The Amatya Fellowship
Be the Amātya Bharat needs.
The founding cohort brings 25 legislators, civil servants, policy professionals, social entrepreneurs and institution builders to New Delhi, early in their public lives, to learn the work of the state side by side.
The people who will run India for the next generation are starting out now.
A young officer posted to a district today may one day run a state department. A first-term MP may sit on the Standing Committee that examines a ministry's spending. Most learn these jobs as they go, on the country's time. Much of the work of building a developed India by 2047 will fall to people who are early in their public careers today.
Each part of the state trains its own people. New MPs and MLAs attend orientations run by their Houses. Officers train at LBSNAA and their service academies. Panchayat members train under the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan. One scheme needs all of them: a legislature to vote the money, a district to run it, a gram sabha to hold it to account and often an outside organisation to reach the last household. Amatya puts these people in one room before the scheme reaches them.
The name is the plan
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Advancing Minds
Learn to weigh evidence and argue a policy case before the decision reaches a citizen.
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Administration
Follow a decision from the House, through the budget cycle, to the district office.
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Transformation
Study why sound schemes stall between sanction and delivery, and what it takes to see one through to the household.
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Youth Action
Build working ties across Houses, services and sectors that will serve the country long after the programme ends.
Who the fellowship is for
Twenty-five founding fellows, selected on merit and public purpose. Most hold public office. The rest do public work beside those who do.
Legislators
MPs, MLAs, MLCs and elected members of panchayats and municipalities, usually in their first or second term.
Civil servants and policy professionals
Officers of the All India, Central and State services in their first ten years, from the district office to the ministry, and young professionals working in government and public policy.
Social entrepreneurs and civil society leaders
People who take public services to the households a scheme would otherwise miss, and can show the difference their work has made.
Institution builders
Founders of young think tanks and educational institutions whose work feeds public decisions.
We look at your professional record, evidence of service, a credible local challenge you want to address, and your willingness to work across institutional and political lines.
Fellows commit to full participation, applied assignments and a practical action plan for their House, district, constituency or organisation.
Fellows come from every party and from none, because India's institutions serve citizens of each.
Eight sessions with people who have held the file
Eight practitioner-led sessions, each built on a real case, an exercise or a closed-door conversation. You argue, run the numbers and test ideas against colleagues who sit on the other side of the file.
- Dates
- 5 to 7 February 2027
- Venue
- New Delhi
- Format
- In person, from Friday afternoon to Sunday
- Cohort
- 25 founding fellows
- Fee
- No programme fee. Rs 1,000 refundable deposit.
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AI in Administration Expert session and practitioner discussion
How AI can help public services, grievance systems and decisions, with safeguards for privacy, fairness and accountability. You look at where it makes a district office faster and fairer to the citizen, and where it should stay out.
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Greening Public Policy Expert session and case discussion
Designing development that counts climate risk, sustainable infrastructure and environmental cost. Climate risk now sits inside roads, housing, farms and the budget, and you learn to count it before anyone signs the file.
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CSR and Public Priorities Closed-door roundtable, Chatham House Rule
Policymakers and business leaders discuss how responsible corporate support can follow the needs a district has identified itself, stay clear of public spending it would duplicate, and produce results someone can measure.
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Equity in Policy Expert session and policy case exercise
You find the citizens a scheme excludes, by geography, income, disability, gender or digital access, then redesign its delivery so it reaches them.
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Evidence and Decisions Keynote conversation
You interpret data, tell correlation from cause and judge what a programme has achieved, with public money at stake.
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Efficiency in Finances Practitioner-led session
Each demand is urgent and the treasury is finite. In an applied exercise you make public-budget choices, weigh the trade-offs and pay for outcomes over outlays.
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Responsive Governance Closed-door roundtable, Chatham House Rule
A candid roundtable on citizen trust, transparency, accountability and grievance redressal that works for the person who files the complaint.
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My Vision for the Future Presentation round
Each fellow presents a plan for their own House, district or organisation to a panel of senior policymakers: five slides, seven minutes, three minutes of questions. The slides cover the challenge, what you learned, your vision, the action plan and how you will measure it.
What stays after the programme
For fellows
- A working picture of how a public decision moves from the legislature and the budget to the district and the household.
- Twenty-four colleagues across Houses, services and sectors whom you know by name.
- An action commitment for your constituency or institution, with measures you can track and a mentor to review it with over the following year.
- Introductions to senior practitioners who have held the offices you hold today.
For the country
- Over time, legislators and officers who already know each other's work when they meet across a file.
The twelve months after New Delhi
The three days start a year of work. You turn what you learned into your action commitment, with a mentor, exchanges with fellow Amatyas and periodic reviews.
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Months 1 to 3
Define and diagnose
Mentor matching, a problem statement for your constituency or institution, baseline evidence, a map of stakeholders and a 90-day action plan.
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Months 4 to 6
Test and collaborate
Policy clinics, consultations with departments and citizens, small pilots or support to implement, and peer exchanges on early obstacles.
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Months 7 to 9
Measure and refine
Review outcomes and the groups you missed, work through problems with money, delivery and partners, and adapt your plan.
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Months 10 to 12
Demonstrate and sustain
Record results, lessons and next steps, share them with the network and prepare for the annual fellowship review.
This calendar is indicative. The final cohort schedule and mentor availability will set the dates.
We plan an edition every February and August. Our aim is about 550 fellows by 2029, from across India's 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.
Back a cohort
Fellows pay no programme fee. Partners support the training and the running of the programme, because the country gains when its next legislators and officers start well.
Partners have no say in selection or session content. That keeps the fellowship open to each party and every sector.
Apply for the founding cohort
Applications open soon. Selection is competitive, and we read each application in full.
The application form opens soon.
- Tauseef Alam, +91 93305 76172
- Kaustubh Dabral, +91 90844 27655
FAQs
Is there a programme fee?
No. Selected fellows pay no tuition or course fee. Collaborating institutions and knowledge partners support the training.
Is there a deposit?
Yes. You pay a Rs 1,000 refundable deposit to confirm your place. We return it after you complete the programme.
Are meals provided?
Yes. Breakfast, lunch and high tea on both full days, 6 and 7 February 2027.
Who pays for stay and travel?
You arrange and pay for your own stay in New Delhi, and for your travel.
Is full attendance required?
Yes. 100% attendance at every scheduled session is mandatory, along with the on-the-spot assignments. We refund the deposit once you have done both.
Is it residential?
No. You attend in person in New Delhi and arrange your own stay.
How are fellows selected?
On merit and public purpose. We look at your professional record, evidence of service, a credible local challenge you want to address, and your willingness to work across institutional and political lines.
What happens after the three days?
Twelve months of follow-through. You work on an action commitment for your constituency or institution, with a mentor, peer exchange and periodic reviews, in four phases: define and diagnose, test and collaborate, measure and refine, demonstrate and sustain.
Is Amatya linked to a political party?
No. Amatya is a cross-party, cross-sector fellowship. Fellows come from every party and from none, and selection rests on merit and public purpose.
Who runs Amatya?
Amatya is an initiative of the Office of Shri Sujeet Kumar, MP (Rajya Sabha).
Where does the film on this site come from?
It was made with AI tools and edited by hand. The painting is an imagined scene in the style of Indian academic realism, not a portrait of a historical person.