation, including academics, interview performance, and financial background.

Apply now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

📝 Essay of the Week

Mid-career professionals — those with 6 to 15 years of experience — accounts for 47% of hiring demand but is also the hardest to find, cited as the scarcest talent pool by 38% of recruiters.

This essay discusses “Common Mid-Career Mistakes That Limit Advancement And Growth”.

Irrespective of your seniority (or lack thereof), reading this article could lead to holistic introspections of yourself :D

Read the article here

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of resources

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

Chronic indoor heat exposure: an under-recognised climate threat

Even air conditioning cannot mitigate the heat in low-and middle-income housing in Indian cities, mostly built from heat-trapping brick and reinforced concrete, finds analysis.

The Article discusses a study on the change in temperatures indoor, the structural reasons for heat trapping, and the impact such elevated temperatures have on sleep, quality of life and mortality.

Read the full article here

💼Careers Corner

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database

⁉️Policy or Parody?

Answer: B — the UK appointed a Minister for Loneliness in 2018 to tackle the growing public health issue of social isolation, inspired by the work of the late MP Jo Cox.

The UK government loneliness strategy focusses on three areas:

• reducing the stigma surrounding loneliness,

• driving a lasting shift in our understanding of loneliness, and

• ascertaining what really works by examining the evidence of various interventions.

Policy is vast, interdisciplinary and all-encompassing. An action in a single domain can have ripple effects across several others, all of them unitedly affecting the end user - the people.

This week’s edition brings to you an in-person Policy Careers workshop in Guwahati curated by PPI, in partnership with ISDM. It also investigates how Ahmedabad moves and why its share of public transport is low, compared to other cities. It travels further to explore roads as lived infrastructure and how they shape our daily lives.

Alongside, it also highlights the degradation of Amazon, weakened by deforestation and climate change together.

As always, we wrap up with a curated list of opportunities.

Let’s get into it!

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

🏙️PPI Policy Circle in Guwahati

On 15th May, Public Policy India is coming to Guwahati for a policy workshop.

In-person development, policy and NGO sector careers workshop next Friday evening in Guwahati👇

PPI, in partnership with ISDM, is coming to Guwahati with a curated workshop on how to navigate policy and development management careers. If you’ve been curious about the space looking for the right community, then this is for you!

And you walk away with:

🟣 A policy careers workshop on nuances of policymaking, + many career options to pursue
🟣 A speaker session with Sanjana Kaushik (Manager, Admissions/Outreach, ISDM)
🟣 A careers workshop with Yash Agarwal on navigating paths in policy
🟣 Loads of chats + an evening with Guwahati’s policy community, open to all

📅 Friday, 15th May
⏰ 5–7 PM
📍 Beyond Offices, Bora Service, Kanchan Rd, opp. Apollo Clinic, Ulubari

and yess, Coffee’s on us!!

আহক আটাইয়ে আমি গুৱাহাটীত লগ হওঁ ৷

Register to join us at Guwahati now!

To build more spaces for such conversations, learning and community building, we are bringing Policy Circles to more cities!

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for all updates

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy?

Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is currently accepting applications.

This two-year residential programme focuses on understanding how policies are designed, implemented, and shaped by political and institutional realities.

KSPP offers scholarships for eligible candidates, and applicants applying through PPI may be considered for fee waivers depending on the school’s evaluation, including academics, interview performance, and financial background.

Apply now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

🎥 Video of the Week

How Ahmedabad is DIFFERENT From Any Other Indian City

Ahmedabad moves different - only 12% of the people in Ahmedabad use public transport.

The Climate Brief, an initiative by Rainmatter explores how the population of 8 million move within the city. Despite expansive bus services under Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service and Janmarg, and a growing metro network, 1 in 2 persons own a vehicle in Ahmedabad. This video explains this phenomenon.

📝 Essay of the Week

Roads in most cities of India are the most visible forms of governance. They are not just technical/infrastructural projects that are measured by length, budgets and deadlines, they are spaces that people must navigated daily.

This piece studies roads as lived infrastructures - those that are used everyday and shape daily life. It discusses the insights from Nāgrika Fellow Candidates (2025–26), read alongside recent reporting from cities such as Kottayam, Chandannagar, Meerut, Pune, Cooch Behar, Manali, and towns in Meghalaya, that reveal a stark mismatch between how roads are imagined by authorities and how they are experienced by citizens.

Read the report here

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of resources

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

Amazon’s shift into degraded forest

Climate change and deforestation together could push two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest towards critical ecological breakdown at lower levels of global warming than previously estimated, a new study has found. This article discusses the findings of the study, and the consequences that shall follow if the trend continues.

Read the full article here!

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We’re a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India’s policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

Across cities and sectors, policy conversations are increasingly being shaped by lived experiences, how people engage with systems, access opportunities, and navigate constraints in real time.

This week’s edition reflects that ground-up perspective. From Policy Circles in Bhopal and Chandigarh and upcoming ones in Kochi and Bhubaneswar to research on digital financial inclusion among women street vendors in Pune, the focus is on how policy plays out in everyday contexts.

We also spotlight Aditi Chugh, a practitioner whose work sits at the intersection of food systems, research, and policy implementation, alongside a piece on Bhutan’s climate burden raising broader questions around responsibility, capacity, and regional coordination.

As always, we wrap up with a curated list of opportunities.

Let’s get into it!

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

🏙️ PPI Policy Circle: Bhopal and Chandigarh

Last week, Policy Circles were hosted in Bhopal (24th April) and Chandigarh (25th April), bringing together individuals exploring careers in public policy for an evening of conversations, peer exchange, and shared learning.

Designed as an in-person policy workshop, these circles focused on building community, creating room for participants to engage with each other, reflect on their journeys, and navigate questions around policy careers in a grounded way.

The conversations continue this week, with Policy Circles coming to Kochi (1st May) and Bhubaneswar (2nd May).

We’re bringing Policy Circles to more cities, with more conversations ahead!

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for all updates

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy?

Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is currently accepting applications.

This two-year residential programme focuses on understanding how policies are designed, implemented, and shaped by political and institutional realities.

