On April 27, the Indian School of Public Policy (ISPP), New Delhi hosted a workshop on Public Policy for the Environment: New Wine in Old Bottles? Conducted by Professor Shreekant Gupta, professor of Economics at the Delhi School of Economics and adjunct professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore, the workshop was attended by over 30 participants focussing on the past, present and future of environmental public policy.   

Prof. Gupta, who is also the vice-president of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics, and has served as the director – National Institute of Urban Affairs, began the workshop with a synopsis of the environmental challenges India is facing, specifically covering water, air, soil, among others. In subsequent stages, he talked about the existing legislations/standards in India, market approach towards environmental problems, environmental economics, and other interesting facts and figures that served as food-for-thought.

Concluding the workshop, Prof. Gupta mentioned, “Top-down regulatory approaches and judicial diktats have failed to reduce air and water pollution. It is time to consider market approaches such as pollution fees and emissions trading that are being used world over.”

Public Policy is emerging as a dominant career choice for future decision makers not only because of the career progression this domain has to offer but also because of the growing demand for public policy professionals across various sectors: non-profits, government, multilateral agencies, corporates, and others. In the present time and age, an important domain in public policy pertains to the environment.

Formally launched in October, 2018, the Indian School of Public Policy offers a year long Master’s Certificate Programme in Policy, Design & Management designed to prepare students for challenging careers in policy action across government, industry and civil society.