Alumni Feature | Thejas N, Master’s in Public Policy ‘21

Thejas is a curious polymath, passionate about learning new things. He is a science graduate with Triple Majors in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics from Christ University. Post his graduation he was looking to pursue Mathematics. But after he began volunteering to teach at a school for the underprivileged, the stories of struggle made him realise the need to bring changes at the policy level. This led him to joining the MPP course at NLSIU, where he quickly adapted to the requirements while keeping his scientific temper intact. He grew a keen interest in the aspects of the economy and quantitative methods and how to tie them up with policy measures. His interest motivated him to intern at International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) Hyderabad, where he worked on primary panel data on Sorghum. He analysed the data to identify changes in consumption and production of sorghum in Semi-Arid parts of India. Thejas was one of the select few in his batch who qualified for the highly competitive NASPAA Batten Student Simulation Competition. “This helped me gain perspectives from different participants (from other universities) and understand the use of data to plan sustainable urban policies including transport and mobility policies,” he says. As a continuation of his interest in economics, in his dissertation, he is exploring how the idea of Capabilities Approach by Amartya Sen can help in bringing freedom to marginalised communities through the process of school education. He also utilised his scientific acumen from his graduation days, when he got selected for the Geneva Centre for Security Policy: Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge. The NLSIU team including Thejas, which effectively dealt with a case study on cyberattack, was the sole team from Asia to get selected for the prestigious competition. The team finished 12th in the competition, which saw participation from many major colleges across the globe.