KSPP offers scholarships for eligible candidates, and applicants applying through PPI may be considered for fee waivers depending on the school’s evaluation, including academics, interview performance, and financial background.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

Spotlight of the Week

Bridging research and real-world impact is often at the heart of effective policymaking. In this week’s Spotlight of the Week, we feature Aditi Chugh, an agriculture policy practitioner and researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Her work focuses on the practical implementation of food policies across global contexts, with particular attention to input subsidies, food fortification, and agricultural commercialization. Having previously worked with the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare on MSP systems and data frameworks, she brings a unique perspective that connects policy design with on-ground realities.

Her journey reflects the value of interdisciplinary thinking combining economics, politics, and data to better understand how institutions and incentives shape outcomes, and to build more effective, sustainable policy solutions.

Read the full spotlight on LinkedIn!

📝 Essay of the Week

Empowering Women Street Vendors: UPI and Financial Inclusion

Financial inclusion, a critical component of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has emerged as a cornerstone of economic development. This study examines the potential of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as a cost-effective and scalable FinTech solution to enhance financial inclusion among women street vendors in Pune, one of the most financially excluded segments of the informal economy.

Using a mixed-methods approach combining surveys, interviews, and triangulation, the research finds that while UPI adoption contributes to social empowerment, seamless access remains a privilege. Statistically significant links between education, income, and adoption indicate that lower literacy and income reduce the likelihood of usage. The study identifies social exclusion as a major barrier to financial inclusion, underscoring the need for governments and regulators to make UPI more inclusive and ensure a more equitable distribution of its benefits.

Read the full paper here

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

Bhutan’s Climate Debt: A Regional Challenge

Bhutan, a carbon-negative country, is facing severe climate impacts—from drying water sources to glacial risks despite contributing little to global emissions.

The piece highlights a key tension: the costs of adaptation are high and underfunded, making Bhutan’s “climate debt” not just a national issue, but a shared regional concern for South Asia especially given its interconnected river systems and economic linkages.

Read the article here!

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

Policy today is increasingly being shaped at the intersection of governance, public finance, and institutional capacity.

This week’s newsletter explores these themes through the lens of systems and scale, from a Policy Careers Workshop in Mumbai centered on exploring pathways into the policy space to reflections on India’s urban governance and the need for stronger local institutions.

Also in this edition: a closer look at direct cash transfers and their role in welfare delivery, alongside a piece examining whether tools like debt-for-nature swaps can address broader questions of inequality and development finance.

As always, we wrap up with a curated list of opportunities.

Let’s get into it!

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

🏙️ PPI Policy Circle: Mumbai

We hosted an engaging in-person Policy Careers Workshop and Community Meetup in Mumbai on 17th April, in collaboration with Kautilya School of Public Policy, bringing together a vibrant group of aspiring policy professionals and practitioners.

From meaningful conversations to actionable insights, the meetup created a space for learning, exchange, and community building.

We’re bringing Policy Circles to more cities, with more conversations ahead.

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for all updates

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy?

Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is currently accepting applications.

This two-year residential programme focuses on understanding how policies are designed, implemented, and shaped by political and institutional realities.

KSPP offers scholarships for eligible candidates, and applicants applying through PPI may be considered for fee waivers depending on the school’s evaluation, including academics, interview performance, and financial background.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

🎥 Video of the Week

India’s Urban Governance – Past and Future

Featuring insights from Vijay Kelkar in a fireside chat hosted by Indian Institute for Human Settlements, the discussion reflects on the evolution of India’s urban governance framework and the challenges shaping its future. The conversation offers a sharp policy perspective on the need for empowered local governments, stronger financial autonomy, and institutional innovation to make Indian cities more resilient, accountable, and growth-oriented.

📝 Essay of the Week

Direct Cash Transfers: Evidence & Caveats

Published by The Nudge Institute, this report examines the growing role of direct cash transfers as a tool for poverty alleviation in India. Drawing on global and Indian evidence, it highlights how cash transfers can improve income stability, asset creation, and human development outcomes such as education, nutrition, and well-being. At the same time, the report cautions against viewing them as a silver bullet.

The piece makes a nuanced case for treating cash transfers as a complement not a substitute for public services and infrastructure, arguing that their effectiveness ultimately depends on context, institutional capacity, and careful policy design.

Read the Report Here

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

Debt-for-Nature Swaps

Debt-for-nature swaps aim to ease sovereign debt while funding environmental protection, but their impact remains small and uneven.

The piece raises a key question: can such instruments scale to address global inequality and climate finance needs, or are they ultimately a limited, niche solution?

Read the Full Article Here!

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

Climate Change is redefining the way policies are shaped from housing and infrastructure to health and labour.

This week’s newsletter explores cities as interconnected systems, linking planning, environment, and everyday life. From a Policy Circle in Bhopal, designed to offer direction and help navigate pathways in the policy space, to questions around urban biodiversity and whether our cities are truly equipped to handle these challenges.

Also in here: a video that breaks down how global economic shifts are shaping India’s outlook, from currency pressures to broader macroeconomic uncertainty, and a piece on how cities may heat up faster than their rural surroundings, raising urgent questions for urban planning and climate adaptation. As always, there’s a curated list of opportunities at the end.

Let’s get into it!

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

🏙️ PPI Policy Circle: Bhopal

PPI, in collaboration with the Anant Fellowship in Sustainability and Built Environment, is hosting a free, in-person policy careers workshop in Bhopal for those exploring careers in public policy.

The evening will feature a careers workshop led by Yash Agarwal, along with a speaker session featuring Sourabh Popli, an Associate Professor at the School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, whose work engages with landscape phenomenology, ecological resilience, and the relationship between people and environments, and Hardika DayalanI, Director of the Anant Fellowship in Sustainability and Built Environment.

Beyond the sessions, the event is also designed to foster meaningful, grounded conversations among peers navigating similar questions around policy careers.

📅 Friday, 24th April

⏰ 6–8 PM

📍 Oneworx Co-working Space

The session is free to attend and coffee’s on us!!

Register Here!

We’re bringing Policy Circles to more cities, with more conversations ahead.

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for all updates

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy?

Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is currently accepting applications.

This two-year residential programme focuses on understanding how policies are designed, implemented, and shaped by political and institutional realities.

KSPP offers scholarships for eligible candidates, and applicants applying through PPI may be considered for fee waivers depending on the school’s evaluation, including academics, interview performance, and financial background.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

🎥 Video of the Week

How is India’s Economy Positioned in 2026

Featuring insights from V. Anantha Nageswaran, the Chief Economic Advisor of India, the video unpacks how global economic turbulence is influencing India’s macroeconomic stability. From currency pressures to external vulnerabilities. It offers a concise policy perspective on navigating uncertainty while sustaining growth.

