Naman Shrivastava and Shatakshi Sharma had been working as strategic advisors at Quality Council of India, Government of India to make dent in the universe when Shatakshi moved to Hyderabad in April 2018 to start her business school journey at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

Less did they know that ISB, Hyderabad will help them sow seeds of their upcoming venture- Global Governance Initiative. The academic rigor and peaceful ISB campus allowed Shatakshi to sit back and reflect what else does she want from her professional life in addition to grabbing a covetous job of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on campus. 

Naman and Shatakshi brainstormed on multiple calls to realize that they both were fortunate to land the opportunity with Indian Government. However, many people are not skilled enough or have awareness about such roles with Government. To further expand the thought, in UPSC 2017 ~12 Lakh candidates registered for 800 seats. This clearly indicates that youth of India is motivated to contribute to nation’s growth. However, due to lack of skills and opportunities (like limited seats in state service exams) candidates are unable to contribute productively.  

Knowing India has dividend of 700 million youth- there is ample supply.  Moreover, their experience with the Government bureaucrats and Ministers showed there is new and huge demand for young talented people with popular examples being of state Chief Minister’s fellowship programs- thus there is demand. 

Realizing this, Naman and Shatakshi further materialized the idea in form of organization and bootstrapped initial funding to Co-Found: Global Governance Initiative in July 2018. The inaugural Masterclass was held in New Delhi with support from Bharati Institute of Public Policy- Policy School of ISB as Shatakshi continued to also manage her academics.

From there on, there was no looking back- the pilot helped them understand the power of both idea and impeccable execution. To further test and expand the idea, the founders moved bold to now host Masterclass in Boston at The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy which witnessed participation by Harvard graduates, proving merit in the idea as well as capability of the founders to deliver such international Masterclass. 

That’s how Global Governance Initiative (GGI) came into existence and both Naman and Shatakshi define its role in society as – an impact up-skilling venture that engages in training global youth on policy and provides opportunity to work on Government of India initiatives. The Founders dream is to create a youth revolution in public policy participation in India. 

 

The course was designed as Shatakshi tested her hypothesis real time while continuing her post graduate exchange semester at Harvard Business and The Fletcher School in Boston. She realized that internationally the schools are fantastic at teaching fundamentals of economics and business. However, the gap in practical skills for policy consulting still remains. If that’s the scenario for top schools, one can easily imagine the scenario for others. 

This made the masterclass of GGI its core unique value proposition. To start with- the 8 hours intensive Masterclass is designed to go to cities rather than calling all the talent to one location. GGI’s Masterclass is taught by consultants with Indian Government, BCG, Bain & Company, Mckinsey & Co., World Bank and United Nations. They have studied at international institutes like ISB, INSEAD, Harvard, Fletcher, The John Hopkins, Yale etc. and have solved real problems first hand. They come and teach extremely practical policy cases ranging from healthcare, education, digital interventions to investments in consultant’s structured driven style. The programme also comprises very practical skills such as networking and negotiations. 

The story doesn’t stop there, the top 5-10% of the class is also provided employment through their collaborators in the segment. Thus solving for both- skills and employment through GGI’s programme. 

While Shatakshi conducted Masterclass in Boston, Naman further prepped the Indian market to conduct more Masterclasses at larger scale in India. 

In terms of impact, quantitatively GGI has ups-skilled 500 delegates at various Masterclasses ranging from St. Stephen’s College to ISB Hyderabad & IIFT New Delhi and provided selected 11 delegates fellowships through collaboration with Bharti Institute of Public Policy, ISB and Quality Council of India, Ministry of Commerce. 

Qualitatively, to narrate an anecdote- one fellow, who is 20, called Naman and Shatakshi the other day and expressed his gratitude how he is getting to apply his computer science skills while solving for Haryana’s policy concerns. That’s the level of deep satisfaction and impact we are creating. 

GGI Goals : 2 fold-