The academic and policy worlds have drifted apart since the early years of the Indian Republic. Can a new Public Policy field help reconnect academia to policymaking? The genesis and evolution of Public Policy in the United States holds important learning lessons. The raison d'être of Public Policy, the academic discipline, is to aid and inform public policy, the process; sans state imprimatur, cross-institutional coordination and demand-scoping, discrete supply-driven initiatives are unlikely to have substantive impact. Public Policy has considerable scope in India, provided academia and government join hands to create a policy ecosystem for meeting the specific challenges of Indian governance.
