Building the institutions India's policy and social impact space needs.
Yash Agarwal is a public policy professional and ecosystem builder based in New Delhi, with more than eight years across the institutions that shape India's policy and social impact field: ICANN, Twitter, the Parliament of India, and Chase Advisors (formerly Chase India). Currently Manager, Global Stakeholder Engagement (South Asia) at ICANN. Founder of Public Policy India and STRIDE, alongside teaching, advisory, and convening work across the broader ecosystem.
I grew up in Calcutta, watching a once-thriving city slowly lose its edge to decades of policy stagnation. That early proximity to the consequences of governance, what it does and what it fails to do, is what got me into this field.
After Mass Communications at Symbiosis, Pune, I chose a path that didn't yet have a clear template in India: a serious, full-time career in public policy. Today, the work has settled into one shape: building the institutions, communities, and pipelines that India's public policy and social impact space needs to grow. The form varies (technology policy at ICANN, two ventures in PPI and STRIDE, teaching across Indian universities), but the underlying intent is constant.
The thread is the same in each: India's public policy and social impact ecosystem is too thin to grow without deliberate, patient institution-building. The most useful work is often the unglamorous kind that builds the connective tissue between people, institutions, and ideas.
"Grow the entire pie of public policy in India: the industry, the jobs, the institutions, and the students who choose policy as a calling."
Speaking on a policy panel.
02 / Career
A portfolio rather than a ladder.
The institutions where India's policy and social impact field actually gets shaped: a global standards body, a major social media platform, a parliamentary office, a public-affairs consultancy. The breadth was the point.
Present
Manager, Global Stakeholder Engagement
ICANN · South Asia (six countries)
Primary interface between ICANN and government ministries, regulators, the technical community, industry, civil society, and media across India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Government outreach, partnerships, capacity development, and policy and regulatory monitoring on questions affecting a stable, secure, unified internet for one of the world's largest internet user bases. Coordinated ICANN85 in Mumbai in 2026, with NIXI, MeitY, and the Government of Maharashtra.
Present (parallel)
Founder
Public Policy India (PPI) and STRIDE
PPI is India's first and largest pan-India community for public policy and social impact, now in its seventh year. STRIDE, its sister think tank, works across a range of focus areas: policy research, consulting, and capacity building. More on both below.
2021 – 2023
Public Policy Associate
Twitter (now X) · India and South Asia
Joined as Twitter's first Public Policy Fellow from South Asia; promoted to Associate within eight months. Supported external partnerships and government relations across union ministries and state governments, civic integrity and election work, and the #TwitterForGood vertical, where the partner base scaled from thirty to a hundred within eighteen months. One of the most consequential periods for technology policy in India.
2020 – 2021
Government & Public Affairs Consultant
Chase Advisors (formerly Chase India) · Public affairs consulting
Strategic, regulatory, and policy research support for private-sector clients across healthcare, gender, and financial inclusion. Stakeholder mapping, advocacy strategy, white papers, and government affairs campaigns in India and South Asia's political and regulatory environment.
2019 – 2020
LAMP Fellow
PRS Legislative Research · Office of a Member of Parliament
Selected to a cohort of fifty from over five thousand applicants. Legislative assistant to a four-term former state cabinet minister and current Lok Sabha MP from Assam. Policy briefs, parliamentary interventions across ministries, and a drafted Private Member's Legislation considered by Parliament on regulatory approaches to emerging information ecosystems.
Earlier
Internships, fellowships, and field experience
Government of India (NHA) · Office of Baijayant 'Jay' Panda · NIAS · Teach For India · Global Shapers (WEF) · Sinceriti
Health policy at the National Health Authority on Ayushman Bharat. Communications and policy work at the Office of Mr. Baijayant 'Jay' Panda (today a five-term Member of Parliament and the BJP's National Vice President). Conflict-studies research at NIAS Bangalore. Education volunteering at TFI Chennai. Fellow of the Global Shapers Community (New Delhi Hub). Until recently, advisor at Sinceriti on platform strategy. The breadth that ended up shaping the rest.
03 / Ventures
Public Policy India & STRIDE.
Public PolicyIndiaSTRID
Public Policy India (PPI) is the first and largest pan-India community for public policy and social impact. Founded in 2020, it has grown into a national network with city chapters, university partnerships, and partners across the policy ecosystem, sustained by the people who use it.
