Why India has so few Olympic Medals + The Tech NITI Bootcamp 2025!
Policy Post #154
Dear Reader,
Trust you’re well :) In this edition, we explore India's limited success in sports, which reflects deeper societal challenges. Cultural attitudes that undervalue physical activity and the historical stigma surrounding physical labor, rooted in the caste system, are significant barriers. We also highlight the WWF Living Planet Report, showcasing India's sustainable food consumption patterns—an impressive contrast to other G20 nations!
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With that, we bring to you: Policy Post #154!
This Week’s Policy Focus 🔎
India’s limited success in sports highlights societal challenges hindering athlete development. Unlike the USA and China, which prioritise sports, India faces cultural attitudes that undervalue physical activity, especially among the middle class and elite. Additionally, the historical stigma surrounding physical labor from the caste system impacts participation across social strata. Inconsistent government policies and inadequate investment in sports infrastructure further result in missed talent-nurturing opportunities.
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!
📝 Article Highlight:
A study by New_ Public and the Center for Media Engagement highlights Vermont’s Front Porch Forum (FPF) as a tool for positive community engagement. Unlike major social platforms, FPF fosters local ties through moderated discourse. With 235,000 active users, it enhances civic engagement and community resilience.
📚 Research Highlight:
WWF’s Living Planet Report ranks India’s food consumption as the most sustainable among G20 countries, needing just 0.84 Earths by 2050! In contrast, patterns from Argentina and Australia would require 7.4 and 6.8 Earths, respectively, emphasising the need for sustainable diets.
💻Fellowship Highlight:
The India Prison Portal seeks two Fellows with a Bachelor's or Master's degree in law, social science, or public policy, focused on marginalisation issues. Fellows will curate and share prison-related datasets for stakeholders. The 12-week fellowship offers a part-time commitment and a monthly stipend.
🔎 Databases and Guides:
Discover your ultimate career resource sheets for everything related to public policy! Our comprehensive mega-lists include over 150 organisations that are always on the lookout for talent, 200+ scholarships for Indian students, and 150+ public policy courses. Dive in and unlock incredible opportunities!
💡Opportunity Highlight:
👉🏽 Public Policy India has partnered with the Hertie School to bring you TechNITI 2025, an AI-Based Policy Bootcamp and Competition! Gain hands-on experience with AI tools in policymaking through expert-led sessions and showcase your skills in a national competition tackling real-world policy challenges. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to innovate at the intersection of technology and governance!
▶️Video Highlight:
👉🏽 This episode of #CutTheClutter analyses the 2024 Asia Power Index by the Loi Institute, highlighting India's rise to third place, surpassing Japan but still behind the US and China. It examines India's strengths in future resources and resilience, alongside weaknesses in economic relationships and defence networks, stressing the need for improvements to fully realise its potential.
👥 Community Update:
👉🏽 Last week, a bunch of PPI community members gathered at the Youth Internet Governance Forum 2024 at IIM Bangalore! It was a fantastic opportunity for collaboration and discussion on key internet governance issues.
All our communities are free to join, open to everyone and are continuously growing and evolving to maximise the opportunities and awareness about policy and careers in this broader space that we can create in cities across India’s 20 most vibrant cities.
The idea is to organise regular in-person meet-ups, workshops and other career activities around the year to help you grow and learn. Most knowledge in the broader public policy and social impact space resides with individuals, and is not institutionally captured. Knowledge transfer occurs most effectively when one gets to meet others :)
Join our absolutely free pan-India communities on WhatsApp and be a part of the next in-person meet-up!
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!
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