Ashoka University establishes Isaac Centre for Public Policy

Bengaluru, September 22, 2024: Ashoka University announced the establishmen of the Isaac Centre for Public Policy (ICPP). The Centre will introduce public policy programmes and commission advanced interdisciplinary research, contributing towards accelerated, inclusive and sustainable growth that will enable India to become a $10 trillion economy by 2035. It has been established through a grant from the Ajit Isaac Foundation (AIF), a philanthropic organisation created by the Founder & Chairman of Quess Corp Ltd., Mr. Ajit Isaac and his wife, Mrs. Sarah Isaac, who also serve as Distinguished Founders and Trustees of Ashoka University. Following this endowment, Mr. Ajit Isaac joins the ranks of Ashoka University’s top tier donors who have made significant contributions of over Rs 100 crores.

“Ashoka University’s founding vision has leveraged philanthropic capital to build an academic institution that can help create social impact at scale and contribute to nation building. This Centre’s establishment is in furtherance of this vision and we are delighted to partner them to generate ideas and research on public policy to enable inclusive and sustainable growth.” said Sarah Isaac.

“ICPP aims to create a research environment where experts across domains will help find scalable solutions to pressing and complex policy challenges in areas such as economic development, labour and employment, healthcare, gender and fiscal policy to name a few. AIF looks forward to this partnership with Ashoka University in creating an exemplary Centre for Public Policy,” added Ajit Isaac.

 The Centre will work and collaborate with leading public, private and non-profit sector stakeholders to identify research gaps linked with policy making and implementation. Leveraging experience of leading experts from within and beyond the university, it will produce policy briefs, case studies and research notes.

“Ashoka University has a distinct advantage of being home to leading faculty in the country, experts in fields such as economics, social development, behavioural science, biosciences, artificial intelligence and data science. The Centre will utilise this strength, engage with public policy experts, to become a hub for research-based interventions that contribute towards socio-economic development,” said Prachi Mishra, Director and Head of Isaac Centre for Public Policy. She also serves as a Professor of Economics at the University. A former Advisor at IMF, Prachi has held leadership roles at Goldman Sachs, the Reserve Bank of India, and was also the Senior Economist in the Office of Chief Economic Advisor in India’s Ministry of Finance, and at the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.

The Centre will offer major undergraduate-level programmes in Economics and Public Policy. It will also introduce graduate and executive-level programmes, where the latter will include professionals from both the public and private sectors. ICPP will focus its initial research efforts on the following priority areas:

• Agriculture and Rural Economy
• Employment and Labour
• Indian Regulators
• Public Finance

“Since its inception, Ashoka University has fostered an environment of meaningful research across disciplines, with the aim to address complex challenges facing the nation. A key challenge of policy making and implementation is that unit level issues are not adequately accounted for due to lack of sufficient ground-based evidence. This Centre will fill that critical gap in order to make the policy-making and implementation process more informed,” said Ashish Dhawan, Founding Chairperson, Board of Trustees, Ashoka University.

The Centre’s advisory committee includes Ashoka University founders, Ajit Isaac and Ashish Dhawan. Additionally, it has veteran bureaucrats – Sushama Nath, former Finance Secretary; Tarun Bajaj, former Revenue and Economic Affairs Secretary; KP Krishnan, former Secretary of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; Dr. Sekhar Bonu, Senior Fellow, NITI Aayog and Anup Wadhawan, Former Secretary, Ministry of Commerce.