Citizens' Foundation for Policy Solutions (CFPS)

CFPS is a Delhi-based independent public policy think-tank. RTs not endorsement.
Legislative Policy, IR, Internal Security, Administrative Policy, Environment.

[Shailaja Chandra @over2shailaja]

I am surprised to see how much Subhash Garg former Finance Secretary was belittled by an anchor who did not have the gravitas to understand what he was saying - repeatedly. If he is wrong his argument needed to be met with an equally strong rebuttal from someone with domain knowledge.
Shouting him down was annoying when one genuinely wanted the correct picture - both ways.
Taking on SG needed competence. Certainly not belligerence.

https://t.co/EBKkhne2Sz

[Sagarika Ghose @sagarikaghose]

Former Finance Secretary SC Garg has clinically exposed the FICTIONAL “7.8% GDP growth” of the @narendramodi regime. First, last year’s Q1 growth—also “celebrated” as 7.8%—has quietly been rewritten as 6.9%. By downgrading the previous year’s base, the Modi regime is now fudging 7.8% as an “acceleration.” Second, the 7.8% claim collapses if adjusted for ground inflation. Garg says subtracting 5-6 % inflation from growth gives a COLLAPSING 2.6% growth rate. Third, this supposed ~8% is simply not visible. There is zero job creation, widespread rural distress & MSME sector destroyed due to demonetisation, punitive GST & crony capitalism. The truth is glaring: the Modi regime is a TOTAL FAILURE at managing India’s economy. Shri @narendramodi has the audacity to lecture citizens on don’t buy gold & don’t travel abroad. Citizens are NOT the problem. The problem is a government that can only deliver propaganda & hatred, and is an UTTER FAILURE at delivering prosperity or jobs or education or healthcare.

[The Diplomat @Diplomat_APAC]

Ayesha Siddiqa argues that Pakistan is not a hybrid regime but a case of constitutional militarism, sanctioned by a parliament that has legislated away its own relevance. https://t.co/hYsHwax4hP

[Prashant Bhushan @pbhushan1]

We want decent facilities in govt schools.
We want leakproof and error free exams for admissions & recruitments.
We want employment for our youth.
We want an end to the loot of our natural & financial resources by govts cronies like Adani/Ambani.
We want an end to corruption in govt projects & schemes.
We want our Institutions like the Judiciary, ECI, media etc to be independent.
We want counting of VVPAT paper slips in elections.
If demanding these things makes us ‘Dimagi Naxals’, we are proud to be so!

[vir sanghvi @virsanghvi]

Sharp Edge: Tukaram Mundhe wins praise for caring about food safety
The BJP could have done the same. But it has spent over a decade ignoring safety & focussing on banning beef-eating &
shaming non vegetarians. https://t.co/TWjPGARbaE

[Dr. Brahma Chellaney @Chellaney]

A Ticking Water Bomb: Why Is New Delhi Silent?

Why is New Delhi silent even as China’s own scientists warn of serious geological risks at the site of the world’s largest dam, now being built in one of the world’s most seismically active regions? China is constructing the super-dam just a few miles from India’s border, potentially putting millions of people at risk downstream in India’s northeast, particularly the Assam Plains, The consequences could extend into Bangladesh, located farthest downstream.

In a recent paper published in Sedimentary Geology and Tethyan Geology, a journal overseen by the state-run China Geological Survey, Chinese geologists warned that the dam project (almost three times the size of the Three Gorges Dam, currently the world’s biggest) not only lies along a geological fault, but also the construction site has a “loose structure and weak cohesion.” Fault activity or an earthquake, they warned, could “very easily trigger” instability of the reservoir slopes, affecting the integrity of the entire dam project and nearby infrastructure.

The paper recommends design changes, including reinforcing the reservoir slopes and installing retaining structures. The reservoir will eventually impound a mammoth volume of water from the Yarlung Tsangpo, better known as the Brahmaputra River.

China has learned little from the controversy surrounding the 2008 earthquake that struck the Tibetan Plateau’s eastern rim, killing nearly 90,000 people. Scientists have long debated whether the nearby Zipingpu Dam, completed only a few years before the quake, contributed to the disaster. One influential study concluded that the massive weight of the water in the dam’s 156-meter-high reservoir may have caused severe stresses on the underlying geological fault, or what scientists call reservoir-triggered seismicity (RTS), thereby hastening the earthquake by decades or even centuries.

