Alumni Feature | Srishti Rongpipi, Master’s in Public Policy ‘23

Srishti is a native of Karbi Anglong, an autonomous tribal district of Assam. She was schooled in Shillong, Meghalaya, where she competed as a district-level athlete. She earned her degree in Psychology from the University of Delhi’s Jesus and Mary College, where she also competed in intercollegiate debate tournaments across India. Her decision to pursue a career in public policy was shaped by two years of experience in the education and handloom sectors, as well as her conviction that behavioural solutions can address complex social impact issues.

As part of her Client Led Project, she worked with Sambodhi Research and Communications for five months. She contributed to three governmental projects, namely: she developed environmental impact indicators for Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh (MoEFCC), performed data analysis for the Rural Quality of Life report (MoRD), and assisted in the evaluation of the Business Boosters Programme (Delhi Government) and ITI’s Udhyam Course (Maharashtra Government).

During her summer internship, she worked with Sattva Consulting conducting in-depth fieldwork with farmers of the Boko Development Block (Assam) for the Tata Trusts’ Assam State Initiative Livelihood project. This sparked her interest in the field of tribal welfare, rural development and livelihoods, while the MPP curriculum encouraged an interest in urban planning and public health.

Additionally, she completed internships at Ernst & Young, Center of Civil Society (CCS), and the Transform Rural India Foundation. Her master’s thesis on sub-statist nationalism and resilience strategies is inspired by her turbulent childhood, during which she saw her family flee their hometown due to militant violence.

Srishti sees policy competitions as opportunities for practical realizations of her course learnings. Besides, she thoroughly enjoys collaborating with her interdisciplinary classmates. She was part of a three-member team that won the first prize in the Mock Policy Roundtable Competition held by CCS and IISc Bangalore. The team advocated for the involvement of civil society stakeholders and the democratization of science in Academia-Industry linkages. She was also part of a four-member team that won the fifth prize at the India Evaluation Case Competition 2022 hosted by Eval Youth India, BMGF, and DMEO Niti Aayog. A detailed Monitoring and Evaluation strategy was prepared on the Adolescent Health and Nutrition Initiative. She credits concepts covered in the Policy Design course with the team’s success. Lastly, she qualified for the upcoming finals of the Prajatantra Policy Presentation on E-Governance and Citizen Participation hosted by the Praja Foundation and the  National Institute of Urban Affairs.