📝 Essay of the Week

Urban Biodiversity: Leveraging Natural Capital and Social Innovation

Urbanisation is putting increasing pressure on biodiversity, often isolating and degrading natural ecosystems within cities. Using Delhi as a case, the piece argues that integrating “natural capital” (like green spaces, water bodies, and urban forests) into city planning is essential for improving quality of life and ensuring long-term sustainability.

This piece makes a strong case for positioning urban biodiversity not as an afterthought, but as central to resilient and livable cities.

Read full essay here

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌟 Avenues for Upskilling

Public Policy Puzzle

Public Policy Puzzle (PPP) is a platform on a mission to make public policy accessible, engaging, and useful for students, young professionals, and curious citizens. Through courses, resources, and interactive formats.

Check out their website!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

Uneven Heat Burden

Indian cities may heat up far more than expected, even under a 2°C global warming scenario. New research shows that urban areas could experience up to 45% higher temperature increases than surrounding rural regions, meaning the actual heat people feel in cities could be significantly underestimated.

The finding raises a key policy question: are urban climate plans accounting for the true scale of heat risk, or relying on projections that miss how cities actually warm?

Read the full article here!

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

There’s a difference between knowing about policy and actually sitting with the questions it raises.

This week’s newsletter sits right at that intersection — from a Policy Circle in Kolkata that looks at cities through arts and culture, to a closer look at India’s demographic window and what it really demands from policy today.

Also in here: a video that unpacks how policy thinking plays out beyond textbooks, and a climate transition story that’s as much about equity and health as it is about energy. And as always you will find a list of opportunities at the end.

Let’s get into it.

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

🏙️ PPI Policy Circle: Kolkata

In collaboration with Anant National University, this is a free, in-person careers workshop + panel discussion on a slightly different way of thinking about cities.

We have with us Dr. Jenia Mukherjee — urban water researcher at IIT Kharagpur and Coordinator at the Global Centre of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability, TU Berlin — someone who approaches cities in ways that stay with you long after the conversation ends.

Come for the workshop, stay for the conversation, leave with people you actually want to stay in touch with ☕

🟣 Free entry + careers workshop
🟣 Networking ice breaker
🟣 Panel: Arts, Crafts and Cities — why the humanities matter in urban policy

📅 Saturday, 18th April
⏰ 6:00 – 8:00 PM
📍 Collab Deck, Russel Street, Park Street area, Kolkata

Register Here!

More cities, more conversations, and more Policy Circles coming up soon.
📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group.

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy?

Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is currently accepting applications.

This two-year residential programme focuses on understanding how policies are designed, implemented, and shaped by political and institutional realities.

KSPP offers scholarships for eligible candidates, and applicants applying through PPI may be considered for fee waivers depending on the school’s evaluation, including academics, interview performance, and financial background.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

🎥 Video of the Week

How policy thinking actually plays out

A useful watch if you’ve ever wondered how policy decisions move from theory to practice — and what gets lost (or negotiated) along the way.

📝 Essay of the Week

India’s demographic dividend — opportunity or ticking clock?

India’s much-discussed demographic dividend isn’t automatic — it depends on whether jobs, skills, and policy can keep pace with a rapidly shifting population.

This piece breaks down what’s at stake, and why the window may be narrower than we think.

Read the full essay here!

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌟 Avenues for Upskilling

Public Policy Puzzle

Public Policy Puzzle (PPP) is a platform on a mission to make public policy accessible, engaging, and useful for students, young professionals, and curious citizens. Through courses, resources, and interactive formats.

Check out their website!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

India’s green transition — fast, but uneven

India is electrifying faster than many expected, driven by cheaper renewable technologies and policy push. But transitions like these are never just about speed — they’re about who benefits, who gets left out, and how systems adapt.

What’s interesting here is not just the scale of change, but the trade-offs: grid stability, affordability, and access — all of which directly shape health outcomes, especially for vulnerable communities.

A useful read if you’re thinking about climate not just as environment, but as infrastructure, equity, and public health.

Read the full article here!

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

Policy can feel abstract, until you’re in a room where people are actually trying to figure it out.

That’s what Policy Circles have been about. And this week, we’re bringing that room to Ahmedabad.

Alongside that: a free masterclass on breaking into the policy job market, and a sharp look at how India is positioning itself globally. And as always you will find a list of opportunities at the end.

Let’s get into it.

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

🏙️ PPI Policy Circle: Ahmedabad

In collaboration with Anant National University, this is a free, in-person careers workshop + panel discussion on urban policy — designed for anyone trying to figure out where they fit in this space.

Come for the workshop, stay for the conversation, leave with people you actually want to stay in touch with ☕

🟣 Free entry + careers workshop
🟣 Networking ice breaker
🟣 A room of people who are genuinely curious, not just credentialing

📅 Saturday, 11th April
⏰ 6:00 – 8:00 PM
📍 Uncubate Co-working Space, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad

Register Here!

More cities, more conversations, and more Policy Circles coming up soon.

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for more such meet-ups

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy?

Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is currently accepting applications.

This two-year residential programme focuses on understanding how policies are designed, implemented, and shaped by political and institutional realities.

KSPP offers scholarships for eligible candidates, and applicants applying through PPI may be considered for fee waivers depending on the school’s evaluation, including academics, interview performance, and financial background.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

Community Highlight

Thousands of you write to us every month with the same struggle- great profiles, but applications that don’t convert. So we decided to do something about it. PPI has collaborated with TSL Careers, a one stop Public Policy careers platform, to bring you a completely FREE masterclass designed to fix exactly that.

Speaker: Akshat Agarwal (Public Policy Veteran | 15+ years across PwC, Pratham, EIU, Accenture & HSBC)

Topic: From Application to Offer- Cracking the Public Policy Job Market
Date: Saturday, 11th April
Time: 7:00 – 8:30 PM
Platform: Zoom

Register Here!

(Only 100 seats. First come, first served.) If cracking a top public policy role is on your list, this is the session you shouldn’t miss.

🎥 Video of the Week

India’s Foreign Policy: Playing All Sides?

India today is balancing relationships with the US, Russia, and China — while trying to hold on to strategic autonomy.

In this conversation, Samir Saran and Leslie Vinjamuri unpack what that actually looks like in practice — and what it signals about India’s long-term positioning.

