Takshashila Sandesh - November 2021
A newsletter connecting Takshashila alumni to ideas, opportunities and networks.
— Sowmya Nandan & Apurva Kumar
We are back with another dispatch of Sandesh where we share work opportunities in public policy, events, and other perspectives from the Takshashila Institution.
Work/Internship Opportunities
ATREE is looking to hire Director, Centre for Policy Design
CEGIS has an opening for Senior Program Associate - Public revenue/taxation/public finance & outcome measurement
Gateway Consulting is looking for a policy research intern
Featured Alumni Story | Navaneeth Ganesh
“For a fresh graduate educated in engineering, interested in how technology affects people and their livelihoods, without a clue on how to go about it, a chance conversation about Policy led me to pursuing the GCTP Program at Takshashila. The programme has well structured online lectures in addition to intensive classroom modules at the workshops. An intuitive LMS,coupled with a great cohort of individuals from diverse backgrounds matured my understanding. The experience of ground realities and how governments, academia and civil society can contribute to action for good led me to a fulfilling career path.”
Navaneeth Ganesh, Mahatma Gandhi National Fellow, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, GoI
Centre for Public Policy, IIMB
You can connect with Navaneeth here - linkedin.com/in/navaneethcrshna
Students’ Insights - A peek into what our students are writing about
Social Media Commission-A Federated Model for Governance: ‘This paper tries to answer this question by proposing a federated model of governance called the Social Media Commission (SMC). The proposed structure will have international, country-level, district, or regional-level bodies, working in synergy and following a bottom-up approach.’- Kamesh Shekar (PGP 5)
School Closure, Digital Divide, Learning Gap: ‘While we speak about the changing modes of offline and online education and make efforts to bring in a new education policy, this could be ‘the moment’ for transformation of the education system as a whole. At this juncture, it would be wise to once again assess our syllabus and take unnecessary learning load off our children’s backs, which is proving to be a hindrance to outcomes in competency based learning.’- Kumar Abhishek (PGP 5)
Takshashila Gyan
Prateek Waghre writes about the Twitter trends manipulation across platforms, before the 2019 General Elections in India,in his dispatch for ‘The Information Ecologist’. Pranay Kotasthane writes about the North-South divergence in his latest dispatch. To commemorate Constitution Day on 26th November, here’s what Apurva Kumar wrote on the importance of the ‘Fraternity’ clause in the Preamble to the Constitution.
Podcasts
Social Networks and Indian Women: Access to social networks could potentially benefit Indian women, but women in India tend to be isolated. In this episode, Suman Joshi, Apurva Kumar and Sarthak Pradhan discuss the barriers women face in creating and accessing social networks. They also reflect on the possible implications of the same.
AI Regulation- A Global Policy Challenge: The use of Artificial Intelligence technologies is on a rise across the globe. Countries are increasingly demonstrating a keen interest in regulating their use, specifically the effects of such technologies on civic life. In this episode, Sapni G K and Megha Pardhi join Mihir Mahajan to look beyond the buzzwords and discuss regulatory initiatives that target the use of AI technologies.
Mental Health and India's Police: Indian police personnel are overworked, under-trained, and under-equipped. Yet they are at the forefront of jobs from traffic duty to pandemic management. This has lead to mental health problems in the force. Ruturaj Gowaikar and Aarthi Ratnam discuss the lack of systemic, institutional psychological support for India's police personnel. They also dwell on the role of police as first-responders for a mental health emergency.
What has Takshashila been up to?
We’ve been doing a lot on Kalpa [our brand new alumni inspiration platform]. Career webinars, quiz & book exchange bureau interest groups have become a regular feature. Keep an eye on Newsfeed on Kalpa.
After the launch of Kalpa since mid-September: 7 exclusive alumni events done:
2 Career webinars - by Karthik Muralidharan & Shubhashree Patra (alum)
In case you are in Bengaluru join us for our special alumni meet-up on Sunday, 5th Dec - 12 to 4 pm. RSVP using this link - I am attending
We have started accepting applications for the January cohort of GCPP and PGP. The Post-Graduate Programme (PGP) in Public Policy is a 48-week long online programme which working professionals can join without taking breaks from their jobs. It gives an opportunity to interact with the best minds in public policy and engage with the peers from diverse backgrounds.
That’s it for now. If you have any comments or suggestions, write to us.