Explore Policy Hub at ISPP, where India’s top minds converge to drive impactful public policy. Stay informed on research, events, and policy insights
India is still known as a predominantly rural economy. While that may be statistically true, the trajectory India has followed reflects a shift in its realities. The latest Census, conducted in 2011, states that around 31.16% of India’s population, accounting for nearly 377 million people, lived in urban areas (Census of India, 2011). According to… Continue reading Before the Curve Bends: India’s Narrowing Window on Urban Planning
India’s higher education system has expanded faster than its labour market has been able to absorb it, and the geography of that mismatch is now visible at the city level. The share of graduates among India’s unemployed 20–29 age group rose from 46 percent in 2017 to 67 percent in 2023.0020These are not marginal statistics.… Continue reading Cities With High-Quality Colleges Are Not the Ones Creating the Jobs
What if the price you pay for everyday goods is incomplete? That was the central question explored during a guest lecture by Yash Kothari on carbon credits and carbon markets at ISPP. Consider something as routine as the price of steel. It accounts for labour, raw materials, energy, and manufacturing costs. But what about the… Continue reading Carbon Credits, Climate Costs, and the Price We Often Overlook
Every Independence Day, we commemorate the generation that secured India’s freedom. But nearly eight decades later, perhaps the more arduous question is this: what does freedom mean today? The Green Revolution transformed a food-deficit nation into one that could feed itself, helping ensure that millions would no longer sleep on an empty stomach. It remains… Continue reading The Independence We Still Owe Every Indian
On April 9th, 2026, the Harris Lecture Series brought Professor John Mark Hansen of the University of Chicago to the Indian School of Public Policy. His subject was the Manhattan Project, the wartime effort that built the first atomic bomb. He did not come to recount the physics. He came to ask how a society… Continue reading Manhattan Project: Lessons for Public Policy and Emerging Technologies
Imagine a future where every Indian child is encouraged to think critically, solve real-world problems, and innovate rather than simply memorise facts. This is the vision behind the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, India’s first comprehensive education reform in over three decades. With nearly 25 crore school students, the policy aims to transform education by… Continue reading Understanding The New Education Policy In India
Forests have been inseparable from imaginations of this country’s landscape. Forest dwelling communities across India held what may be called customary rights over forests. These were rooted in long-standing traditions, community norms, and traditional systems of governance rather than formalised legal titles. They encompassed cultivation, habitation, grazing, collection of forest produce, and most importantly, the… Continue reading Understanding the Forest Rights Act: Why Community Forest Resource Rights Matter
This essay reflects on Professor John Burrows’ concluding lecture in the Harris Lecture Series on loneliness and social capital. In June 2026, a survey by a digital entertainment platform, which assessed emotional wellbeing and social isolation across 36 countries, placed India second on its loneliness ranking, behind only Turkey. Only 3.7% of Indians live alone,… Continue reading Why Loneliness Is a Public Policy Challenge: Lessons from the Harris Lecture Series
Every pill has two lives: one in the laboratory and another in law. The first determines whether it works; the second determines who can afford it. Between these two lives lies one of the defining public health questions of our time: how can countries reward pharmaceutical innovation without placing life-saving medicines beyond the reach of… Continue reading Patents, Patients and the Price of a Pill: India’s Balancing Act Between Innovation and Access
India’s food processing sector is rapidly expanding into a multi-billion-dollar economic engine, and the explosion of homegrown food brands has made regulatory compliance a critical public health priority. Balancing the momentum of food entrepreneurship with uncompromising consumer safety is one of the central challenges facing the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Observing… Continue reading FSSAI Regulations: A Guide for India’s Rising Food Brands
Cheistha Kochhar Nudge Awards
Celebrating ethical behavioural innovations improving lives across India.