It’s less about diplomacy optics, more about how power is negotiated in real time.

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌟 Avenues for Upskilling

Public Policy Puzzle

Public Policy Puzzle (PPP) is a platform on a mission to make public policy accessible, engaging, and useful for students, young professionals, and curious citizens. Through courses, resources, and interactive formats.

Check out their website!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

Climate, Law & Accountability

For a long time, climate action has largely depended on political will — negotiations, commitments, and voluntary targets that often fall short of urgency. But a new push led by Vanuatu, supported by an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, is beginning to shift that conversation.

This is worth your time if you’re interested in where climate governance is headed — especially how international law might start shaping real accountability, particularly for countries in the Global South already facing the worst impacts.

Read Here!

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

This week reflects that idea in different ways: through our Chennai Policy Circle, a closer look at where India is placing its long-term economic bets, and a spotlight on Rumit Walia, whose journey shows how consistent action can grow into long-term impact. And as always you will find full database of resources, opportunities and so much more at the end.

Let’s get into it.

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

🏙️ Community Highlight: PPI in Chennai

On March 22nd, we brought the PPI community to Chennai for a Policy Circle in partnership with ISDM and the room showed up.

What stood out wasn’t just attendance, but the kind of conversations that followed. From careers in policy to questions around implementation and impact, the discussion moved quickly beyond surface-level interest into how governance actually works in practice.

These spaces remind us that public policy becomes far more accessible when it is discussed, questioned, and unpacked collectively.

More cities, more conversations, and more Policy Circles coming up soon.

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for more such meet-ups

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy?

Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is currently accepting applications.

This two-year residential programme focuses on understanding how policies are designed, implemented, and shaped by political and institutional realities.

KSPP offers scholarships for eligible candidates, and applicants applying through PPI may be considered for fee waivers depending on the school’s evaluation, including academics, interview performance, and financial background.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

🎥 Video of the Week

Where Is India Placing Its Long-Term Bets?

This breakdown looks at where government capital is being directed — and what that signals for India’s economic trajectory.

From semiconductor manufacturing and rare earth corridors to defence capex, PLI 3.0, and data centre incentives, the discussion maps how policy is shaping opportunities across sectors.

This isn’t political commentary — it’s a business and economic lens on policy decisions, and what they could mean over the next 10–20 years.

Spotlight of the Week

What starts as a small habit can sometimes grow into a lifelong commitment to change. In this week’s Spotlight of the Week, we feature Rumit Walia, Founder of Tears of the Earth, a youth-led initiative focused on environmental action and sustainability.

Working at the intersection of climate, peace, and technology, Rumit’s work brings together youth participation, creative engagement, and program design to address complex global challenges. His journey reflects a simple but powerful idea: meaningful change is built through consistent action over time.

Read the full spotlight on LinkedIn!

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌟 Avenues for Upskilling

Public Policy Puzzle

Public Policy Puzzle (PPP) is a platform on a mission to make public policy accessible, engaging, and useful for students, young professionals, and curious citizens. Through courses, resources, and interactive formats.

Check out their website!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

Municipal Bonds & Urban Reform

As Indian cities grow, financing urban infrastructure is becoming a critical challenge.

Municipal bonds offer a pathway for cities to raise capital while improving financial discipline and governance standards — but their success depends on stronger institutional capacity and investor confidence.

The larger question: can municipal finance evolve fast enough to support India’s urban transition?

Read More!

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

We often think of policy in terms of design and intent. But its real test lies in implementation — in whether systems are accessible, responsive, and equitable for the people they are meant to serve.

This week’s edition brings together an upcoming Policy Circle in Jaipur, a research brief examining gaps in road crash compensation in India, and a recent PPI campus conversation in Coimbatore. Together, they reflect how policy is shaped not just through institutions, but through people, practice, and lived realities.

As always, you will also find resources and opportunities at the end of the newsletter.

Let’s get into it.

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

🏙️ Community Highlight: PPI in Jaipur

Free, in-person workshop on building careers in the policy space in Jaipur :)))

If you’ve ever wondered how intentions turn into real impact in the policy world — this one’s for you.

We’re bringing PPI Policy Circle to Jaipur, supported by the Indian School of Development Management (ISDM), for an evening where we unpack what careers in public policy actually look like — the work, the decisions, the challenges + the opportunities.

Think of it as a space where curiosity meets conversation.

📅 Saturday, 28th March 2026
⏰ 6:00 – 8:00 PM
📍 Creware Coworks, Mansarovar

Free entry + coffee’s on us ☕

Register Here!

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for more such meet-ups

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy?

Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is currently accepting applications.

This two-year residential programme focuses on understanding how policies are designed, implemented, and shaped by political and institutional realities.

KSPP offers scholarships for eligible candidates, and applicants applying through PPI may be considered for fee waivers depending on the school’s evaluation, including academics, interview performance, and financial background.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

⚖️ Research Spotlight: Justice Unserved

A new research brief by Crashfree India highlights a critical gap:

👉 Most road crash victims in India never receive compensation.

Titled “Justice Unserved,” the brief maps where the system breaks — from low awareness and delays to complex legal processes and unequal access.

Drawing on insights from practitioners across law, police, insurance, and policy, the report shows that the issue isn’t just road safety — it’s post-crash justice.

The team has also begun documenting 120+ victim experiences and is piloting solutions like hospital helpdesks and AI-based support tools, alongside working with Gurugram Police to improve claim access.

Read the Full Brief!

🎤 PPI Talks! — Coimbatore

PPI recently engaged with students at Hindustan College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, exploring what careers in public policy and development can look like in practice.

From navigating career pathways to understanding how policy intersects with real-world challenges, conversations like these aim to make the field more accessible to young people across contexts.

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌟 Avenues for Upskilling

Public Policy Puzzle

Public Policy Puzzle (PPP) is a platform on a mission to make public policy accessible, engaging, and useful for students, young professionals, and curious citizens. Through courses, resources, and interactive formats.

Check out their website!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

Peatlands are among the world’s most effective natural carbon sinks, capable of storing large amounts of carbon dioxide over long periods. However, they are increasingly being drained for energy production and agriculture, leading to significant emissions and ecosystem loss.

Across regions — from Finland to the United States — researchers and communities are working to restore these landscapes. The challenge lies in balancing conservation with livelihoods, especially for farmers and local economies dependent on these lands.

