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Our story

We came to public policy as outsiders.

We learned how policy works in the field, alongside district administrations.

We saw the need for more evidence-based policies, and for reimagining existing ones.

Kerala and India need informed, renewed investment in public policy research and implementation.

Only then can we become free and prosperous!

Nayaneethi Policy Collective was born out of this conviction.

  1. 2021–2023

    It began in the field

    Six of us met as fellows of the Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship, each posted to a different district of Kerala. Day after day, we watched good intentions stall: schemes that looked right on paper broke down on the ground, and decisions were made without the evidence to back them.

    By the end of the fellowship, we were convinced Kerala needed an organisation that brings evidence-based public policy ideas to the table, and sees them through, so the state can grow more prosperous. We left with 15 statewide recommendations to strengthen Kerala's skill ecosystem, and met the people in power to push for them.

    An NPoC fellow sitting with a group of children outside a village school

  2. Our edge

    Outsiders, by design

    When we began, we had little clue about the world of public policy. We were partial outsiders: our experience came from district offices, panchayats and villages, not from academia.

    That turned out to be our advantage. We knew exactly where implementation breaks down, and what it takes to make change stick across a whole system.

    Thinking without action is incomplete, and action without thought is reckless.

    An NPoC researcher interviewing a family on their porch

  3. From November 2023

    Earning our place

    We registered NPoC and got to work with civil society organisations and governments in equal measure, taking our ideas off paper and into practice.

    Nobody handed us a niche. We built our expertise and skills project by project, and through that effort found the areas where we are strongest: research and consultancy, impact assessment, capacity building, project management and advocacy.

    Lighting the lamp at the inauguration of a SLATE programme

  4. Today

    Where we stand

    • Government of KeralaConsultants on multiple projects
    • Atlas NetworkPartners with the international network of independent think tanks
    • Across IndiaPartnerships with leading think tanks and civil society organisations
    • 18,000+People reached through our various activities
    NPoC at the Justicemakers Mela in Jaipur
    An NPoC session with a hall full of students
    Students playing NPoC's policy simulation game

This is our story so far. It is only the beginning.

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