Delegates engage in lighter activities during Neeti Habba in Bengaluru.
Credit: DH Photo/SK Dinesh
Bengaluru: The best policy is what actually works, said Uma Mahadevan, Development Commissioner of Karnataka, at the inaugural event of the two-day policy festival, which concludes in Bengaluru today.
Neeti Habba is organised by Centre for Budget and Policy Studies (CBPS), an interdisciplinary research institution established in Bengaluru in 1998, at the Infosys Science Foundation.
“Sometimes policy goals are very large and grandiose, but sometimes when they manifest on the ground, they can be simple and delicate,” added Mahadevan, addressing an audience of students, civil society members, and government officials which included former Member of Parliament Rajeev Gowda.
Uma Mahadevan, an Additional Chief Secretary level officer, also stressed on the importance of informed citizenry in the creation of better policy. Niveditha Menon, Director of CBPS said, as a public policy institution, they take this responsibility of informing citizens seriously, and it is their duty to ensure that the tools and frameworks they use are genuinely helpful to everyone.
“Our goal is to create open, diverse and accessible knowledge systems and to figure out what we collectively mean by inclusivity, diversity and equality, and putting them in action,” added Menon.
The festival also features game-based workshops like ‘Come, let us build an Anganwadi’, hands-on activities, audio-visual experiences, and interactive displays designed to engage a range of stakeholders.