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

Public policy is not only about decisions made in government — it is about how societies organize themselves to solve problems.

Most people encounter policy indirectly — through news headlines, reports, or the occasional public debate. But the most meaningful conversations about governance often happen in smaller rooms: community meetups, workshops, classrooms, and everyday discussions between curious people trying to understand how systems work.

This week’s edition brings together one such upcoming Policy Circle in Chennai, a leadership opportunity for those looking to deepen their engagement with policy, and a new episode from our Policy Panchayat podcast exploring the work of sexual health educators in India.

As always, you will also find a set of resources and opportunities at the end of the newsletter.

Let’s get into it.

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

🏙️ Community Highlight: PPI in Chennai

Free, in-person workshop on building careers in the development and policy space in Chennai :)))

If you’ve ever wondered how intentions turn into real impact in the development sector — this one’s for you.

We’re bringing PPI Policy Circle to Chennai for an evening where we unpack what careers in development management actually look like — the work, the decisions, the challenges + the opportunities.

Think of it as a space where curiosity meets conversation.

📅 Sunday, 22nd March 2026
⏰ 5:00 – 7:00 PM
📍 Backyard, Gandhi Nagar, Chennai

Free entry + coffee’s on us ☕

Register Here!

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for more such meet-ups

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy?

Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is currently accepting applications.

This two-year residential programme focuses on understanding how policies are designed, implemented, and shaped by political and institutional realities.

KSPP offers scholarships for eligible candidates, and applicants applying through PPI may be considered for fee waivers depending on the school’s evaluation, including academics, interview performance, and financial background.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

🌏 Policy Pioneers Program — Call for Applications

The Policy Pioneers Program is a 16-week hybrid leadership program in public policy designed for students and early- to mid-career professionals interested in engaging with governance and public systems.

The program focuses on practical exposure, including:

• Networking with senior practitioners
• Live policy projects
• Specialisations in Trade, Technology, and Public Systems & Governance

The program is run in collaboration with:

• Public Systems Lab (IIT Delhi)
• The Pranava Institute
• Pahle India Foundation

Selections are on a rolling basis.

Already 1000+ people have signed up.

Apply Here!

🎙️ Podcast of the Week

In this episode of #PolicyPanchayat, Yash Agarwal from PPI speaks with Ms. Niyati Sharma, the founder of Pratisandhi Foundation and a leading sexuality education advocate.

Ms. Sharma shares her journey of building Pratisandhi into a platform for sexual and reproductive health education and discusses the challenges of expanding conversations around sexuality, consent, and health in India.

The conversation also explores how civil society organisations navigate policy spaces while working on sensitive but essential public health issues.

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌟 Avenues for Upskilling

Public Policy Puzzle

Public Policy Puzzle (PPP) is a platform on a mission to make public policy accessible, engaging, and useful for students, young professionals, and curious citizens. Through courses, resources, and interactive formats.

Check out their website!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

Hydropower’s Role in the Clean Energy Transition

As countries expand solar and wind energy, hydropower is gaining attention as a key stabilizer for renewable-heavy grids. Technologies like pumped-storage hydropower can store energy and release it during peak demand.

But expanding hydropower also raises important policy questions around environmental impact, water governance, and displacement.

Read More!

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

“Public policy is about how we make decisions as a society.”
— Thomas Dye

Public policy often feels distant — something that happens in government buildings, conference halls, or official reports.

But the reality is simpler: policy comes alive when people understand it, question it, and participate in the conversations shaping it.

This week’s edition reflects exactly that — from our Delhi Policy Circle meetup, to a look at Mumbai’s evolving infrastructure landscape, to this week’s spotlight on Jhoomar Mehta, whose work focuses on translating complex policy ideas into narratives that people can actually engage with. As always you will find a detailed list of resources at the end of the newsletter.

Let’s get into it.

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

🏙️ Community Highlight: PPI in Pune

There’s something special about seeing the PPI community come together in person.

Our Pune Policy Circle meetup brought together students, early-career professionals, and policy enthusiasts for conversations on careers, governance, and the realities of working in the policy ecosystem.

These gatherings remind us that public policy is not just about ideas — it’s about people who care enough to sit together, exchange perspectives, and ask better questions about how change actually happens.

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group for more such meet-ups

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy?

Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is currently accepting applications.

This two-year residential programme focuses on understanding how policies are designed, implemented, and shaped by political and institutional realities.

KSPP offers scholarships for eligible candidates, and applicants applying through PPI may be considered for fee waivers depending on the school’s evaluation, including academics, interview performance, and financial background.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

🌟 Spotlight of the Week

Jhoomar Mehta is the founder of Prod, a communications and strategy studio working at the intersection of public policy, climate action, and social impact.

Through narrative strategy, research-led storytelling, and experiential communication spaces, Prod helps organisations translate complex policy and technical interventions into narratives that diverse stakeholders can engage with.

For Jhoomar, storytelling isn’t simplification — it’s translation: breaking down complexity so people from different walks of life can meaningfully participate in conversations shaping our collective future.

Read the full spotlight on LinkedIn

🎥 Video of the Week

Mumbai’s Infrastructure Push — What It Means for the City

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently inaugurated the Navi Mumbai International Airport, one of several major infrastructure projects reshaping the city’s connectivity.

In this episode of Cut The Clutter, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta looks at the transformation of Mumbai’s infrastructure — from the Coastal Road and Trans Harbour Link to Metro Line 3 — and what these projects could mean for the city’s mobility, urban planning, and economic growth.

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌟 Avenues for Upskilling

Public Policy Puzzle

Public Policy Puzzle (PPP) is a platform on a mission to make public policy accessible, engaging, and useful for students, young professionals, and curious citizens. Through courses, resources, and interactive formats.

Check out their website!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

Institutionalizing Climate Resilience in Asia

Across Asia, climate adaptation is shifting from localized projects to systemic integration. Despite growing investment in risk assessments and resilience planning, climate insights often remain advisory rather than embedded in planning, financing, and governance systems.

Read the full analysis!

Lasting resilience will depend on making climate risk screening, community-informed planning, and adaptive governance standard practice across institutions.

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

Policy sometimes happens when someone realises that the gap between a good idea and a good outcome isn’t just about politics — it’s about management. About implementation. About the often-invisible machinery that sits between a policy on paper and a life that changes.

That’s what Lucknow gave us last Friday. And we’re just getting started.

