Snippets from our first ‘Behaviorally Connected’ meetup - Pune, India

We recently conducted our first “Behaviorally Connected” meetup, a Pune based Behavioral Science meetup series for enthusiast interested to know more about the subject. The meetup was co-organized by SDG Centre of Excellence and Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics.

The objective of the meetup was to create a strong community of academia, industry and researcher's who are interested in the area of Behavioral Science. The potential of the subject is yet to be explored to its fullest in India which can have huge positive impact in improving the socio & economic challenges of our country.

The diversity of the group who were participated for the meetup was the highlight of the day. We had a professor of theology with 33 years of experience to start-up founders working on various aspects of business. We also had students of engineering to senior psychology professor and researchers.

The meetup opened by participants introducing themselves. Me & Shraddha Pawar from SDG also shared some cases on how Behavioral Economics changed the game for some projects in India and abroad. We also mentioned about “BE Design Lab” where we use Behavioral science for setting up HR Processes and System for SME’s & Education Institutes in India.

Key Concepts & Insight of Behavioral science was shared by eminent professors of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. Dr. Savita Kulkarni shared her research work and some cases in public policy and how behavioral design and help better implementation. Dr. Ashish Kulkarni empowered the audience with his work in the area of health and sanitation and also mentioned about the potential of BE in this domain in India.

To sum up the meetup we had a panel discussion with Dr. Savita and Dr. Ashish who answered some questions from me and enthralled the audience by satisfying their quench for some more knowledge on Behavioral Economics.

Thanks a lot to the audience who actively participated throughout the day & shared their experiences as well marking the beginning of many more such series of workshops in Pune and then scale throughout India. SDG Centre of Excellence & Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics are working closely to use Behavioral Economics to solve complex socio & business problems using simple BE interventions.