Alumni Feature | TVS Sasidhar, Master’s in Public Policy ‘16

Sasidhar is a member of the first cohort of the Master of Public Policy program at NLSIU. Before his stint at Public Policy, he held an Engineering degree and worked in the software industry for 3.5 years as a Human Resource manager. He joined the program to equip himself with the knowledge and skill set required to move into the development sector. He recalls that his journey through the program was “adventurous and eye opening” and has altered the course of his life. The participatory/experiential learning components of the program such as action research work in Rajasthan, Client – led – project at IIFT (Delhi) and the dissertation fieldwork on farmer suicides in Telangana have shaped his orientation towards the space. At NLS, he was also selected for the summer school program on Social Policy, conducted at Oslo and Akershus University College, funded by ESRC. He notes “opportunities like these coupled with the classroom sessions by experienced faculty, have helped me to construct a worldview of public policy ecosystem”. After graduating from the program, he started his career as a data analyst at India Governs Research Institute where he prepared constituency development reports for elected representatives. Later he joined the Indian Political Action Committee where he was heading the election campaign research team. He is always intrigued by the nuances of policy processes especially when politics are in play. For a short while, he advised key stakeholders of the development space as a Partner at Pragma Development Advisors LLP and also was a visiting faculty of public policy at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. He enjoys teaching and uses his professional experience to deconstruct the complex concepts of the Indian policy ecosystem to his students. He underscores the need to understand policy problems in entirety and believes that policy analysis is incomplete if it discounts the interplay of social, economic and political factors. Sasidhar is currently transitioning to a full-time academic position as Assistant Professor in the School of Policy and Governance at the Azim Premji University.