Centre for Public Policy and Governance Studies (CPPGS)
The Centre for Public Policy and Governance Studies (CPPGS) at the Institute for Development and Communication (IDC) takes up studies on the verticals of Public Policy, Governance, and Sustainable Development. The idea is to raise issues which are of relevance to different stakeholders like common citizens, especially the poor and underprivileged, academia, government and industry. The studies are taken up on assessment of the state of the public policy and governance where the attempt is to establish certain benchmarks and standards for further research and follow ups. These studies are undertaken in states/UTs of North Western India – Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The Centre for Public Policy and Governance Studies (CPPGS) seeks to improve the welfare of the disadvantaged and deprived sections. Its work has highlighted that the existing system of governance faces challenges in the provision of equal access to social programmes and economic packages on the basis of caste, gender and class. Future programmes would like to strengthen processes, procedures and the design of public services to provide dignified and equal access of state services to the disadvantaged and marginalised sections of society.
The focus of this Centre is cutting edge transactions, which act as an enabling condition for synergistic view of the demand and supply side of governance study. Focus on cutting edge transactions includes cost of transactions as well as the cultural aspect of service-delivery issues. Considering the uniformly structured roles and institutions governing the conduct of public officials, such micro studies would have relevance for good governance across the board and hopefully facilitate identification of convergence or otherwise in respect of such transactions across different sectors and areas of public governance and this expand the scope of application of best practices beyond sector perspectives.
The CPPGS also functions within a broad context of the changed character of nation-states, the consolidation of democracy, questions of migration throughout the region, security sector reforms with special reference to policing, post-conflict management and reintegration. It also focuses on creation of research partnerships for evidence-based research as an input to context specific informed decision-making.
The Centre has special focus on sustainable development, including issues concerning environment and climate change. The collective activities of human beings have altered the earth’s ecosystems, which have been well studied since the post-industrialization era. In the Indian context, the development model with productive sectors, as drivers succeeded in achieving double-digit growth rate. This accomplishment had a heavy social and environment cost in the form of reckless exploitation of environmental resources and their pollution without caring for the requirements of future generations. In order to mitigate the impacts and manage the risk from these environmental degradations, policy makers must begin addressing environmental, social, governance (ESG) and economic issues in a holistic way. The Centre proposes to closely examine the recent challenges faced by economies across the globe, especially the Indian economy relating to sustainable development. The Centre will also translate these emerging challenges and trends into guidance markers for the Indian policy makers.
Public policy, governance and sustainable development and their interface are interdisciplinary in nature; therefore CPPGS aims to provide a vibrant academic environment for experts from various disciplines, professionals, civil society, and different stakeholders to work together. Keeping in view the thrust area of the Centre, blending of quantitative and qualitative research approaches will be the defining feature of research methodology and its tools.
Chairperson
Pramod Kumar
Dr. Pramod Kumar is Chairperson, Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), Chandigarh. His work focuses on three interrelated themes of politics of development, violence and governance; politics of conflict management and resolution and practice of democracy through empirical methodologies and analysis of public policy and people’s movements. He is a recipient of the prestigious Homi Bhabha Award for the year 1988-1990 for his work on Causation and Forms of Ethnic Conflicts and Inter Ethnic Co operation in India.
Dr Ravinder Pal
Dr. Ravinder Paul holds a Ph.D in Sociology from Punjabi University, Patiala. He has eight-years of teaching experience to graduate and Post-graduate classes at different colleges and university level. Dr. Paul also has extensive research experience in issues concerning society, conducting evaluation and impact assessment studies. He is Associate Coordinator of the Empanelled Training Institute (ETI) at IDC sponsored by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. Presently, he is supervising two PhD candidates at IDC. He has around ten research papers on different socio-economic and labour issues besides reports prepared for different State governments and national and international agencies.
Mr. Harsh Chopra
Mr. Harsh Chopra, (M.Sc. (Statistics); LL.B.) specializes in statistical model building and data analysis. He is involved in data collection, compilation, analysis, and report writing and also conducting workshops, seminars and training. His area of work includes community policing programme, conducting election surveys and evaluation studies of different social welfare schemes. He has over eighteen years experience in academic research and analysis. Presently, he is Director – Trainings at IDC.
Dr. Chandan Awasthi
Dr. Chandan Awasthi holds Ph.D. from Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh. His doctoral work emphasizes on construction of geopolitical discourses within the foreign policy circles of the United States of America, especially focusing on Central Asia and the region around it. He has extensive research experience on various dimensions emerging out of the society, especially in Punjab. He also specializes in the post-colonial police studies, and, issues pertaining to defence and national security of India. Presently, he is supervising three PhD candidates at IDC.He is Deputy Director IDC.
Mr. Amit Kumar
Mr. Amit Kumar is currently working as an Assistant Professor at IDC and also pursuing PhD from Panjab University-IDC. Post-graduated from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, in Geography, Mr Kumar’s area of research includes Gender Geography, Gender, LGBTQIA+, Masculinities and Sexuality Studies, Gender and Governance, and Social and Political Geography. His latest book is Three Shades of Green: Privatization, Pollution and Protest.
