Education system needs to deliver the life skills for happiness: Dr. Subrata Rakshit
CPP Conference on Public Policy & Management kicks off with plenary talk on ‘Technology Driven Capacity Challenges to Public Policy Formulations – a Relook at Education, Identity, Privacy and Democracy’ by former DRDO Director General
19 August, 2025, Bengaluru: “You need to have the awareness to realize that there is a problem to be solved with policy, have the policy formulation done by a set of wise people, have the capacity to administer those policies, and finally need to educate the subjects of those policies, as to why they should benefit by following those policies and what they need to do to comply with the same. If all four are not done, the effectiveness of policies will not be seen”, said Dr. Subrata Rakshit, Retired Distinguished Scientist and Director General, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), at IIM Bangalore, earlier today. He led the plenary talk on, ‘Technology Driven Capacity Challenges to Public Policy Formulations – a Relook at Education, Identity, Privacy and Democracy’, during the inaugural session of the XX International Conference on Public Policy & Management, being hosted by the Centre for Public Policy (CPP) from 19 to 21 August 2025, at the IIMB campus. The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Rethinking State Capacity in Delivering Public Policy’. For more details, please visit: https://www.iimb.ac.in/cpp-xx-2025/.
Plenary session
Dr. Rakshit’s talk emphasized on happiness, expertise, common language and patience over mandated rush, in the arena of policy making. “Individuals pursuing just their own goals will result in the society getting stuck, hence policy intervention is needed”, observed Dr. Rakshit, adding that technology-driven advancements bring capacity challenges to public policy formulation, in the realms of education, identity, privacy and democracy. “In terms of education and economy – awareness, understanding for social coherence, skilling for productivity, life skills for happiness are essential. Identity for individuals for day-to-day transactions have to be unique, constant, verifiable, or attestable, or at least authenticated. Individuals have the privacy option, to withhold information. Democracy has to determine the correctness of policy and its execution.”
Proceeding to the implications of modern technology on policy, he explained, “Technology is evolving and diversifying without checks on speed or quality; it is becoming harder to understand, at the same time, it has become too useful too. The other issues are related to informed consent, future impact which is not understood or predictable. Prior knowledge is another concern – society needs few generations to build ‘priors’ or wisdom. There is also the question of population yield – can everyone understand technology, or even want it? Dealing with superior intelligence, human or artificial, can be brutal.”
“Data can be copied, edited or embedded, leading to information control, ownership and transfer issues. Growth of digital identities is matched by growth of fears and frauds”, he pointed out, adding, “Digital identities in cyberspace was a whole new game. This is where public policy has to come in. Policy making has to balance costs, benefits and accountability. Verifiable (live) biometrics like Aadhaar need to be understood and leveraged correctly.”
“Education and healthy economy are linked to a positive population yield. The current design logic is to build the most profitable economy from the commerce or technology perspective, then train the population. The syllabus, distractions and definition of success are all rising. All this will lead to collateral damage to the next generation, so public policy has to come in. The loading has to be tempered. Education should be human population capacity centric and sustainable. The standards can be brought down, students and teachers cannot be made to feel inadequate, the objectives of social coherence and life skills for happiness must be reemphasized and met. Intelligence must be conditioned to be more empathic”, Dr. Rakshit recommended.
“Short term benefits outshine long term implications in democracy, in the era of technology and AI. All these make democracy have more noise than signal. Policy needs to control the dynamics of human-AI coevolution. To determine what qualifies as a ‘Right’, it is not enough to just have a desirable outcome; it should have consistency when applied to all members of the society. Rushing into the policy space without paying any heed to sustainability, cannot be the way forward”, he pointed out.
Stating that technology solutions may eliminate labor and service of humans, he said that unemployed humans cannot generate demand. “This calls for policy level interventions beyond normal market dynamics. The history of human civilization has shown that the rich and learned often take control, leaving the weaker sections uncared for, which leads the society towards decline. To address these challenges, we need to compute solutions which are matched with the education system and fertility profiles. To build a multipolar model in which society has mobility and long term stability, we all need to work together.”
