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XLRI inaugurated its Centre for Public Policy & Public Affairs
26th Feb, 2022
- XLRI inaugurated its Centre for Public Policy & Public Affairs
The Xavier School of Management (XLRI) inaugurated the Centre for Public Policy and Public Affairs (XLCP) on February 25, 2022, in an online event. The guest speaker on the occasion was Professor Benjamin M. Friedman, a globally renowned American economist, and the William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University. His lecture titled, “Why Study for a Career in Public Policy” was attended by a large virtual audience and set the stage for a deep interest in the programmes of the Centre in administration, leadership and public policy. The Centre will be located in XLRI’s Delhi campus and work closely with collaborators and partners across the country.
William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy Harvard University
Benjamin M. Friedman is the William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy, and formerly Chairman of the Department of Economics, at Harvard University. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1972. Dr. Friedman’s current professional activities include serving as a director of the Private Export Funding Corporation, a trustee of the Pioneer Funds, and a director of the Council for Economic Education. He was also a long-time director and member of the editorial board of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Director of XLRI, Fr. Paul Fernandes, expressed his delight at the opening of the Centre and stated, “At this juncture of our history, there is a deep need for training in principled and effective public leadership and policy for future generations of scholars and practitioners. We need more creativity in the process of public decision-making, be it dealing with political pressures, an increasingly technological driven world, shifting demographics, environmental challenges and a host of other pressing issues of our times. The recent pandemic has taught us to be prepared for catastrophic and unforeseen events that can disrupt our lives in a moment, and yet bind us together as one world. At XLCP, we will endeavor to train leaders who will strive to frame policies and lead organizations with a strong sense of ethics and integrity and set examples of building resilience in an uncertain world with great certitude. I am happy to have a strong team that will build the Centre as a hub of innovation and excellence in the hope of creating a better world for our collective future.”
XLCP will be led by Shobhana Rana, a Harvard alumna and conflict resolutions specialist, who has over two decades of experience in public policy as a practitioner and teacher. She has worked in the public and private sector, in all major conflict hotspots around the world, and in policymaking roles headquartered in New York City and Washington DC. She has also advised governments and private sector enterprises on governance and policy in India and overseas.
The Centre for Policy (XLCP) is a hub of cutting-edge ideas on areas as vast as corporate governance, conflict management and mediation, building effective public-private partnerships and public leadership. It brings together scholars and practitioners to engage in dialogue that impacts our world and helps in creating workable solutions to the policy questions of our current times. We are international in our approach, collaborating with partners from academia, international organizations, think tanks and research organizations, among many others, to bring creative solutions to areas of policy challenges such as climate change and sustainability, compassionate healthcare, early warning systems, management of resources, post-pandemic rehabilitation and social inclusion. In seeking to build ideas and leaders for the future, we offer training in public policy through an interdisciplinary lens which will equip you to address the most complex and daunting problems with creative and sustainable solutions. It is one world, our world, and we need to preserve it for generations to come.