Alumni Feature | Neel Karnik, Master’s in Public Policy ‘21

Neel Karnik completed his B.Tech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal in 2016. Following that, a desire to create impact at scale motivated him to appear for the civil service examinations. The experience from the civil service examinations sparked an interest for him in public policy which led to him joining the MPP course. He did his fieldwork with KHOJ in Melghat which exposed him to the challenges associated with the rehabilitation and resettlement of tribals from the Melghat Tiger Reserve. It also helped him realise the potential of community forest rights to empower local  communities. Internships with CSTEP, Observer Research Foundation and the All India Congress Committee helped him develop an interest in sustainability. His long standing interest in the internet and social media was fostered through his internship with IT for Change where he worked on hate speech related projects. His dissertation aims to understand the media coverage of the ongoing farm protests. Active in extra-curriculars, Neel was part of an inter-college team that finished runners-up in the Climathon Bengaluru 2020 organised by CSTEP, Melton Foundation and Climate- KIC. He was also part of the NLS team that finished runners-up in the Education Stream of the Policy Hackathon organised by E-Cell NLS.