"The government is becoming more factual, data-based and complex, hence there's a huge scope for policymakers," says Shaurya Doval, co-founder of the independent research think tank, India Foundation. The qualified Chartered Accountant, who also holds a joint MBA degree from the London Business School and the University of Chicago, left his high-powered investment banking job in 2009 to start this think tank. The foundation believes in understanding contemporary India and its global context through the civilisational lens of a society on the forward move. It works with a vision of being a premium think tank that can help understand the Indian civilisational influence on our contemporary society.
Doval believes that there's a huge scope for policymakers in the next decade. “Earlier, public policy studies was not employable but now political parties, media houses, even corporates need these students to engage with the government. The legislative branch in our country will mature, then like developed nations, we can have the students gain hands-on experience with the members of the Parliament and lawmakers for them to see how it all works. I see a huge scope in this field," explains Shaurya Doval, who's the son of National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval.
He says that the future generations will not worship their politicians like the country is now, they would expect figures to validate the government's work for the public good, hence the politicians need professionals in the field of policy making to support their views. "India has the world's largest youth population and things are very different from how it was ten years ago in the political scene. For example, we didn't have political parties being so active on social media before," explains Shaurya, talking about why students need to consider public policy as a career option.
