Alumni Feature | Prarthana Vaidya, Master’s in Public Policy ‘23

Born and raised in Mumbai, Prarthana has completed B.Com and Law from the University of Mumbai. She is also a qualified Chartered Accountant. Before joining the Public Policy Programme at NLSIU, she worked at a Chartered Accountancy firm for two years, specialising in regulatory compliance and advisory. It was this stint and studying law that made her realize her interest in understanding the broader policy goals behind the actions taken by the state and led to her pursuing this Master’s Programme in Public Policy.

As part of her Client Led Project at the Centre for Competition Law and Economics, she was able to do precisely this. Here she looked at regulatory documents to identify the actions and intentions of the Competition Commission of India, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India.

Through various courses, Prarthana’s main interests have grown beyond Regulation and Finance, particularly to include Urban Policy. She has developed a keen interest in making cities more sustainable and inclusive. The course has given her the lens to approach this question in a people-centric yet practical manner.

This interest in urban policy led to her pursuing an internship in the Municipal Finance Department of the Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, which has allowed her to combine her previous knowledge of accounting, with what she has learnt about the third tier of government and public finance during the MPP Programme. Here, she worked majorly on a project that aims to augment the own source revenues of urban local bodies.

The diverse cohort and interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum have helped her question her beliefs and broaden her ideas related to a number of economic and social issues. She can now engage with these issues in a more informed manner and has been equipped with the skills to dive deeper into these questions.

Prarthana has also participated in policy competitions and was part of a team which was a national finalist at Amlan, a policy case competition hosted by IIM Lucknow as a part of their festival Manifest-Varchasva.