The risks posed by the new super-dam are significant because it is being built in the Himalayan seismically active belt, where the Indian and Eurasian plates collide. The belt has produced some of Asia’s strongest earthquakes, including the devastating 2025 Myanmar earthquake, whose tremors extended to Thailand, causing the collapse of a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok.

With the lives and livelihoods of millions of northeastern Indians potentially at stake, the least the Indian government should do is demand that China lift the veil of opacity surrounding the super-dam project and allow Indian and other international experts to visit the construction site for an independent scientific assessment.

When a potential water bomb is being assembled upstream, how can downstream silence be justified?

[Jay Bisen @JayBisen473370]

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[Citizens' Foundation for Policy Solutions (CFPS) @CFPS_India]

Priyanka Kumari, one of the students from our summer school on "Public Policy Analysis and Articulation", shares her feedback about her experience throughout the course in the context of the lectures taken by guest lecturers, specifically Ms. Shivangi Singh, Mr. Omer Ghazi (@OmerGhazi2) and Mrs. Nishtha Relan (@_NyxtaR_ ).

[Citizens' Foundation for Policy Solutions (CFPS) @CFPS_India]

Ms. Priyanka Kumari, one of the students from our summer school on "Public Policy Analysis and Articulation", shares her feedback about her experience throughout the course in the context of the lectures taken by the principal instructor and our president Mr. Karmanye Thadani (@KarmanyeThadan1).

Having completed his BA. LLB (Hons.) from Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar (@gnluofficial), he was the gold medallist in his MA in International Relations from OP Jindal University (@OPJUniversity). He has pursued summer courses at the University of Oxford (@UniofOxford) and The London School of Economics and Political Science (@LSEEcon). He is a published author of five books on Public Policy, Social Dynamics and International Relations, other than his articles having been published by noted media houses (including The Times Of India) and academic journals including brought out by Cambridge University (@Cambridge_Uni). He was selected to appear in the Times Now Youth Parliament on Foreign Policy in 2013 and has lectured in Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar, and Chanakya University, Bengaluru (@ChanakyaUni).

[Citizens' Foundation for Policy Solutions (CFPS) @CFPS_India]

We, at CFPS, were glad to virtually host Mrs. Uma Lohray (@umalohray) , a historical fiction writer, on 10th July 2026, who delivered an insightful lecture on the role of novels and films, even of the fiction genre, in influencing social sensitivity and public policy to students of our summer school on "Public Policy Analyssis and Articulation". She gave some actual examples of how narratives from books & films, like The Grapes of Wrath, Cathy Come Home and Blackfish directly shaped real policies from Farm Security Administration (FSA) relief funding to the UK's Homeless Persons Act to legislations and judicial decisions emanating from the global Rights of Nature movement. She also referred to Martha Nussbaum's case for fiction as training for "judicious" policymakers, other than talking about her own journey as a historical fiction writer and how she went about researching for her novel.

A graduate of Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar (@gnluofficial) her book 'The One-Way Ships', narrating a tale of gender oppression in British colonial times, got rave reviews from India Today (@IndiaToday), News18 India (@News18India), Impact News India and Goa Chronicle (@goachronicle). She has formerly worked with prestigious law firms like Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan attorneys (@LKSattorneys).

[Citizens' Foundation for Policy Solutions (CFPS) @CFPS_India]

We, at CFPS, were glad to virtually host Mr. Shubhendu Anand (@BBTheorist) on 10th July 2026, who delivered a lecture on the topic of "Law as an Instrument of Social Change" for the students of our summer school on "Public Policy Analysis and Articulation". He talked of how the law has empowered women, homosexuals, bisexuals and the so-called lower castes, and emphasised the need for reforming personal laws of all religious groupings (until a uniform civil code can be achieved), the need for communal harmony and rooting out corruption and inefficiency.

Mr. Shubhendu Anand is a lawyer, practising primarily in the Supreme Court of India, and was involved in the historic case for the Ram temple in Ayodhya, having argued in favour of the temple while being open to land being allotted for a mosque elsewhere in the city. He is co-founder and partner of S4A Partners, a Delhi-based law firm. He was Chamber Junior to Vikramjit Banerjee, Additional Solicitor General of India at the Supreme Court.

He has previously worked as a Research Fellow with Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, New Delhi, a thinktank aligned with the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP). He is also a National Council Member of Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad (ABAP), the lawyers' wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (@RSSorg ), and a member of its Supreme Court Executive. As an advocate for the Union of India, Shubhendu represents the Central Government in the Supreme Court of India. Shubhendu obtained his post-graduate degree in Intellectual Property Law from the Queen Mary University of London, University of London (@QMUL) where he was a British Chevening Scholar. He graduated in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, and holds a degree in law (LL.B.) from Campus Law Centre, Faculty Of Law, University of Delhi. At TISS, he was selected as Linnaeus-Palme International Exchange Scholar to study at University of Gavle in Sweden.

