Pune Public Policy Festival on January 19 and 20 

Policymakers, researchers, and experts to discuss policies in the social sector. Special lecture by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri regarding India’s biggest challenges in the next decade, and strategies to overcome them.

Pune, 5th January 2023: Pune, often called the Oxford of the East, has played a vital role in many strategic decisions at the national and international levels. In 2024, the city’s young public policy enthusiasts, experts and entrepreneurs are coming together to present the ‘Pune Public Policy Festival’ (PPPF) on 19th and 20th January (Friday and Saturday) at the Kale Auditorium, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, BMCC Road. The festival is a ticketed conference and will be open via mandatory pre-registration at https://www.pppf.in/

The festival will begin at 3 pm on 19th January (Friday) and at 10 am on 20th January (Saturday). The event is being organized by Dr. Sahil Deo with support from Parimal and Pramod Chaudhari Foundation. The two-day festival will take place at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, BMCC Road. 

Speaking about the festival Dr. Sahil Deo, said, “The theme of our festival revolves around the trade-offs between environment and development, growth and equality and technological convenience and privacy. In the course of this festival, we will be bringing together the brightest minds from our country to discuss where we are at and what needs to be done as India approaches 2047.”

Furthermore, he said, “Encouraging policy decisions outside of Delhi and decentralizing this is the need of the hour as the issues pertaining to each region are unique and need to be addressed at the local level by local experts. This is also one of the thoughts behind the festival being organized in Pune.”

Day one will begin with the keynote address by Dr. Shamika Ravi; Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India and the Secretary to the Government of India. Post the keynote address, Dr. Ajit Ranade; Vice Chancellor of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics will interact with Dr. Shamika Ravi. This will be followed by the first panel discussion on ‘Urban – Environment and Development’ with the participation of Shekhar Singh – Commissioner, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, Shardul Fadnavis – Partner at PwC India, Lubaina Rangwala – Program Head, India Urban Development at World Resources Institute (WRI) and Ashwini Bhide – Additional Municipal Commissioner of the Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation. Ambika Vishwanath, the Founder Director of Kubernein Initiative will moderate this first panel discussion. The first day of the festival will conclude with the second keynote address by Dr. Vijayendra Rao, Lead Economist, Development Research Group of the World Bank.

The second day will commence with the keynote address by Philip Green OAM- High Commissioner of the Government of Australia to India. Post the address, Vijay Gokhale – Former Foreign Secretary of India will conduct an interactive session with Philip Green OAM. This will be followed by a panel discussion on the evolving nature of Public Policy, with Dr. Mark Hallerberg- Professor at the Hertie School of Governance and Clara Peron- Founder and Managing Director of Value for Good GmbH. Dr. Yugank Goyal – Associate Professor of Public Policy at FLAME University will conduct an interactive session with both these keynote addresses.

This will be followed by a panel discussion on ‘Rethinking – Growth and Equality’. The eminent panelists for this session will be Rahul Bajoria- Managing Director and Chief India Economist at Barclays Investment Bank, Rajeev Mantri – Managing Director of Navam Capital, Dr. Renuka Sane – Managing Director at TrustBridge and Dhiraj Nayyar – Director of Economics & Policy at Vedanta Ltd. Dr. Sumita Kale – Principal Economist, Jocata, will moderate this panel and interact with dignitaries on this occasion.

The second half of the day will begin with a panel discussion on ‘Media and Public Policy’. Vinayak Pachalag, Editor-in-Chief of ‘Think Bank Live’ will steer the panel discussion.

The next panel discussion will be on ‘Faces of Public Policy’. IPS Officer Suhail Sharma, Siddharth Shirole – MLA of Shivaji Nagar constituency in Pune and Mallika Sridhar – Head of Corporate Affairs, South Division of Godrej Group will participate in this discussion. Siddharth Roy- Founder of ‘That One Pulse Project’ will be the session’s moderator.

The last panel discussion of the festival will be ‘Speeding Through: The Trade-Off between Convenience vs. Privacy’. This panelist in this session will be Mandar Kagade – Founder, Black Dot Public Policy Advisors, Shivangi Nadkarni – Co-founder & CEO – Arrka, Anshul Gupta – IAS, Additional Managing Director & Project Director at the Madhya Pradesh State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd and Venkatesh Hariharan – Director of Public Policy at Free and Open Source Software Foundation (FOSS). Saranya Gopinath- Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy, RazorPay, will interact with the dignitaries present during the panel discussion.

The festival will conclude with the last keynote address by Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs and Petroleum and Natural Gas, where he will elaborate upon India’s biggest challenges in the next decade and strategies to overcome them. Aditya Javdekar, CEO of Vilas Javdekar Developers will interact with him and the audience after the keynote.

Registration is mandatory for participation in the festival. For the same, those interested should visit https://www.pppf.in/