Public Policy Group is one of the most important SIGs on campus dedicated to exploring the links between management and public policy. The vision of our SIG is to explore the field of public policy and contribute to regional development by actively participating in various policy initiatives undertaken by the government and non-governmental actors. We aim to generate awareness among the student community by providing a platform to discuss and analyze public policies. By doing so, the students will learn the nuances of Policy drafting, analysis, and implementation through regular interaction with policymakers, implementers, and public leaders and intellectuals.
The group plans to actively work on live projects with various stakeholders related to Policy formulation, execution, and evaluation like Governments, Local Bodies, Think Tanks, Civil Society Organizations, NGOs, Bilateral and multilateral International Development Agencies, Academicians, and Policy experts.
The group plans to keep the community and society aware of the developments happening worldwide. For the same purpose, the group has initiated - "Balicha Speaks," wherein the students of IIM Udaipur speak on current issues and policies. In our endeavor to keep the IIM Udaipur student community updated on recent domestic and international events, we share the weekly current affairs series- "Saptahant" on Instagram.
Tark-Vitark provides a platform for discussions on current social, political, and economic issues of contextual relevance. Students are encouraged to come together to discuss the burning topics of current importance. The purpose of the discussion is to develop ideas, discuss a pre-specified issue and gain a broader perspective. The whole concept of Tark-Vitark is to enlarge learning and instill critical thinking. In 2021-22, Tark-Vitark 3.0 was conducted to create a platform for the community to engage in a healthy debate on the topic "Are citizens following their fundamental duties?", which has become the talk of the town these days due to the involvement of the Prime Minister himself.
This is one of the most insightful and enriching events of the SIG. We invite veterans from different fields of public policy to make them interact with our students. The students listen to their fundamentals and learn a lot from their experiences. We also organize guest lectures by the visiting faculties as a part of the Expert talk series. So far, in 2022, we have hosted two eminent personalities from the field of diplomacy and public policy. Mr. Krishna Mohan, a retired IAS & the Former Additional Chief secretary and financial commissioner of Revenue for the Government of Haryana, delivered the expert talk on "Effect of a leader's social styles on Public Policy Making", and the second speaker was Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, a retired IAS & the present Non-Executive Chairman- Bank of Baroda, current Chancellor- Central University of Gujarat, Former Union Finance and Revenue secretary- Govt. of India, delivered on the topic of "Managing self before managing others".
G.K. WrapUp is a compendium compiled by the Public Policy Group to keep the student community abreast with current affairs as managers and leaders expect. The purpose of the compilation is to serve the students in preparing for interviews and group discussions during the placement process. It contains the latest policy news across varied domains and amendments that occurred in the past six months, and the team members' views on the various events are also included. It helps the students to know what's happening and allows them to form their own perspective about the happenings in the world.
We usually cover the news under various domains, including Polity and Governance, Business, Economics, Finance, Education and Research, Environmental and Social, International Relations & National Security, Sports, Start-ups, Science and Technology, and many more. This year, we covered important topics like the Covid-19 impact on the global economy, the impact of Russia-Ukraine war on the Indian and world economy, the Sri Lankan economic Crisis & it's repercussions, initiatives on NEP-2020, recent development on women's abortion rights in India, HDFC twin’s merger, defence indigenisation, Green Hydrogen etc. This would provide a deep insight to the students about the current issues in the world.
Internal discussion is the weekly discussion in which the Public Policy Group's team meets and discusses recent public policy topics. This aims to bring diverse perspectives regarding the same, forming a base for social media posts. This allows group members to remain aware of developments worldwide and understand their implications for various stakeholders of society.
As part of the Pre-Event of Solaris-21, IIM Udaipur's annual management Fest, the Public Policy Group conducted a debate competition for students from schools in Udaipur. The topic of the debate was between development and environment, and should development be given higher priority. There were students debating for and against the topic. The event saw active participation from school students from classes 9 to 12 from different schools, with multiple perspectives on the issue.
Neeti Charcha is a platform that gives the community an open forum to discuss various political, social, and economic policies which affect Indians in any form. Thus, Neeti Charcha 3.0 was conducted to engage the IIMU student community in a healthy discussion on the issue "Should the legal marriage age for girls be increased from 18 to 21 years?”, which is currently in the parliamentary standing committee on Education, women, children, Youth, and Sports.
A quiz competition was organized by the SIG where the students from the IIMU community were invited to participate. The sole purpose of the competition was to inculcate in students a habit of gearing themselves up with the latest news and events happening across the country and the world. The winner was selected on the basis of parameters like accuracy and overall time taken. It was a very insightful and brainstorming session.
The Public Policy Group has also started working on the creation of India’s first student-led Impact Investment Fund. We have interacted with the various student-run Impact Investment Funds globally like the Stanford GSB Impact Fund, UCLA Anderson Impact Fund, and the Microlumbia Impact Fund.
For Rural Immersion 2020, the Public Policy Group took an initiative to digitize the data collection process (it was completely paper based earlier). Accordingly, as a pilot project, the data collection pertaining to the theme of Menstrual Hygiene Measurement was done digitally, conducted by entire girls of 2019-21 batch, using ODK software and Kobo Toolbox.
In this project, we create a ward level GIS map of Udaipur City which can be used to create interactive web based interactive visualizations for any Ward level variable for the City. The maps were created using open source GIS tools.
We further created a village level GIS map of Udaipur District using Data available in the public domain.