He is an avid quizzer and regularly writes legal columns/articles for leading magazines and journals.

CFPS is not affiliated to any other social organisation or to any political party.

[Citizens' Foundation for Policy Solutions (CFPS) @CFPS_India]

We, at CFPS, were glad to virtually host Mr. Ruben Mascarenhas (@rubenmasc) , on 5th July 2026, who delivered a lecture on the topic of "Collective Action for Policy Change" for the students of our summer school on "Public Policy Analysis anmd Articulation".

Mr. Ruben is a social activist and political leader associated with the @AamAadmiParty (AAP), where he has played a key role in both organizational and public-facing capacities, also having served as the party's National Joint Secretary. Trained as an astrophysicist, IT engineer and lawyer, he has long been engaged in civic and grassroots initiatives, including his involvement in the India Against Corruption movement and having co-founded and continuing to manage the organisation Khaana Chahiye Foundation (KCF) (@khaanachahiye) aimed at fighting malnutrition, established in the backdrop of the migrant workers' crisis in the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

He was also selected as part of @Stanford University’s prestigious Centre on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) Fisher Family Fellowship Class of 2023, where he engaged with global scholars and peers on issues of democracy, development and governance. He has also been heavily involved in environmental and gender activism, and played a pivotal role in Tata Group’s (@TataCompanies ) 'Jaago Re’ voter awareness campaign.

CFPS is not affiliated with or aligned to any political party.

[Citizens' Foundation for Policy Solutions (CFPS) @CFPS_India]

We, at CFPS, were glad to host Mrs. Nishtha Relan (@_NyxtaR_ ) on 8th July 2026. She delivered an in-person lecture on the topic of "Policy Communication" to students of our ongoing summer school on "Public Policy Analysis and Articulation".

With a Bachelors and Masters in English Literature from leading University of Delhi colleges (Miranda House and Hindu College respectively) and an MA in Public Policy and Governance from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Hyderabad, Mrs. Nishtha is a knowledge and communications strategist who has worked for over half a decade at the Foundation for Ecological Security, one of India's leading organisations working on community-led governance for enhanced ecological and livelihood resilience. Her work involves enhancing knowledge infrastructure for complex, multi-stakeholder programmes that reach across community institutions, civil society and the state machinery. She has led large-scale campaigns, including a community forest rights awareness campaign activating 4,000+ Gram Sabhas in Chhattisgarh, and strategised and implemented content and outreach for multiple high-stakes convenings, including the Commons Convening, 2024, and citizen science initiatives on groundwater monitoring that drew engagement from the Central Ground Water Board.

[Citizens' Foundation for Policy Solutions (CFPS) @CFPS_India]

We, at CFPS, were glad to virtually host Mr. Khalid Shah on 4th July 2026, in which he shared his experiences of writing policy briefs and the importance of specific, well thought out but concisely expressed policy recommendations to the students of our ongoing summer course on "Public Policy Analysis and Articulation".

With a strong background in journalism and risk analysis for MNCs, Mr. Khalid, a Kashmiri, is a graduate in Computer Applications from Srinagar and pursued his Masters in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. After several years of media reportage at channels including Wion, he worked as a national security analyst at Observer Research Foundation (ORF) covering the Indo-Pak conflict and local Islamist militancy in Kashmir, even making incisive policy recommendations to the Indian government to that end. He is a firm supporter of the constitutional secular idea of India, and sees J&K fitting that paradigm, opposing communal tendencies under any religious banner and overall seeing Kashmir's future with India. He has authored a coffee table book documenting how the Kashmiri Pandits forcefully displaced by Islamist terrorists have preserved their culture in Delhi.

[Citizens' Foundation for Policy Solutions (CFPS) @CFPS_India]

We, at CFPS, were glad to virtually host our former colleague Mr. Vishal Tripathi (@vishaltrip), who was a member of the founding team of our organisation. He delivered a lecture on 13th June 2026 on "How Public Policy Professionals can Successfully Influence Government Policies", citing his own experience vis-a-vis water usage by AI data centres in India. The lecture was for our students of our currently running summer school on "Public Policy Analysis and Articulation".

