CPL is an apolitical non-profit with sole objective of strengthening the capacity of our youth to take up leadership challenges in the public sphere. CPL curates and anchors a fellowship program that seeks to prepare the next generation of leaders who possess competencies that transcend the public sector-private sector divide and also have a detailed understanding of the challenges in that exist in the public sphere.

There is a need to develop the next generation of public leaders who possess the right skills and the mindset required to shape the future of our country.

The spread of popular media and the lack of evidence based policy discussions have weakened people’s access to complete information about their country’s progress. The role of the mainstream media in bringing a balanced perspective is also getting diminished as certain sections are merely focused on raking controversies rather than balanced debates on issues plaguing our country. We believe that the Indian youth is increasingly becoming ill-informed on various public policy issues and are relying more on easily available social media discussions to fulfill their thirst for knowledge.

While social media has democratized communication, the format often provides only rudimentary information about important issues. The consumers of such information are easily susceptible to reaching convenient and unverified conclusions. This information asymmetry creates biased perspectives and prevents in-depth understanding of complex policy issues. Hence, there is a need for nuanced evidence based discussions on critical issues and to arrive at constructive solutions.

Moreover, there are few platforms available to engage in thorough discussions with public policy leaders and influencers. The existing policy boot camps and fellowships are creating awareness but informed and active engagement is still a relatively an unexplored territory. There is need to offer our future leaders a global perspective by giving them access to high quality thought leaders who expose them to real world challenges, scope and innovations by engaging them in a learning community.

In 2017, 20 CPL fellows were selected and trained on multi-party negotiation skills, design thinking, advocacy/campaign skills, evidence based decision-making frameworks, adaptive leadership, effective social media communication, public speaking and persuasive writing skills. The six thematic areas of study were Economy, Politics, Foreign Policy, Media, Social & Urban Policy and Indian History.