Alumni Feature | Dishna Sikidar, Master’s in Public Policy ‘22

Hardworking and curious would be the two words to describe Dishna, one of the youngest students of the 7th cohort of the Masters in Public Policy Course at National Law School, Bangalore. As a person who has lived in multiple places across India, Dishna was exposed to the various problems and issues that the general populace face on a day-to-day basis. This exposure made her develop an interest in pursuing Public Policy as a degree. Her undergraduate concentration in Economics from Christ University, Bangalore allowed her to hone her quantitative skills and the interdisciplinary pedagogy offered by the National Law School allowed her to have a more humane and qualitative approach to her areas of interest. Dishna’s main areas of interest lie in economic policy, urban planning and development, and education. Dishna has been an avid quizzer throughout her college and university life. She has participated, qualified and won in numerous prestigious quizzes such as the Landmark Quiz and at various college quizzes for which she was awarded a scholarship by Christ University. She has carried this passion over to NLS as well where she has represented the university at the regional and national levels of the Conquest Quiz organised by CLPR as well as Interrobang at NALSAR University of Law.

Dishna has also pursued a wide variety of internships, both in the corporate and research sectors to have an understanding of the skill sets required by each of the sectors. Some of the internships she has pursued since joining the MPP course at NLS have been at Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Indian Renewable Energy Development Authority (IREDA) and the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC) at Ashoka University. As a part of her internship at ORF, she was involved in the publication of a monograph on the West Bengal elections 2021, titled “Battle for Bengal”. At the same internship, she co-authored an article on the sustainability of agriculture which was subsequently published in the prestigious economics journal of Shri Ram College of Commerce – ‘Artha’. As a part of her internship at IREDA, Dishna was responsible for the drafting of the organisation’s new environmental and social policy. Currently, she is involved in the Adolescent Health Project at CSBC where she is a part of the team conducting research on adolescent health and behaviour in villages, a topic which has made a lasting impact on her, exposing her to the needs and problems of all sections of the society. Dishna in her final year is writing her dissertation on “Understanding the Effects of New Mobility Technologies on Women’s Mobility in India”, and is expected to finish in May 2022.