India is rapidly witnessing an expansion of public policy education that teaches students such subjects as data analysis, impact assessment and policy implementation. The number of policy schools has risen from around 10 in 2016 to over 130 in 2024.

New degrees at public and private institutions, policy labs and consultancy-oriented programmes have emerged with the hope and belief that graduates of these courses will be better equipped to assist in governance.

Yet rather than broadening how public problems are understood, this expansion often reinforces the idea that policy is best approached as a technical exercise, governed by metrics, models and operational optimisation.

This matters because policy education does more than train professionals: it shapes how governance itself is imagined. When public policy is framed primarily as problem-solving rather than political judgement, questions of power, issues of law and social conflict are pushed to the margins.

Such a framing of policy took shape alongside a broader redefinition of the state and governance.

The economic reforms of 1991 reshaped not only India’s economy but its understanding of public policy development. As the country moved away from a developmental state towards market-led growth, the state has been increasingly recast as a regulator and facilitator rather than a provider and employer.

One of the clearest outcomes of this shift...

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