This week: our first-ever Lucknow meetup and what it opened up, a reminder about Kautilya School of Public Policy’s scholarships for those thinking about structured learning, and a look at the policy world’s most interesting reads from the past fortnight — from a landmark India-US trade deal to what bureaucracy and state capacity research is quietly telling us about why good governance is harder than it looks.

Let’s get into it.

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

🏙️ PPI Comes to Lucknow — For the First Time

On February 21st, we held our very first Policy Circle in Lucknow. And the city showed up.

India doesn’t have a shortage of policy ideas. What it has is a persistent gap between design and delivery. Lucknow put that conversation front and centre — and we think it’s a conversation every city deserves.

If you want a room full of people who care about governance, want to go beyond the headlines, and are willing to sit with hard questions about how change actually happens — this is your space.

📅 Details going out through city chapters shortly

📍 Keep an eye on your chapter’s WhatsApp group

Not in a chapter yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 If You’ve Been Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy...

The Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at Kautilya School of Public Policy is worth a serious look.

The Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at Kautilya School of Public Policy is now accepting applications for 2025. This 2-year, full-time, residential programme is designed to help you understand not just what policies say, but how they get made, implemented, and shaped by the world around them.

KSPP offers generous scholarships for eligible candidates, and those applying through PPI may qualify for a 100% fee waiver, depending on the school’s evaluation.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

💡 Research Highlight

"Bureaucracy Needs a Rebrand" — VoxDev

VoxDev's 2025 year-in-review has a quietly important section on state capacity. In Chile, merit-based recruitment to public hospitals reduced mortality rates.

In India and Pakistan, how bureaucrats are posted matters enormously for delivery outcomes. If the implementation gap is the problem, this is where the evidence for solving it lives.

Read Here!

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌟 Avenues for Upskilling

Public Policy Puzzle

Public Policy Puzzle (PPP) is a platform on a mission to make public policy accessible, engaging, and useful for students, young professionals, and curious citizens. Through courses, resources, and interactive formats.

Check out their website!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

🧊 When the Ice Goes, Everything Goes

Our Planet on Netflix follows polar bears, walruses, seals, and penguins navigating a world of disappearing ice — and it’s as heartbreaking as it sounds. But it’s also more than a nature film.

What happens at the poles ripples outward — into sea levels, weather systems, food security, and eventually, the health crises that land on frontline workers’ desks across the Global South. Watch it as a briefing, not just a documentary.

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

There’s a version of “working in policy” that looks very linear from the outside — degree, internship, job, repeat. But spend any time in this community and you’ll notice it’s rarely that clean.

Most people in this space got here through a door that barely existed when they walked through it. A program that launched two years ago. A community that didn’t have a chapter in their city yet. A conversation that shifted something.

This week, a Policy Circle coming to Delhi, opportunity for those thinking about the MPP at Kautilya School of Public Policy, and a look at what’s happening to one of the world’s saltiest oceans — and why it matters far beyond the coastline. As always you will find a list of resources at the end of the newsletter.

Let’s get into it.

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

☕ The Policy Circle is Coming to Delhi!

The Policy Circle rolls into Delhi the following week.

If you’re in the capital and want a room full of people who care about governance, policy, and where this country is headed — this is your Friday plans sorted.

📅 February 26 | Details via your city chapter
📍 Delhi

Details going out through the Delhi WhatsApp chapter shortly. Not in it yet? Find and join your city chapter here →

🎓 If You’ve Been Thinking About Structured Learning in Policy...

The Policy Circles are a great starting point — but if you’re ready to go deeper, the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at Kautilya School of Public Policy is worth a serious look.

The Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at Kautilya School of Public Policy is now accepting applications for 2025. This 2-year, full-time, residential programme is designed to help you understand not just what policies say, but how they get made, implemented, and shaped by the world around them.

KSPP offers generous scholarships for eligible candidates, and those applying through PPI may qualify for a 100% fee waiver, depending on the school’s evaluation.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

Policy Pioneers by India House — Applications Are Live!

If you’ve been waiting for a program that doesn’t just talk about policy but actually puts you inside it — this one’s worth a serious look.

Policy Pioneers is a 16-week hybrid leadership program built for students, early-career professionals, and mid-career folks who want to engage meaningfully with public policy — not just read about it. You’ll learn directly from leading practitioners, work on live policy projects, and build real-world exposure across three of the most consequential domains shaping India’s future right now: Trade, Technology, and Public Systems & Governance.

This isn’t a certificate program dressed up in policy language. It’s structured around the kind of learning that actually changes how you think — and what you’re capable of doing when you walk out.

Lead. Learn. Reform.

Start your journey here!

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌟 Avenues for Upskilling

Public Policy Puzzle

Public Policy Puzzle (PPP) is a platform on a mission to make public policy accessible, engaging, and useful for students, young professionals, and curious citizens. Through courses, resources, and interactive formats.

Check out their website!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

🌊 The Ocean Is Changing — And the Consequences Are Bigger Than You Think

The Southern Indian Ocean off the coast of southwest Australia has historically been one of the saltiest stretches of water on the planet. A new study published in Nature Climate Change by Colorado University Boulder finds that it’s getting fresher — fast. The salty area has shrunk by 30% over the past six decades, in what researchers are calling the most rapid freshwater increase observed anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere

.For policy professionals working on climate adaptation, health systems, or food security — this is the kind of upstream environmental shift that quietly reshapes everything downstream.

Read the full story here

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

Here’s something nobody tells you when you’re starting out in the policy space: there’s no single path in.

Some people come through law. Others through economics, data, journalism, development work. Some build careers in government, others in think tanks or consulting. And some of the most interesting people in this space took routes that didn’t exist five years ago.

That’s partly what this week’s edition is about—routes. New ones we’re building, ones our community is exploring, and one that GenAI might be redrawing entirely.

As always, we’ve got databases, resources, and opportunities to help you find your next move.

Let’s get into it.

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

☕ The Policy Circle is Coming to Lucknow — Feb 21

We’ve been taking The Policy Circle to more cities, and this time we’re heading to Lucknow.

PPI is partnering with the Indian School of Development Management (ISDM) to bring you a session we honestly wish existed when we were figuring things out ourselves.

From Intention to Impact: Exploring a Career in Development Management

Because let’s be real—most of us grew up hearing “do something meaningful” but nobody sat us down and said here’s how you actually build a career in social impact without burning out, getting underpaid, or feeling lost.

