Subhas Sarkar inaugurates public policy workshop at IIT Madras

NEW DELHI: The minister of state for education, Subhas Sarkar inaugurated a workshop on public policy development that aims to develop policies for India at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT M). He also visited the newly-revamped heritage centre at IIT Madras along with start-ups and research centers at IITM research park.

The newly-inaugurated public policy workshop will be focusing on decreasing digital divide among stakeholders, adoption of new technology, utilisation of new digital payment platforms, sustainable use of resources, data security, transparency, privacy and framing policies related to social media.

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The first workshop in this series will be organised by a group of institutions- IIT Madras, IIT Tirupati, NIT Calicut and NIT Puducherry. The workshops aims to provide the participants with insights and awareness of the role of IT, digitalization, cybersecurity, sovereignty, globalization, sustainability, political philosophy, and regulations on issues of national and global importance, and develop the ability to engage with policy issues of their interest.

Addressing the Public Policy Workshop, IIT Madras, director, V Kamakoti said: “This workshop is extremely important and we have brought together all possible stakeholders from civil servants and elected officials to lawyers and doctors to create a think tank. This will help in effective formulation of Public Policy, which are inter disciplinary in nature and impact the common people, in a quick manner. This will be a yearly event and the Institute hopes to form many think tanks in the future.”

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In addition to the inauguration of this workshop, Sarkar also interacted with the Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) fellows at the annual PMRF symposium 2023 and said: "Research will have to be for the society and the country. The key objectives of research must first be the generation of profound and disruptive knowledge and second, the consumption of this knowledge for socio-economic good. We must focus on innovations and start-ups. Our Government has launched the Atal Mission to promote innovation and more tech incubators have been established in the last few years. The industry must contribute by providing timely guidance.”

While delivering the keynote address at the capacity building workshop for registrars of IITs, IISERs and IISc, Subhas Sarkar said: "As our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has said, the NEP will ensure the seeds for starting a new era and give a new direction to 21st Century India. Higher education contributes significantly towards sustainable growth and economic development. Any policy depends on good implementation and that will be done by all of you (Registrars)... The Registrars have a pivotal role not only in day-to-day operations but in ensuring that the Institute is steadily progressing as per its mission and vision.”