ISB students talk politics with Member of Indian Parliament

The Bharti Institute of Public Policy at Indian School of Business’ Mohali campus recently hosted Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, Member of Parliament (MP), Kendrapara (Odisha) for a Public Policy Workshop. This event was organised in association with Young Indians (Yi) a non-government, not-for-profit, industry led and industry managed organisation under Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Students at Indian School of Business (ISB) got an inside look into the working of the Government with a one on one session with Jay Panda, Member of the Indian Parliament. The workshop provided a platform to the students to develop an understanding of important policy issues, the role of Members of Parliament, the working of a political office, approaches to public policy, opportunities in the field and ways for citizens to engage with elected representatives.

Jay Panda urged the youth to take a keen interest in politics and play a pro-active role various socio-political processes. He added that “the youth is angry with the way, things are progressing in our nation, so we are holding such workshops to meet young entrepreneurs, young professionals, intellectuals, industrialists, students and academicians from across the country who want to do something for the nation but do not know how. “The aim is to discuss and implement certain small systematic changes and tools which can bring about a lot of change in near future,” said Panda.

The workshop raised and answered pertinent questions on how and where citizens can contribute to the country’s governance.

The first session of the workshop focussed on ‘Understanding governance better: Our constitutional structure’. Rohit, the head of policy making in Panda’s office explored issues of Distribution of Powers: checks and balances, the working of the Centre, States and the Panchayati Raj and the working of the Legislature during the session.

Yashita Jhurani and Gaurav Goel from Samagra Development Association in their session on ‘The MP and his people’ explained the nature of work and engagement in the constituency, monitoring and reviewing of projects and schemes such as the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS).

In the following session on “Public policy – Challenges and Opportunities” Professor Matthew Hull and Professor Kaushiki Sanyal spoke about issues such as approaches to policy. They also presented insights from projects being undertaken at the Bharti Institute of Public Policy.

In the afternoon Panda explained to the participants the ‘Important Institutional and Systemic Reforms’ required in India with specific references to Federalism: Distribution of powers and resources, Electoral reforms, Parliamentary reforms and Judicial reforms. “There is a dire and urgent need to bring in parliamentary reforms in order to avoid deadlocks on the House floor on various crucial issues and bills, if our nation has to progress fast like the UK and the US,” Panda said.

The last session explored the ‘Dynamics of the Interaction between the Legislature and the Executive’ through a conversation between Panda and Vini Mahajan IAS, Principal Secretary, Government of Punjab and moderated by Professor Rajesh Chakrabarti, Executive Director of the Bharti Institute of Public Policy.

Oneyearmba.co.in view – Workshops that bring students closer to the workings of the Government are welcome. A big section of youth in India today believes that the ‘system’ is broken and needs a complete overhaul. A closer look at the process of law making and the inner workings of the government may reveal provisions available within the system to combat the problems the nation faces today. The fact that the workshop took place at a business school is encouraging – students stepping out of business schools rarely consider a career in politics. Given the proper platform, these students could bring to politics skills that are usually reserved for stints in the corporate sector.