Research 

(This paper was presented in a panel discussion at the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) South Asian Conference on November 12, 2021)

Abstract: 

A visible change has taken place in last one decade for public policy education in India. Forty seven schools of public policy education have emerged in less than a decade in India. Among them, five streams of policy education are being offered. These five streams are: a) undergraduate degree in public policy, b) post-graduate degree in public policy, c) doctoral education in public policy, d) diploma programmes in Public Policy, and e) online education programmes in public policy. This paper is comparing the educational curriculum of these 47 schools based on the publically available information, and interviews conducted with academic leaders and students of these schools. Pattern emerging here shows that in the post-graduate programme, there is a unifying trend. There is huge heterogeneity in all other streams of programmes. Therefore, further analysis is undertaken on the curriculum of post-graduate programme, where a divide of techno-managerial approach and political approach to public policy is visible.

(This paper was published in the International Journal of Social Quality, Volume 11: Issue 1-2, on December 1, 2021)

Abstract:

A segmented health care system evolved in India by 1990s, whereby the rich population depended on private hospitals, while the people at the bottom of pyramid went to the poor quality public hospitals. In a democracy of equals, unequal access to services became political, when COVID -19 began to put pressure on the health system. Corruption that was normalized in a segmented health care system could no longer be ignored. To advance the framework of social quality, we examine the corruption that unfolded during the pandemic in India from the perspective of moral foundation theory. We study both the issues raised by the political parties during the pandemic in the select states of India, and court directives responding to grievances filed by citizens. This evidence shows inequality of access, of how profit motive in health care industry had to be intervened heavily by the court to provide access to health for the citizens.