Welcome addresses and vote of thanks
Prof. Gopal Naik, Chairperson, Senior Fellow and Jal Jeevan Mission Chair Professor at the Centre for Public Policy, while delivering the welcome address, provided an overview of the activities undertaken by the CPP, the Centre’s progress over the years, the CPP Foundation Day celebrations, the annual Conference on Public Policy & Management, the Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF) for skill development, and more. “Today, CPP is not just a forum for academic rigor, but also for practice orientation, involved significantly with public policy design and implementation.” He also spoke about the Centre’s flagship Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management (PGPPM) and the achievements of its alumni. “PGPPM alumni have proved to be great assets for the nation due to their achievements, including Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, who has been credited with the Jan Dhan Yojana project of the Government of India.”
“We received 170 submissions for the conference this year, out of which we have selected 60 papers for presentation. This year’s conference is a special event for the Centre for Public Policy, since we are celebrating our silver jubilee this year”.
Prof. Rajalaxmi Kamath, Chairperson, Internal Committee and faculty of Public Policy, introduced the guest speaker, adding that Dr. Rakshit exemplifies the vital intersection of cutting-edge science and national policy making. “His talk will reflect the ever-growing influence of science and technology in shaping India’s policy landscape. This conference has also expanded to include a dedicated research track on emerging technology and policy. Dr. Rakhsit’s unique experience at the forefront of India’s technological enterprise promises an insider’s perspective on how science and innovation continue to redefine our nation’s policy priorities."
The morning session also included a video with Chairpersons of the Centre since 2000, PGPPM Chairpersons and other IIMB faculty, reflecting on the Centre’s evolution, contributions and future direction.
Prof. Arnab Mukherji, Chairperson, Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management (PGPPM) and faculty of the Public Policy area delivered the vote of thanks, adding that although Dr. Rakshit’s talk outlined serious challenges in policy implementation, it reemphasized the importance of the CPP conference on public policy and management. “This talk from a scientist at a public policy oriented conversation explains why public policy needs to be seriously thought of from the social, behavioral or design context, with technology having brought about significant changes in different facets of life.”
Pre-conference Research Workshops
Prof. Rusha Das, faculty of the Public Policy area and Prof. Maya Ganesh, faculty of the Production & Operations Management area, led two pre-conference workshops related to methods and approaches to Public Policy Research, on 18th August 2025, which set the stage for the International Conference on Public Policy & Management 2025.
Workshop 1: Critical Policy Research: Uncovering Power, Contestation and Change, led by Prof. Rusha Das
The qualitative session covered the conflicting implications of policies. “Policy is not a neutral tool, there are visions of development, along with invisibilities”, pointed out Prof. Das. Drawing from her research work on environmental policymaking, she explained the utility of studying policy critically. “This kind of study engages more deeply with histories, contestations and power, and helps understand governance structures and policy processes through a comparative, critical and interdisciplinary lens. It is also a pedagogical invitation to think critically about how we study policy, covering the geopolitics of knowledge, the movement between theory and practice, and just and grounded scholarship.”
She cited the example of the proposed ports in Honnavar in Karnataka and other locations under private, public or PPP models, and the impact of such policies at a trade/corporate level as against impact on the local population. Stating that progress should not come at the cost of ecological or social displacement, she recommended measures to counter such adverse impact. “There should be theory-practice integration. Let us look beyond architects, planners and policy makers – to informal actors as designers/planners. Local communities should serve as co-creators, breaking down the knowledge producer vs user silos. Reciprocal and relational learning, participatory research projects, and learning and theorizing together will actually address real needs – not just academic curiosity. The aim should be to translate knowledge into accessible forms like policy briefs, community reports in local language, podcasts, etc. Research should be mobilized for change, based on alternative frameworks of community-based preservation.”
Workshop 2: Quasi-Experimental Methods for Impact Evaluation and Evidence-Based Policy Making, led by Prof. Maya Ganesh
The quantitative session discussed how impact evaluation establishes if specific programs, program modalities or design innovation cause a change in an outcome. “Programs and policies are designed to change outcomes – raising income, improving learning or reducing illness. Impact evaluation is part of the agenda of evidence based policy making. Classic impact evaluation can also list alternative program modalities”, explained Prof. Maya Ganesh.
