Takshashila Academic Conference - February 2023

The Takshashila Institution conducted a two-day online Academic Conference for its 34th cohort of Graduate Certificate in Public Policy (GCPP) students on the 18th and 19th of February 2023. The Academic Conference had different keynote, breakout and spontaneous order sessions.

A part of the conference was held on Takshashila’s Virtual Campus, hosted on the futuristic proximity A/V platform: Gather Town. This is the 6th edition of the event conducted on this digital space. To find out more about Gather Town and learn about the format of the conference, read our previous report here.

Day 1

Prem Das Rai

In the first keynote session, former Member of Parliament Prem Das Rai discussed what goes into the making of creative public policies.

Lt. Gen. Prakash Menon

In the second keynote session, Lt Gen. Prakash Menon broke down the various organs of government that come into play while making national security decisions.

Narayan Ramachandran

Narayan Ramachandran tracked the history of globalisation & demonstrated with data that deglobalisation is a faulty construct. Inclusive policies in times of high growth will reduce the need for redistributive policies in times of downturn.

Spontaneous Order Sessions

From whether 'Internet shutdowns are justified' to whether 'liberal democracies are really liberal', these sessions are meant to generate out-of-the-box ideas.

Dr. Kajari Kamal

Dr. Kajari Kamal's session on Arthashastra, the ancient treatise on statecraft & military strategy, enthralled the cohort!

Venkatesh Hariharan

In an engaging discussion, Venkatesh Hariharan spoke about the promises and perils of digital public infrastructure.

Bhuvana Anand

Bhuvana Anand, Co-founder & Director at Trayas discussed her research on the regulatory framework around employment in India. India's labour regulatory grid is rigid, impeding the creation of jobs.

Dr. Shambhavi Naik

Dr. Shambhavi Naik shared her insights on the various aspects of the Genetically Modified Crop technology. She explained how it should be perceived from the lens of a policy analyst and what role the government can play in this field.

Prateek Waghre

Prateek spoke about content moderations, why it is so hard and what to expect going ahead.

Dr. Harshit Kukreja

In a session on Biology & Policy, Dr. Kukreja spoke on the biological reasoning approach to public policy, using frameworks from kinship theory, to better understand modern business; financing and occupational patterns.

Sarthak Pradhan

Sarthak conducted a tutorial on how to read, analyse and evaluate union and state budgets.

Anupam Manur

Anupam traced the path and analysed the pricing of water from its source right down to its distribution and factors that impact it.

Day 2

Jayraj Pandya

Jayraj conducted an informative session on how the parliament functions, its journey over the past 70 years, and the path forward.

Suyash Rai

Suyash Rai, deputy director & fellow at Carnegie India, discussed the importance of economic growth and highlighted the history of India’s growth process, identifying the key drivers and the challenges ahead.

Amb. P. S. Raghavan

Amb. P. S. Raghavan gave a broad sweep of the global geopolitical landscape and fielded questions regarding India’s relationship with her neighbours, allies, and developed nations.

Ameya Naik

Ameya talked about some of the steps and processes involved in modelling conflicts in his session on system based conflict analysis.

Mihir Mahajan

Mihir offered insights on algorithm audits and how they bring transparency and accountability to algorithms.

Manoj Kewalramani

Manoj described the current world order as an era of great power competition in an increasingly multipolar world.

Prof. Ashish Kulkarni

Prof. Kulkarni gave an overview of the use of behavioural economics in designing public policies. He discussed the cost-effectiveness as well as the limitations of such interventions.

Pranay Kotasthane

Pranay discussed the rubric of how to decode public policy successes and failures in India as written in his book 'Missing in Action: Policy Making - The Indian Experience'.

Aditya Ramanathan

Aditya shared valuable insights about the strategic significance of space, astropolitics and space warfare while delving into the realities of the space age.

The Takshashila Institution is a pioneer in public policy education. To prepare our students to tackle the complex policy challenges, we bring together academic experts and policy practitioners from across the world. Takshashila’s unique pedagogy allows individuals to study from anywhere and while pursuing their current occupations.

For more details, check out our 12-week Graduate Certificate in Public Policy (GCPP), year-long Post Graduate Programme (PGP) and short-term Special Credit Courses (SCC).