Praveen Dixit
DGP (Retired)
The discipline of study in public policy making is relatively new in India. I would like to congratulate DE Society, Pune for considering to establish a full-fledged five-year course in this direction. While appreciating the faculty for their dedication, I also commend the efforts being put in by all the students, who have decided to join this program.
Public policy cannot be formulated by yourself. You need to persuade others to do certain things. It is therefore imperative that you need to communicate the same effectively in writing as well as orally. While making policy analysis, first discuss various alternatives, their consequences and at the end make recommendations. Preparing policy analysis memo is different from writing an academic essay, as the audience reading your memo is already well versed in the subject matter.
Whie discussing the alternatives, ensure there is a range of choices. At the same time, there is also an option of ‘doing nothing’. After you have prepared your policy memo, ensure you have read it at least twice with a certain time-gap. At the end of the memo, remember, the problem you are addressing is already well known to the reader, but very few of them have the solutions. Therefore, you are expected to mention in clear terms suggested Action plan, which flows from your discussion about various alternatives. In brief, in the beginning, you Tell them what you are going to tell them, the Tell them, and at the end, Tell the what you have told them.
When you prepare public policy memo, define the problem in clear terms, what is the purpose of your writing, what is the process you have followed, identify the players, what are their roles, expected decisions, and what are the likely challenges in implementing the same.
Public policy concerns collective interest of the public as against individual or a firm’s optimising of business interests. This transformation from individual firm to collective interest is significant. Public policy must take into account consequences to the public. You need to underline your analysis, the cause-effect relationship of the component parts in detail.
Irrespective of what subject you may choose to analyse policy memo, it is impossible to separate it from politics. You may take any subject including metro line expansion, making of airport or Shakti Marg, or Op. Sindoor – launching or terminating of war with Pakistan, immediately people would say it is not in the interest of the country.
The policy memo should be as far as possible prepared on the basis of facts. Preferably make use of technology including artificial intelligence (AI), to marshal the facts. Tell the facts and not your opinions. If you restrict your memo only to things which the policy maker wants to listen, the consequences would be disastrous.
Any wing of the government or municipal corporation is adept at communication. There are hierarchies in government. Therefore, you should develop expertise in communicating effectively to each of them, if you want to be successful.
What should be the process of preparing policy memo?
Goals, objectives and criteria
At the outset, know what you want to achieve and then articulate these as your objectives. To start, define the problem as precisely as you can. This precision itself would be solving half of the problem. Make it a practice of always asking the question -why, why there is particular problem? That would provide you insight into the problem and likely solutions .
In management there is Pareto’s rule of 80% vs 20%. In any organisation, 20% of the people do their work sincerely, while remaining 80% enjoy their salary and perks. Applying this norm, focus on these 20%.
Alternatives
There are many ideas to solve the problem. However mostly, people will not take into account other alternatives. Consider whether there is another way of doing the job in hand.
Assessment
Assess various alternatives against the criterion set by you. Find out which is the best. Implement that alternative which is the best.
Once you start implementation, make constant evaluation. We are not perfect and in the light of your assessment, you make adjustments in your goals, alternatives, selection or implementation. Recall the example of GST. After implementing the concept, how many times, revision was made. Take another example of Shakti Marg. When the farmers at Kolhapur were opposed to taking their fields, the alignment was shifted to ensure it politically acceptable.
You may consider a pilot project or prototype. Assess the impact it makes, review it, but make sure there is continuous political authorisation. While implementing the idea of bringing in Cheetahs from Namibia to Kunho forest, initially about ten cheetahs were brought. When the program succeeded, it was expanded.
Th Players
While preparing policy memo, it is important that you have good knowledge and pay attention to the reactions from various players. These include: Constitution of India, judgments by the Supreme Court and High Courts, debates in Parliament and State legislature, different organised groups such as administration, NGOs, market forces, individual activists, electronic and print as well as social media, influencers such as associations of retired persons. Attention also needs to be paid to certain outcomes such as demographic changes such as increasing number of old age persons, geopolitical tensions as increasingly trade and tariff is being used as important instrument of foreign policy by developed countries. Government policies such as आत्म निर्भरता, national interest.
Role of Analyst
Person attempting to prepare policy memo needs to be knowledge expert of the subject atter. This particularly true about physical sciences like engineering if the matter pertains to bridges, dams, nuclear power stations.
Policy analyst should be a passionate advocate, if you are attempting to achieve certain goals., such as wearing helmet by two wheelers, safety belts, brake lights, following traffic signals.
The process manager
Credibility of the process manager would be high if he is outsider. Parliament’s various committees such as budget committee, external affairs, home are headed by from opposition parties.
How public policy decisions are made
Cost of implementing a policy is an important criterion. But it is not always true. There are many policies which are implemented by the government as a welfare measure. Recent examples include policy of distribution of free ration to more than 80 crore people after the outbreak of corona epidemic. Though the epidemic is over, government does not want to terminate this policy as that provides social security to marginalised persons to overcome deaths and illnesses due to hunger. Another policy लाडकी बहीण pertains to providing of financial assistance to women living below poverty line. Certain policies are devised to promote sustainable development. In this regards mention can be made about सूर्यघर योजना wherein house hold can use solar panels on roof top, use the electricity and excess power is purchased by the electricity company. These policies show macro -economics may be an important criterion, but it is not the sole decider. According to practitioners, economic calculations give a certain strong framework, but you have to look beyond it.
Public policy has to be contextual.
Policy advocated by the World Bank does not necessarily have to be appropriate in the Indian context. Bus Road Transit System (BRTS) is a high -quality, bus-based public transportation system designed to improve reliability and speed compared to regular bus service by using dedicated lanes, specialised stations, and rapid boarding, similar to surface-level subway system. However, in Indian context, where there is explosion in personal vehicles, people find BRTS is a nuisance to smooth movement and wastage of available road width for traffic movement.
Awareness about increasing privatisation due to pressures from private companies
Though the municipal corporation or government may be pursing certain public policy, international and domestic private companies are noticed working against the same by creating suspicion about outcomes of public policy. The municipal corporation provides clean and safe drinking water. However, bottling companies advocate use of their bottled water as the most recommended. Reverse Osmosis water purification technology (RO) forces water through a semi-permeable membrane to remove impurities, dissolved salts, and contaminants, producing clean and safe drinking water. Water supplied by Corporation may get impurities due to old pipe lines, unclean overhead water tanks. But these situations can be addressed through maintenance. However, due to advertisements, and suspicion created through advocacy, the private companies make huge profits.
I would conclude, as students and practitioners of public policy, you should pay attention to all aspects. These include cultural, legal, administrative, economic, market, social, environmental and political and many others. Your suggestions and recommendations should integrate with national resource management. Finally, my recommendation is work in groups and make maximum use of case studies in India as well as abroad.