Development Management sits at an interesting intersection: public policy, business strategy, social impact, and grassroots action. Development managers work with governments, nonprofits, social enterprises, CSR teams, and international organisations to design, implement, and scale solutions across education, healthcare, livelihoods, climate action, financial inclusion, and more. It’s not just about passion—it’s about strategy, leadership, data, operations, and sustainable impact.

🎤 Speakers: Sanjana Kaushik and Madhumita Mukherjee, ISDM

Whether you’re a student exploring options, a young professional wondering if the social sector is really for you, or someone already in it trying to figure out the next step—this one’s for you.

✅ Completely free to attend ✅ One-of-a-kind session ☕ And yes, coffee’s on us

📅 21st February | 5:00–7:00 PM 📍 Lucknow

Register Now!

If you’ve been thinking about structured learning in development management...

ISDM’s programmes are designed for people who want to move from intent to impact—combining policy thinking with management practice to build careers that actually work in the social sector. Their admissions are currently open, and those applying through PPI may be eligible for special consideration.

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference for scholarships

Apply Now!

🎉 Community Highlight: A Week of Firsts

Last week was a big one for us, and we want to share it with you—because honestly, none of this happens without this community.

PPI Signs Its First-Ever MoU — with RV University, Bengaluru

Five years ago, PPI started as a small community of people who cared about policy. This week, we signed our first-ever formal Memorandum of Understanding with RV University—an 8-decade-old institution in Bengaluru.

The partnership focuses on supporting RV University’s students in the years ahead with capacity building, training, and careers support in the policy and governance space.

For a community-driven platform that’s just five years old, this feels like a milestone worth pausing on. We’ve more than doubled our work, partnerships, and reach in just the past six months—and this MoU is a signal of what’s ahead.

More updates on this partnership soon. We’re just getting started.

Community Highlight

Our Bengaluru Policy Circle with Dr. Amrendra Pandey from Kautilya School of Public Policy (KSPP) brought together a room full of curious, sharp minds who wanted to understand one thing: how are public policy decisions actually made?

If you missed this one, don’t worry. The Policy Circle is heading to India’s 20 largest cities in the coming few months, and we’ll keep bringing in practitioners who can walk you through what the process actually looks like from the inside.

If you’ve been thinking about structured learning in policy...

The Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at Kautilya School of Public Policy is now accepting applications for 2025. This 2-year, full-time, residential programme is designed to help you understand not just what policies say, but how they get made, implemented, and shaped by the world around them.

KSPP offers generous scholarships for eligible candidates, and those applying through PPI may qualify for a 100% fee waiver, depending on the school’s evaluation.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

#PPPTalks | GenAI, Tech Policy and the Future of Public Policy Careers in India

Join Yash Agarwal in an online masterclass on “GenAI, Tech Policy and the Future of Public Policy Careers in India” on Feb 21, 11 AM - 2 PM.

What you’ll walk away with:

• The Automate-Augment-Elevate framework for GenAI in policy work

• India’s AI governance approach & IndiaAI Mission

• Career pathways & your own 12-18 month GenAI policy roadmap

If you’ve been wondering how AI is changing the nature of policy work—or where you fit into that shift—this is the conversation to be part of.

Register Here

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌟 Avenues for Upskilling

Public Policy Puzzle

Public Policy Puzzle (PPP) is a platform on a mission to make public policy accessible, engaging, and useful for students, young professionals, and curious citizens. Through courses, resources, and interactive formats.

Check out their website!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

🎬 Watch: Against the Tide

Rising seas, more floods, longer droughts — and the question every sector will eventually face: what happens when the environment shifts faster than institutions can respond?

This episode tracks how the Netherlands is building climate-resilient infrastructure while communities in Bangladesh, Wales, and Florida struggle without it. Sharp, grounded, and relevant well beyond climate policy.

Watch it here →

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

Technology moves fast. Policy? Not always. But that tension between innovation and governance, between what’s possible and what’s responsible is exactly where some of the most consequential work happens.

This week, we spotlight Kriti Trehan, whose work at the intersection of tech, law, and policy ensures that Global South perspectives stay central to digital governance.

We’re also bringing you The Policy Circle | Bengaluru this Saturday—a free workshop with Dr. Amrendra Pandey from Kautilya School of Public Policy (KSPP), walking through how one real policy decision actually unfolded. Registrations are open, and yes, we’re doing on-spot sign-ups too.

And because GenAI is reshaping policy work right now, Yash’s masterclass on GenAI, Tech Policy, and Career Pathways (Feb 21) is one you won’t want to miss.

As always, we’ve got databases, resources, and opportunities to help you find your next move.

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

☕ The Policy Circle | Bengaluru – This Saturday!

We keep hearing the same question: how are public policy decisions actually made?

Public Policy India (PPI), in collaboration with Kautilya School of Public Policy (KSPP), is hosting The Policy Circle | Bengaluru—a free, in-person, guided workshop with Dr. Amrendra Pandey, Assistant Dean (Research) at KSPP.

This session is about process, not positions. We’ll walk through one real policy decision and unpack how it unfolded inside the system—the parts you don’t read about in white papers.

📅 Date: 7 February (Saturday)
⏰ Time: 6:00 – 8:00 PM
📍 Venue: Koramangala, Bengaluru
💰 Access: Free (coffee’s on us ☕)

Registrations are open, and we’re also accepting on-spot sign-ups—so if you’re around, come through. If you know someone in Bengaluru who’d benefit from this, share the link. Policy conversations are better when more voices are in the room.

Register Here!

If you’ve been thinking about structured learning in policy...

The Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at Kautilya School of Public Policy is now accepting applications for 2025. This 2-year, full-time, residential programme is designed to help you understand not just what policies say, but how they get made, implemented, and shaped by the world around them.

KSPP offers generous scholarships for eligible candidates, and those applying through PPI may qualify for a 100% fee waiver, depending on the school’s evaluation.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

📺 Video Highlight

A Reality Check on India’s Social Infrastructures with Karthik Muralidharan | SparX by Mukesh Bansal

Why is the education sector not producing good results? How can illegal practices be reduced in healthcare? What’s the main problem in India’s job market?

This episode examines the education and healthcare sectors, and touches on challenges in India’s job market. If you’re interested in systems thinking, evidence-based reform, or just understanding why things work (or don’t) the way they do, this is a grounded and insightful watch.