PPI runs one of the country's most active ground networks for policy engagement: in-person Policy Circles and sessions in every major city, all focused purely on public policy and social impact. The community has scaled organically across cities, institutions, and demographics.
150K+
Community Members
40
City Chapters
25
Cities Across India
130+
In-person Engagements
Nearly40
University Partnerships
80+
Partners
01
Community Engagement
Policy Circles, our curated meetups in every major Indian city, are PPI's flagship community format. Between meet-ups, the WhatsApp community and The Policy Post newsletter hold the network together, alongside free career resources: a jobs board, public databases of organisations and fellowships, and the Policy Career Navigator.
02
Capacity Building
Teaching engagements and workshops at many of India's most prominent universities, plus Policy Sangam, our annual national fellowship for early-career professionals. We also run in-house team training for partner institutions on AI adoption, regulatory thinking, and policy communication.
03
Research & Consulting
Delivered through STRIDE, our sister think tank. STRIDE works across a range of focus areas, policy research, consulting and communications, and capacity building, on mandates for governments, foundations, think tanks, universities, and corporates working in public policy and social impact in India.
Sister Think Tank
STRID
Strategic Research and Impact Development Enterprise
STRIDE is a policy think tank and the sister entity to PPI, working across a range of focus areas: policy research, policy consulting and communications, and capacity building. It partners with governments, foundations, universities, think tanks, and industry on work spanning public policy and social impact. Its flagship annual publication, The State of Policy in India, launched in 2026 at the National Policy Forum. Where the PPI community holds the ecosystem together, STRIDE is where the structured research, advisory, and democratic-engagement work gets delivered.
Launching The State of Policy in India at the National Policy Forum, New Delhi, August 2026.
Partners across the policy ecosystem
PPI and STRIDE's partners are drawn from across the public policy and social impact ecosystem: union and state governments, philanthropic foundations, think tanks and research institutions, universities and academic centres, multilateral and international organisations, and industry. Mandates range from community and capacity-building programmes to commissioned research and policy consulting.
04 / Educator
Teaching across nearly forty Indian universities.
I teach as adjunct, guest, or visiting faculty. The core module covers policymaking, governance, and policy careers, and adapts between fifteen and thirty hours depending on the programme. It works for undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive cohorts. More recently, a masterclass on generative AI, technology policy, and career pathways.
I also serve on boards of studies and curriculum advisory committees at several institutions. Outside the classroom, I have held more than a thousand one-to-one mentorship conversations with aspiring policy professionals navigating fellowships, transitions, and the kind of unstructured early-career questions this field is full of.
Selected institutions
IIT BombayIIT MadrasIIM SirmaurAshoka UniversityJindal Global UniversitySt. Xavier's, MumbaiTISSKREA UniversityJamia Millia IslamiaDelhi UniversityIndian School of Public PolicyRV UniversitySymbiosis+ 25 more
05 / Writing
Notes on policy, slowly.
I write occasionally on technology policy, governance, and the institutional gaps in how India trains and hires for this field. The intent is depth over frequency: pieces a thoughtful colleague would read end to end, rather than skim.
Op-eds and interviews in the mainstream Indian press are listed alongside; long-form notes live on Substack. A few of the older pieces make arguments I would frame differently today. They stay up as a record of how the thinking has moved.
Yash is incredibly passionate about his work and sets a very high bar for himself. His curiosity and intent to learn and grow was evident as he worked on multiple projects and led some of the partnerships work at Twitter in India. He is a people's person and can build relationships and counsel partners, students, or colleagues when needed. Highly recommend him.
Payal Kamat
Public Policy at WhatsApp · Former Manager at Twitter India
Yash has been able to make a strong case for young folks to join the field of public policy. His deep passion to share his knowledge and network to build communities, and his ability to inspire young folks at such an early age, speaks volumes of his commitment to the cause. I look forward to seeing his growth trajectory.
Prateek Kanwal
Director, Social Impact Advisory · Deloitte South Asia
Yash has a way of cutting through the noise. His advice is practical, his framing is clear, and he tells you both what to do and what not to do. The improvements I have seen in my own thinking are real.
Mentee
Composite from public mentorship reviews
07 / Connect
Let's talk.
Briefings on technology and internet policy, speaking and teaching invitations, advisory and consulting engagements, partnership conversations with PPI or STRIDE, and mentorship sessions.
