Public Policy in Action - The YLAC experience

"Itna tax leti hai sarkar phir bhi dekho train ki ye halat hai!" commented one of my co-passenger en route to Jhansi for Diwali vacation. In a matter of minutes, the entire compartment started talking about the issue of Demonetization, GST, Reservations, FDIs, Salaries of MPs, etc. Everyone had an opinion and this is not new, most train journeys are like that. We have similar conversations during office breaks, at tea stalls, family dinners, etc.

More often than not, what I generally observe in such conversations is that people take positions based on emotions than logic. I recently completed the 'Policy in Action' program by YLAC India which helped me get a better understanding of what all goes into formulating public policies and how advocacy works in India. I'm writing this article based on my experiences at YLAC for the benefit of others who might be thinking of participating in future programs by YLAC.

A brief background about myself

I gained experience of some of the lacunae in public policy implementation while working on setting up the Public Policy Research Cell at BITS Pilani and the Right to Education Resource Centre at IIM Ahmedabad. Interactions with EWS parents, NGOs, school officials and bureaucrats helped us identify several roadblocks in policy (RTE) implementation and exposed many stories of outright discrimination and deception by some of the elite private schools. These experiences in public policy implementation encouraged me to dig deeper and study policy making (as a hobby).

The 'Policy in Action' is one of its kind program that covers various aspects of policy making and advocacy. Each cohort consists of about 50 fellows and all the sessions are held on weekends. The program also has a live project component where teams of 4-5 fellows work on a Member of Parliament's policy research project. The program seemed interesting, however, being an entrepreneur and working full-time on a startup (MeshUp), I wasn't sure if it was worth the time. Looking back, I'm glad I decided to give it a try.

The YLAC experience

YLAC was one of the most intellectually satisfying experiences of the year.

One good thing about the program was that all the sessions were very collaborative and engaging. So for example when Aparajita talked about how to analyze policy from different angles. We as a cohort debated the Surrogacy Bill from Economic, Sociological, Political and Legal standpoints. Should commercial surrogacy be allowed or should it only be altruistic? Who can be a surrogate? Who should be allowed to avail the service of a surrogate? What’s the institutional structure to enforce the regulation? What started as a fun session quickly turned into one full of heated arguments. Most of these arguments were valid but were contradictory in nature. How to find a right balance is what policymakers often struggle with.

We covered a wide range of topics in one month. I would like to specially mention about two other sessions which were my favourite.

Economic foundations of policy

Most of us already know about the Command Economies (which is completely controlled by the government, down to the number of shoes that should be produced in a country) vs Free Market Capitalist Economies (where individuals own the factors of production, and the government adopts a hands-off approach to production and trade). 

In the first half of this session, we discussed the characteristics of different economic systems and the power of markets. The second half of the session was even more interesting. Remember Modi's and Kejriwal's statement around "Government has no business to be in business"? Or the more recent debate surrounding Air India disinvestment? We discussed what should be the role of the government in a free market economy. This session also touched upon the interesting economic concept like the fundamental problem of exchange, the tragedy of the commons, free riders problem, externalities, etc.

Advocating for a cause

Advocacy means the act of arguing and/or building support in favour of something, such as a cause, idea, or policy, with the aim of influencing decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions.

Remember the issue of Net Neutrality that surfaced last year? The telecom companies got together with internet giants like Flipkart and Facebook and were pushing Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) against something we now know as "Net Neutrality". The telecom companies would have got away with it had the internet activists not launched the #SaveTheInternet campaign (remember this AIB video?). This is the classic example of how civil society can effectively advocate for their cause.

We also discussed how businesses do advocacy/lobbying in India. Unlike in the US, lobbying is a grey area in Indian law. However, that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Space is dominated by industry bodies, law firms and PR agencies. We did a case study on the role played by the e-commerce giants - Snapdeal (Marketplace model) and Amazon (Inventory based model) in impacting the FDI regulations for retail e-commerce.

Concluding remarks

Overall, YLAC was a great experience for me. Apart from learning new things, I got to meet many interesting people from diverse backgrounds. There were CAs, Lawyers, Doctors, Architects, Designers, Civil service aspirants and of course, engineers. :)

We also got to interact with Mr Prithviraj Chavan (ex-CM of Maharastra) and Mrs Vandana Chavan (MP, Rajya Sabha). Also, I think YLAC is a good network to be a part of. The YLAC community consists of over 200 members. Both the co-founders, Rohit (Harvard Kennedy School alumnus) and Aparajita (University of Oxford), are well-connected and helpful.