Mr. Vishal completed his BA, LLB (Hons.) from Gujarat National Law University (GNLU), Gandhinagar, and went on to do a Masters of Public Policy from the Hertie School in Berlin, where he specialized in Policy Analysis. He is a public policy professional and Consultant at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), where he has been instrumental in advancing policy initiatives related to data centres and digital infrastructure in India. He previously worked with us at CFPS and at NITI Aayog, contributing to key government policy efforts, and has also been invited to speak at globally reputed institutions such as the National University of Singapore.

[Citizens' Foundation for Policy Solutions (CFPS) @CFPS_India]

Five students from India's premier law schools, four from National Law University (NLU), Jodhpur, and one from Gujarat National Law University (GNLU), Gandhinagar, completed their in-person internship at CFPS in the month of June 2026. We also had two interns working in long distance mode, one from GNLU and another, not a law student but a public policy and media student from Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru.

The interns worked on wide-ranging topics such as solid waste management (as also concerns of human dignity of waste-pickers), ensuring human dignity and safety for those involved in cleaning our sewers and septic tanks, urban forestry management, leveraging indigenous Indian medical systems for helping those with mental health concerns based on scientific evidence, documenting historical 'lipis' or Indian writing patterns as an easy reference-point for future historians, identifying patterns in Indian and Chinese public diplomacy since 1949, examining how science diplomacy has served Indian national interests, what can be done to have a more conducive environment for Indian science-innovative startups, how our Indian colleges can boost scientific innovation and so on.

[Citizens' Foundation for Policy Solutions (CFPS) @CFPS_India]

We, at CFPS, were glad to virtually host Ms. Shivangi Singh on 28th June on the topic of "Policy Impact Evaluation in the Social/Development Sector" for the students of our ongoing summer school on "Public Policy Analysis and Articulation".

Raised in an Indian Army environment (because of which she picked up and enjoys rifle-shooting in shooting ranges), Ms. Shivangi brings in a diverse academic background. She graduated as an engineer from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam University, Lucknow, while simultaneously pursuing much journalism and activism, owing to which she was selected for the prestigious Teach for India Fellowship, wherein she taught students in a government school in Delhi, and thereafter, the also prestigious Young India Fellowship from Ashoka University, Sonipat, in which she pursued her post-graduation in Counseling Psychology and Liberal Arts with a sharp focus on Gender Studies. She has been a gender educator since 2018 and has worked with the governments of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Assam on evaluating the impact of government policies in the sphere of education. Her clients for gender sensitisation and menstrual hygiene workshops range from government schools and colleges to big corporate houses like Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Her work has been covered on various media platforms and she has won many national and international awards for her work, including the Karmaveer Chakra, a global civilian honour recognizing individuals for their proactive voluntary actions and contributions to social change, instituted by the Indian Confederation of NGOs (iCONGO) in collaboration with the United Nations. Her seminal work on documenting gender issues among Tibetan refugees in India and promoting gender sensitisation among them was appreciated by the Tibetan government-in-exile as also by many eminent scholars.

[Vikas Singh @vikas_ai_]

INSTEAD OF WATCHING AN HOUR OF NETFLIX TONIGHT.

This 60-minute Cambridge lecture by Demis Hassabis will teach you more about the future of AI than most people will learn in the next 5 years.

Bookmark it and give it an hour.

[Citizens' Foundation for Policy Solutions (CFPS) @CFPS_India]

We, at CFPS, were glad to virtually host our trustee Mr. Omer Ghazi (@OmerGhazi2) on 27th June 2026 for the students of our ongoing summer school on "Public Policy Analysis and Articulation". He delivered a lecture on the issue of Muslim extremism in India and globally, something he has been very vocal about.

Mr. Omer holds a degree in English Literature and co-founded and served as the Vice President of an organization Vicharak, aimed at promoting scientific temperament and communal harmony in the society. He extensively writes on culture, history and geopolitics in portals including First Post, Heartland Analyst and India Today. His collection of poems on the marvels of Indic philosophy and modern science, “The Cosmic Dance”, got selected as Book of The Day in the World Book Fair 2023. He is also a musician who writes and performs songs on themes of history, philosophy, social themes and being a patriotic Indian. As part of a cultural diplomacy exchange, he represented India at Telangana Jagruthi International Youth Leadership Conference 2019 and also at Best Diplomats Dubai Conference in 2023. He was also invited as a speaker at the Indraprastha Cultural Festival, 2026, organised by the Govt. of Delhi on the topic "Poetry, Physics and the Seeker's Universe".