She also discussed the different methods such as counterfactuals, randomization, randomized controlled trials (RCTs), etc. Terming randomization the “gold standard of impact evaluation”, she added, “When randomization is not feasible, we rely on natural experiments, or a quasi-experimental design.”
Discussing what enables government to bring about a positive change, she cited the example of India’s food security program. “Linking Aadhaar with ration cards, paved the way for the government to roll out agent choice. The introduction of agent choice increased uptake by enabling more beneficiaries to collect grains from their own pre-decided agents.”
About the conference
The annual CPP Conference on Public Policy & Management is an interdisciplinary conference which draws scholars representing diverse perspectives on public policy issues and provides a forum for showcasing the latest developments in policy research and practice. The conference hosts pre-conference activities, academic sessions, topical policy debates, workshops, panel discussions and practitioner-oriented discussions on contemporary topics in public policy and management. The conference is ideal for academicians, students, research scholars, policy practitioners, lawyers, NGO professionals and others with an interest in public policy. This year’s conference will include research papers and practitioner case studies tackling issues contributing to an ongoing corpus of literature in and around State Capacity in delivering Public Policy.
The organizing committee of the 2025 CPP Conference on Public Policy & Management comprises Prof. Rajalaxmi Kamath, Chairperson, Internal Committee; Prof. Arnab Mukherji, Chairperson, Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management (PGPPM); Prof. Allen P Ugargol; Prof. Rusha Das and Prof. Arpit Shah – all IIMB faculty from the Public Policy area.
What is in store
The remaining sessions of the conference include panel discussions, workshops, paper presentations, other talks and the Prof. M R Krishnamurthy Memorial Lecture by Dr. Vishwanath Srikantaiah, water activist and urban planner, on his ‘Experience on Bengaluru and its Long-term Engagement with Water Security’.
Please click here for the photo gallery
Education system needs to deliver the life skills for happiness: Dr. Subrata Rakshit
CPP Conference on Public Policy & Management kicks off with plenary talk on ‘Technology Driven Capacity Challenges to Public Policy Formulations – a Relook at Education, Identity, Privacy and Democracy’ by former DRDO Director General
19 August, 2025, Bengaluru: “You need to have the awareness to realize that there is a problem to be solved with policy, have the policy formulation done by a set of wise people, have the capacity to administer those policies, and finally need to educate the subjects of those policies, as to why they should benefit by following those policies and what they need to do to comply with the same. If all four are not done, the effectiveness of policies will not be seen”, said Dr. Subrata Rakshit, Retired Distinguished Scientist and Director General, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), at IIM Bangalore, earlier today. He led the plenary talk on, ‘Technology Driven Capacity Challenges to Public Policy Formulations – a Relook at Education, Identity, Privacy and Democracy’, during the inaugural session of the XX International Conference on Public Policy & Management, being hosted by the Centre for Public Policy (CPP) from 19 to 21 August 2025, at the IIMB campus. The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Rethinking State Capacity in Delivering Public Policy’. For more details, please visit: https://www.iimb.ac.in/cpp-xx-2025/.
Plenary session
Dr. Rakshit’s talk emphasized on happiness, expertise, common language and patience over mandated rush, in the arena of policy making. “Individuals pursuing just their own goals will result in the society getting stuck, hence policy intervention is needed”, observed Dr. Rakshit, adding that technology-driven advancements bring capacity challenges to public policy formulation, in the realms of education, identity, privacy and democracy. “In terms of education and economy – awareness, understanding for social coherence, skilling for productivity, life skills for happiness are essential. Identity for individuals for day-to-day transactions have to be unique, constant, verifiable, or attestable, or at least authenticated. Individuals have the privacy option, to withhold information. Democracy has to determine the correctness of policy and its execution.”
