Alumni Feature | Ravneet Kaur Master’s in Public Policy ‘21

Ravneet is an inquisitive biotechnologist turned public policy enthusiast. Post her graduation, she wanted to get involved in something more meaningful and impactful. Following her instinct, she volunteered to tutor children from underprivileged backgrounds. She had brief engagements with Byjus, Teach India, Centre for Policy Analysis and Public Policy Research Centre. With the experience at volunteering, think tanks and consulting, she believed a higher degree to apply the experiences and learn more about the public policy research, would be the way to the real impact. Masters in Public Policy (MPP) degree at NLSIU provided the ideal platform for her to explore interests and provide the requisite skills. The pedagogy adopted at the university places a key emphasis on application of the learnings. She found her interests in courses like Policy Analysis Clinic, Research Methods and Mathematical Tools for Policy Making, so much so, learnings from each course have been applied by her till date. In addition to this, fieldwork, a crucial part of this degree, gave her the opportunity to have hands-on experience with the ground realities. She went to URMUL, Rajasthan where she stayed in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV) and this experience guided her to pick the path for her core interests’ areas. The learnings were published at Policy circle. Inadequacy of the nutrition being received by the children at KGBVs, motivated her to intern with ICRISAT where she understood more about nutrition in a holistic manner. Taking cue from this, her dissertation investigates diet diversity for tribal communities. Her passion for writing has enabled her to publish several blog articles and research pieces at platforms like POSHAN outlook, International Health Policies and Policy circle among others. She was selected to participate in two Policy hackathons by MIT under the Public health track. Currently, she is interning with the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and working on health policies for North-eastern states.