The Bhawanipur Education Society College (BESC) organised a workshop on “Careers on Non-Conventional Fields of Education”. The workshop was conducted by Prof. Rajeev Malhotra, O.P Jindal Global University; and former IAS Officer (Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Finance). The workshop had approximately 20 participants.

Prof. Rajeev Malhotra bridges the world of academics and policymaking. A development economist and a civil servant with over 28 years of experience, he has worked with the Government of India, where until August 2012 he was Economic Adviser to the then Union Finance Minister. From 2002 to 2008, he worked at UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and prior to that at the Planning Commission, New Delhi. He has led research on human rights and rights sensitive development indicators at the UN and is recognized as an international expert on that subject.

Prof. Malhotra began the workshop with an introduction to the term ‘Public Policy’. “Public Policy is about a process and an outcome associated with that process to solve social problems”. Public policies are important, and, hence, their effective conceptualization and implementation are vital.

He also went on to say, “The effectiveness of a policy can be seen in terms of the efficiency of resource use, desirability of outputs, outcome and impact of public action, inclusive sharing of intended benefits, and sustainability of processes and outcomes.” Case studies, facts and figures based on research, associated examples and real-life experiences helped the audience to understand the various tools associated with gauging policy effectiveness, he added.

He also discussed about Public Policy is an interdisciplinary subject and its objective is to solve the confronting issues of the society. The speaker also spoke about the various openings coming in the fields of public policy making both in the government and private sectors. He also added that business enterprises are hiring public policy analysts for their CSR initiatives.

Post the workshop, the speaker took questions from the audience and clarified their doubts.

 ( The report has been filled with Avik Chakraborty along with camera person Lakshya Aggarwal.)