Proceeding to the implications of modern technology on policy, he explained, “Technology is evolving and diversifying without checks on speed or quality; it is becoming harder to understand, at the same time, it has become too useful too. The other issues are related to informed consent, future impact which is not understood or predictable. Prior knowledge is another concern – society needs few generations to build ‘priors’ or wisdom. There is also the question of population yield – can everyone understand technology, or even want it? Dealing with superior intelligence, human or artificial, can be brutal.”
“Data can be copied, edited or embedded, leading to information control, ownership and transfer issues. Growth of digital identities is matched by growth of fears and frauds”, he pointed out, adding, “Digital identities in cyberspace was a whole new game. This is where public policy has to come in. Policy making has to balance costs, benefits and accountability. Verifiable (live) biometrics like Aadhaar need to be understood and leveraged correctly.”
“Education and healthy economy are linked to a positive population yield. The current design logic is to build the most profitable economy from the commerce or technology perspective, then train the population. The syllabus, distractions and definition of success are all rising. All this will lead to collateral damage to the next generation, so public policy has to come in. The loading has to be tempered. Education should be human population capacity centric and sustainable. The standards can be brought down, students and teachers cannot be made to feel inadequate, the objectives of social coherence and life skills for happiness must be reemphasized and met. Intelligence must be conditioned to be more empathic”, Dr. Rakshit recommended.
“Short term benefits outshine long term implications in democracy, in the era of technology and AI. All these make democracy have more noise than signal. Policy needs to control the dynamics of human-AI coevolution. To determine what qualifies as a ‘Right’, it is not enough to just have a desirable outcome; it should have consistency when applied to all members of the society. Rushing into the policy space without paying any heed to sustainability, cannot be the way forward”, he pointed out.
Stating that technology solutions may eliminate labor and service of humans, he said that unemployed humans cannot generate demand. “This calls for policy level interventions beyond normal market dynamics. The history of human civilization has shown that the rich and learned often take control, leaving the weaker sections uncared for, which leads the society towards decline. To address these challenges, we need to compute solutions which are matched with the education system and fertility profiles. To build a multipolar model in which society has mobility and long term stability, we all need to work together.”
Welcome addresses and vote of thanks
Prof. Gopal Naik, Chairperson, Senior Fellow and Jal Jeevan Mission Chair Professor at the Centre for Public Policy, while delivering the welcome address, provided an overview of the activities undertaken by the CPP, the Centre’s progress over the years, the CPP Foundation Day celebrations, the annual Conference on Public Policy & Management, the Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF) for skill development, and more. “Today, CPP is not just a forum for academic rigor, but also for practice orientation, involved significantly with public policy design and implementation.” He also spoke about the Centre’s flagship Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management (PGPPM) and the achievements of its alumni. “PGPPM alumni have proved to be great assets for the nation due to their achievements, including Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, who has been credited with the Jan Dhan Yojana project of the Government of India.”
“We received 170 submissions for the conference this year, out of which we have selected 60 papers for presentation. This year’s conference is a special event for the Centre for Public Policy, since we are celebrating our silver jubilee this year”.
Prof. Rajalaxmi Kamath, Chairperson, Internal Committee and faculty of Public Policy, introduced the guest speaker, adding that Dr. Rakshit exemplifies the vital intersection of cutting-edge science and national policy making. “His talk will reflect the ever-growing influence of science and technology in shaping India’s policy landscape. This conference has also expanded to include a dedicated research track on emerging technology and policy. Dr. Rakhsit’s unique experience at the forefront of India’s technological enterprise promises an insider’s perspective on how science and innovation continue to redefine our nation’s policy priorities."
The morning session also included a video with Chairpersons of the Centre since 2000, PGPPM Chairpersons and other IIMB faculty, reflecting on the Centre’s evolution, contributions and future direction.
Prof. Arnab Mukherji, Chairperson, Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management (PGPPM) and faculty of the Public Policy area delivered the vote of thanks, adding that although Dr. Rakshit’s talk outlined serious challenges in policy implementation, it reemphasized the importance of the CPP conference on public policy and management. “This talk from a scientist at a public policy oriented conversation explains why public policy needs to be seriously thought of from the social, behavioral or design context, with technology having brought about significant changes in different facets of life.”
