About the Organisers:
Centre for Civil Society (CCS) is a leading non-partisan, independent public policy think tank founded in August 1997, on the 50th anniversary of India's independence. CCS champions individual choice and institutional accountability by shaping India's public policy through evidence-based research, outreach programs, and policy training. Our areas of work include education, livelihoods, and governance.
The Department of Public Policy at Manipal Academy of Higher Education (DPP, MAHE) was established in August 2022. DPP, MAHE (Bengaluru) aims to serve as a policy hub that scrutinizes the interplay between society, economy, environment, technology, and governance via policy development and advocacy. The Department seeks to impact policy decisions through academic and research programs, leading to positive policy outcomes that align with the Sustainable Development Goals.
About the PRISM Policy Hackathon:
CCS, with support from the Manipal Foundation, has been conducting the ‘PRISM Policy Hackathon’ for students in undergraduate and graduate degree courses. The title ‘PRISM’ depicts the power of collective intelligence by bringing together views from diverse stakeholders. This edition consists of a preliminary virtual round and a final round where students participate in teams of 2 or 3. Inter-college and inter-disciplinary teams are eligible to apply.
Preliminary Round [Virtual at Application Stage]
Participant teams are requested to respond to the prompt (provided below) as part of their application at the time of registration (refer to point 4 below).
Final Round [at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Bengaluru on 20th March 2025]:
This round will be conducted in person at the Bengaluru campus of Manipal Academy of Higher Education and will consist of a mock policy roundtable competition. In a mock policy roundtable, participants will take the role of a group of stakeholders affected by a given policy problem and present their views and recommendations. The stakeholder groups to be represented will be assigned to the finalists and may include policymakers, international organisations, scientists/academicians, industry leaders, civil society, the end beneficiary etc. This competition will be judged by a jury.
Eligibility: This competition is open to all students who are pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree in any discipline from a recognised higher education institution in India.
Note: Finalists are required to make their own travel and other arrangements to be present for the final round at the MAHE Bengaluru campus
Registration/submission procedure:
1. To register for this competition, please fill up your details in this form: https://form.typeform.com/to/KNddkwi1
2. All participants must be students who are pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree in any discipline from a recognised higher education institution in India.
3. Participants cannot register individually. Only teams of 2-3 can register for this competition.
4. Your application will be based on your proposed policy solution/framework, submitted as a digital poster (of A4 size, landscape or portrait) and a video (up to 2 minutes) explaining/presenting the poster.
Prompt for the Video and Digital Poster:
“You are the government of a city in India that has a population of more than one million persons. Identify one problem of urbanisation that should be of the highest priority. Propose one solution that will improve the prospects of your city and the quality of life for its residents.”
Guidelines for Digital Poster to be submitted:
- Create a digital poster on an A4 size sheet in PDF format
- Some templates to consider are (1) and (2)
- Upload the poster into a Google Drive folder
- Give prism@ccs.in viewing access
Guidelines for Video to be submitted:
- Create a video not more than two minutes long
- In the video, present the digital poster
- Upload the video to the Google Drive folder that contains the digital poster
- Give prism@ccs.in viewing access
Fee details: It’s free to participate!
Rewards/Prizes:
- Prizes worth ₹35,000; [Winner (₹20,000) , 1st Runner-up (₹10,000), Best-speaker (₹5,000)]
- Goodies
- Certificates
Deadline to apply: 10 March 2025, 9 AM
Contact Information: For queries, write to prism@ccs.in
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