The Governance & Public Policy Initiative (GPPI) was set up under the aegis of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), India’s premier think tank in August 2012.
GPPI has been established to develop innovative approaches to effective and accountable governance, promotion of political and social entrepreneurship and to foster a strategic community that brings together Indian law makers, eminent scholars and academicians, think tank analysts, the bureaucracy and civil society through sustained discussions and debates.
It aims to provide a cross functional international network of think tanks and academic institutions to continuously strengthen our public policy initiatives and rely on CPR’s excellent research facility supported by some of the most renowned scholars in India today.
Set up with the objective of strengthening parliamentary diplomacy that binds India and the world, GPPI-CPR intends to promote thoughtful debate and dialogue on issues which exemplify the key challenges on the global governance agenda.
Presently, GPPI-CPR’s primary focus is on health related issues induced by the global coronavirus pandemic. It engages with Members of Parliament, key leaders from various Indian political parties, Members of the Indian Legislative Assemblies and the country’s current and emerging leaders in our efforts to hone the governance and public policy discourse in India.
GPPI takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.
CONTEXT
GPPI’s Parliamentarians’ engagements span diverse sectoral and topical contexts on all public policy and governance related issues. Since its founding, the GPPI has been striving to spearhead the orientation of the Parliamentarians on key public policy issues. Parliamentarians are uniquely positioned to raise pertinent issues in the Parliament and ensure inclusive and sustainable policy making. Hence, their awareness and understanding of key issues is crucial to ensure effective and accountable governance.
A Legislator is expected to play multiple roles in the process of policy making. Apart from the responsibility of passing legislation, they have the critical role of monitoring and oversight of government activity. Therefore, they are key stakeholders who must understand and advocate pertinent issues while simultaneously gauging the policy implications.
Legislators can play active roles in highlighting and bringing into question the often neglected issues. Therefore, a well-informed Legislator is a better decision maker who will ensure effective policy making. Engaging them in new ideas and solution-based discussions with experts will encourage more willingness and attentiveness in policy-making, and generate better focus on policies that will deliver long-term goals.
GPPI believes that enabling these emerging leaders could go a long way in shaping thoughtful political leaders and help in empowering effective legislations. Even in the present context, where leaders around the world are being continuously challenged with a trend of increasing catastrophic events and outbreak of diseases such as the coronavirus global pandemic, good governance and effective leadership are turning out to be essential factors for robust well-informed decision-making. The coronavirus contagion has exposed the global unpreparedness for pandemics. A nation-wide lockdown in India has had profound impacts on the lives of the people and economy of the country. A post-pandemic discourse must focus on addressing the challenges as well as the shortcomings that has surfaced during this crisis in order to build a stable and secure future. Political leaders across parties have to come together to develop an agenda to strengthen the systems of healthcare, food and agriculture in order to develop preparedness to withstand similar crises in the future. Henceforth, GPPI-CPR’s activities are going to be focused on these social, political and economic issues and measures in the aftermath of the pandemic.