#PPPTalks | GenAI, Tech Policy and the Future of Public Policy Careers in India

Join Yash Agarwal in an online masterclass on “GenAI, Tech Policy and the Future of Public Policy Careers in India” on Feb 21, 11 AM - 2 PM.

What you’ll walk away with:

• The Automate-Augment-Elevate framework for GenAI in policy work

• India’s AI governance approach & IndiaAI Mission

• Career pathways & your own 12-18 month GenAI policy roadmap

If you’ve been wondering how AI is changing the nature of policy work—or where you fit into that shift—this is the conversation to be part of.

Register Here

🌟 Spotlight of the Week | Kriti Trehan

Technology is evolving faster than ever—and the policies shaping it matter just as much as the innovation itself.

This week, we feature Kriti Trehan, Founder of Data & Co – Law & Policy Advisors, a boutique consultancy working at the intersection of technology, law, and public policy.

With over 12 years of experience across global tech regulation, AI governance, privacy, digital payments, and online safety, Kriti’s work focuses on helping organisations anticipate regulatory change with clarity and responsibility—while ensuring that Global South perspectives remain central to digital governance conversations.

Read the full feature here

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌟 Avenues for Upskilling

Public Policy Puzzle

Public Policy Puzzle (PPP) is a platform on a mission to make public policy accessible, engaging, and useful for students, young professionals, and curious citizens. Through courses, resources, and interactive formats.

Check out their website!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

India Refocuses Climate Action: Development First, Adaptation Central

India’s Economic Survey 2025–26 reframes climate action as a development-first strategy, placing adaptation, resilience, and human welfare at the centre of policy design. What makes this approach interesting is the underlying rationale: the Survey warns against treating energy transition as a narrow climate exercise, arguing that sustained growth requires affordable, reliable electricity—not just renewable capacity additions.

It’s a useful lens on how climate policy gets shaped by development imperatives and competing priorities when filtered through India’s policy system.

Read the full article here!

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee

As admissions open across public policy schools, skilling programmes, and fellowships, this week’s newsletter focuses on process, perspective, and making informed decisions—before committing to a path.

We begin with The Policy Circle | Bengaluru, a free, in-person workshop in collaboration Kautilya School of Public Policy. Rather than positions or prescriptions, the session focuses on process. Through one real policy decision, it unpacks how trade-offs are negotiated, constraints navigated, and outcomes shaped inside the system.

That focus carries into our coverage of policy education and career pathways, as admissions open at KSPP and beyond including details on generous scholarships and a 100% fee waiver for eligible candidates applying via PPI.

Taken together, this issue is about understanding how decisions are made—before making your own.

Let’s get into Policy Post #220.

Policy Charcha 💬

The best of Podcasts, Videos, Essays, Fellowships and other Career resources from the world of Policy and Governance from the week gone by!

☕ Workshop Highlight | The Policy Circle – Bengaluru

How are public policy decisions actually made?

Rarely in a straight line. They evolve through institutional constraints, political trade-offs, and timing pressures that don’t show up in policy briefs or official documents.

Public Policy India (PPI), in collaboration with the Kautilya School of Public Policy (KSPP), is hosting The Policy Circle | Bengaluru—a free, in-person, guided workshop focused on process, not positions.

The session will walk through one real policy decision, unpacking how it unfolded inside the system.

📅 Date: 7 February
⏰ Time: 6:00 – 8:00 PM
📍 Venue: Dialogue Cafe, Koramangala, Bengaluru
💰 Access: Free (coffee on us ☕)

Register Here!

As we explore how policy decisions are made in practice, it’s natural to wonder what a structured path into this world looks like, here’s a chance to explore it firsthand. The Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) at the Kautilya School of Public Policy is now open for applications.

This 2-year, full-time, residential programme offers a comprehensive curriculum designed to expand your knowledge and skills, while engaging with the real challenges of India.

KSPP provides scholarships for eligible candidates, and those applying through PPI may qualify for a 100% fee waiver, depending on the school’s evaluation. It’s a way to make this learning opportunity accessible to motivated individuals who want to understand policy from the inside.

Apply Now!

📌 If you apply via PPI, be sure to mention us as your reference to be considered for the waiver.

📺 Video Highlight

Policy Panchayat | Building Careers in Public Policy

An attempt to answer some of the most common questions we receive about entering and navigating the policy space—skills, trade-offs, and what the work actually looks like.

Do share it with anyone considering a policy career, and let us know what you’d like us to cover next.

You can also reach out to Yash directly for queries:
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/yashagarwalm/

🔎 Global Policy Schools Database

Exploring policy programmes in India and beyond?

We’ve put together a free, searchable database of global public policy schools and the programmes they offer.

Explore Here!

🔎 Databases and Guides:

Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include 150+ hiring organisations, 200+ scholarships, and 150+ courses, podcasts and a lot more. Dive in and unlock your next big opportunity!

100s of Resources!

🌟 Avenues for Upskilling

Public Policy Puzzle

Public Policy Puzzle (PPP) is a platform on a mission to make public policy accessible, engaging, and useful for students, young professionals, and curious citizens. Through courses, resources, and interactive formats.

Check out their website!

🌍Climate + Health Corner

In Partnership With Swasti, The Health Catalyst

Transforming Healthcare in Tabaco City: A Data-Driven Approach

What does data-driven public health reform look like beyond dashboards and pilots?

This case study from Swasti examines how Tabaco City’s healthcare system was strengthened through better use of data, local capacity-building, and institutional coordination. Rather than focusing on technology alone, the piece highlights how feedback loops, administrative ownership, and on-ground decision-making shape health outcomes.

For readers interested in health systems strengthening, decentralised governance, and evidence-led reform, this is a grounded and instructive read.

Read the full piece here

Careers Corner 💼

A curated list of some of the best jobs and internship opportunities this week from the world of public policy, the development sector, impact consulting and communications at large.

📩 Best bit - if you know of a job/internship opening that’s not listed here, kindly just add that as a comment on the sheet: giving 20,000+ people immediate access to it!

Jobs/Internships Master Database!

You won’t believe it, but it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee to support our work ☕

We're a community-driven platform dedicated to delivering fresh policy insights, creating career opportunities, and helping thousands thrive in India's policy space. To keep all our work free and accessible, we need your support. A small contribution of just Rs. 80 can help sustain and grow our mission. Please consider buying us a coffee and powering our work. Thank you!

Buy us a coffee