Evidence-based policy making need of the hour: Experts

NEW DELHI: Evidence-based policy making is the need of the hour to adequately safeguard the interests of the common people, according to experts at the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy.

India's present socio-economic and political transformation process requires strengthening of the capacity for undertaking evidence-based policy making at multiple levels of governance, they said.

The build-up of this process is currently underway and is creating opportunities in diverse fields, a statement by O P Jindal Global University (JGU) said.


The statement said public policy is taught as a practice at JSGP to enable its practitioners find creative channels for public deliberation and evidence-based means for making decisions in the public interest.

"The ability to do this is the need of the hour because increasingly elected representatives are unable to fully reflect and adequately safeguard the interests of ordinary people," it said.

Professor C Raj Kumar, founding vice-chancellor of JGU, said, "There is an increasing interest among the youth to professionally engage with the public policy processes, both at the state and at the Union government levels."

"This is evidenced by the increasing number of newer schools offering programmes in public policy, and the significant increase in number of students applying for the MAPP (masters in Public Policy) programme of the JSGP," he said.