Pre-conference Research Workshops
Prof. Rusha Das, faculty of the Public Policy area and Prof. Maya Ganesh, faculty of the Production & Operations Management area, led two pre-conference workshops related to methods and approaches to Public Policy Research, on 18th August 2025, which set the stage for the International Conference on Public Policy & Management 2025.
Workshop 1: Critical Policy Research: Uncovering Power, Contestation and Change, led by Prof. Rusha Das
The qualitative session covered the conflicting implications of policies. “Policy is not a neutral tool, there are visions of development, along with invisibilities”, pointed out Prof. Das. Drawing from her research work on environmental policymaking, she explained the utility of studying policy critically. “This kind of study engages more deeply with histories, contestations and power, and helps understand governance structures and policy processes through a comparative, critical and interdisciplinary lens. It is also a pedagogical invitation to think critically about how we study policy, covering the geopolitics of knowledge, the movement between theory and practice, and just and grounded scholarship.”
She cited the example of the proposed ports in Honnavar in Karnataka and other locations under private, public or PPP models, and the impact of such policies at a trade/corporate level as against impact on the local population. Stating that progress should not come at the cost of ecological or social displacement, she recommended measures to counter such adverse impact. “There should be theory-practice integration. Let us look beyond architects, planners and policy makers – to informal actors as designers/planners. Local communities should serve as co-creators, breaking down the knowledge producer vs user silos. Reciprocal and relational learning, participatory research projects, and learning and theorizing together will actually address real needs – not just academic curiosity. The aim should be to translate knowledge into accessible forms like policy briefs, community reports in local language, podcasts, etc. Research should be mobilized for change, based on alternative frameworks of community-based preservation.”
Workshop 2: Quasi-Experimental Methods for Impact Evaluation and Evidence-Based Policy Making, led by Prof. Maya Ganesh
The quantitative session discussed how impact evaluation establishes if specific programs, program modalities or design innovation cause a change in an outcome. “Programs and policies are designed to change outcomes – raising income, improving learning or reducing illness. Impact evaluation is part of the agenda of evidence based policy making. Classic impact evaluation can also list alternative program modalities”, explained Prof. Maya Ganesh.
She also discussed the different methods such as counterfactuals, randomization, randomized controlled trials (RCTs), etc. Terming randomization the “gold standard of impact evaluation”, she added, “When randomization is not feasible, we rely on natural experiments, or a quasi-experimental design.”
Discussing what enables government to bring about a positive change, she cited the example of India’s food security program. “Linking Aadhaar with ration cards, paved the way for the government to roll out agent choice. The introduction of agent choice increased uptake by enabling more beneficiaries to collect grains from their own pre-decided agents.”
About the conference
The annual CPP Conference on Public Policy & Management is an interdisciplinary conference which draws scholars representing diverse perspectives on public policy issues and provides a forum for showcasing the latest developments in policy research and practice. The conference hosts pre-conference activities, academic sessions, topical policy debates, workshops, panel discussions and practitioner-oriented discussions on contemporary topics in public policy and management. The conference is ideal for academicians, students, research scholars, policy practitioners, lawyers, NGO professionals and others with an interest in public policy. This year’s conference will include research papers and practitioner case studies tackling issues contributing to an ongoing corpus of literature in and around State Capacity in delivering Public Policy.
The organizing committee of the 2025 CPP Conference on Public Policy & Management comprises Prof. Rajalaxmi Kamath, Chairperson, Internal Committee; Prof. Arnab Mukherji, Chairperson, Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management (PGPPM); Prof. Allen P Ugargol; Prof. Rusha Das and Prof. Arpit Shah – all IIMB faculty from the Public Policy area.
What is in store
The remaining sessions of the conference include panel discussions, workshops, paper presentations, other talks and the Prof. M R Krishnamurthy Memorial Lecture by Dr. Vishwanath Srikantaiah, water activist and urban planner, on his ‘Experience on Bengaluru and its Long-term Engagement with Water Security’.
Please click here for the photo gallery