IIT Delhi's School of Public Policy gets a fresh lease of life with Tata Trusts

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 16: The Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) has entered into a major partnership with the Tata Trusts to scale up it’s recently established, a year old School of Public Policy and to improve policy-making on issues at the intersection of Science and Technology.

Through this partnership, the IIT-D's policy school will be supported with a grant amount of 50 crores for over five years. Tata Trusts is India’s oldest philanthropy working with over a century’s history of supporting higher education and research in the country. It has supported the building of premier education institutions across the world including IIScB, MIT USA, among others.

Now, the School is in the process of recruiting its first crop of faculty members. To begin with, it is focusing on six broad overlapping topics: internet, digital information and society; industry and economy; energy and environment; agriculture, food, and water; health innovations and systems; and sustainable habitats.

Programmes to be offered

The School will offer programmes at all undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels. Besides degree programmes, small training modules for practitioners such as bureaucrats, government officials et.al. will also be offered.

From 2019 onwards, the ‘Minor Degree Programmes’ at the UG level will be introduced for existing engineering students. Students will be able to take up these programmes via credit method. Along with these, the doctoral programmes will also be initiated from 2019. The master's programmes are expected to begin from 2020. The founding Head of the School of Public Policy, Prof. Ambuj Sagar informed that all the master's programmes will include a foundation level which will introduce students to the policy dynamics and thereupon they will be able to specialize in an area of their choice such as data science, agriculture, etc. “Though the intricacies are yet to be worked out, there will also be an internship component involved,” he said. The School also expects to develop research and training partnerships with other international centres of S&T policy research.

The Director of IITD, Prof. Ramgopal Rao, said: “IIT Delhi, named recently as an Institution of Eminence, has a robust tradition of being on the cutting edge of science and engineering education and research in the country. We see a modern and dynamic School of Public Policy as an essential and, in fact, a central plank of our intention to transform and enhance our intellectual ecosystem and position us to better engage with the scientific and technological opportunities and societal challenges of the 21 st century.” He added, "We are grateful for the support of Tata Trusts, which will significantly bolster and accelerate our efforts to establish the School of Public Policy as the country’s leading centre of research, education and engagement."

Manoj Kumar, Head of Institutions, the Tata Trusts, said, “Our partnership with IIT Delhi to catalyse Public Policy education and research is yet another milestone in the Trusts’ legacy of building epochal institutions in the country.”