Community Engagement
80+ Policy Circles. 20+ cities. Six years of showing up.
The Policy Circles, the City Chapters, the newsletter and the platform: this is where it all comes together. An open, pan-India, high-trust community where students, practitioners and institutions meet, in person and online, sector-agnostic and built around a simple belief that more young people belong in policy. Most members travel the same arc: discover, find clarity, take part, and go on to lead.
Everything that holds the community together
City chapters
40+ city chapters across India's 25 largest cities, each with its own city-level WhatsApp group where opportunities, events and questions move in real time. The idea is simple: to seed a local and regional policy ecosystem in every part of India.
Find your city → Free and in personMonthly Policy Circles
Open, free, in-person gatherings every month. We have hosted 80+ Policy Circles across India's 20 largest cities over the last six years, each one a room of conversations, networking and speakers from across the policy ecosystem.
See the latest Policy Circle → Every FridayThe Policy Post
PPI's weekly newsletter: hundreds of jobs, internships, fellowships, learning modules and the week in policy. Free, no spam, delivered every Friday morning.
Subscribe → On YouTubePolicy Panchayat
PPI's YouTube series: regular, honest conversations with practitioners, policymakers and experts about how policy actually works. Free to watch, anytime.
Watch on YouTube → All in one placePolis
The all-in-one PPI platform: take real civic action, get it verified, climb the leaderboard and reach your representatives, in a single home.
Open Polis → Volunteer-ledCity Policy Chapter Leaders
Local volunteers who run each chapter on the ground: hosting Policy Circles, welcoming new members and keeping the conversation going between events.
Meet the leaders → Member spotlightsPathfinders, Showcase and Spotlight of the Week
Recurring features that surface members' journeys, work and milestones across the community.
Explore the features → For senior practitionersPPI Executive
A closed network of senior and mid-career practitioners, with quarterly gatherings in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Express interest →Chapters across India
From the metros to fast-rising cities, our chapters span 25+ cities across India. Tap any city to find and join its WhatsApp community.
The people who run the chapters
Every chapter is led by a City Policy Chapter Leader (CPCL) — a volunteer who welcomes every new joiner, verifies what enters the group, connects members to each other, and keeps the standard of the room. The role is voluntary and the community is free, permanently, for every member. That combination is the whole point: it is why members trust the group, why partners want access to it, and why a chapter feels different from a job board. We are growing the team. If you want to represent PPI in your city, this is where it starts.
Welcome new members, curate and verify what enters your chapter, share opportunities, connect members to each other, and co-run in-person and virtual events. Roughly two to three hours a week, in short daily bursts. In months when you host a live event it runs a little heavier.
- Welcome and moderate your WhatsApp chapter
- Share verified jobs, fellowships and opportunities
- Connect members to each other on purpose
- Co-run Policy Circles and virtual sessions
- Refer potential partners and collaborators to the team
The role is unpaid, so it is worth being direct. A CPCL is handed a platform, an audience, a title and a set of institutional relationships at a career stage when almost nobody has any of them. First access to internships, fellowships and STRIDE consulting projects. A direct line to the team, not a queue. And a public track record that travels with you long after the term ends.
- National network across 40+ chapters and 25+ cities
- First call on internships, fellowships and STRIDE projects
- Official designation for your LinkedIn and CV
- Letter of acknowledgment after one year of active engagement
- Route to the paid PPI Community Fellowship
Voluntary, for a fixed term of two years, renewable. One or two named WhatsApp chapters, plus co-leadership of your city with its other CPCLs. Full admin rights for moderation, not for reach. A monthly CPCL call every third Friday, a direct line to the team, and the other CPCLs in your city and region as colleagues from day one.
- 2-year term, renewable
- 1–2 WhatsApp chapters, full admin rights
- Monthly CPCL call, third Friday 7–7:30 pm
- Direct team support — no queue, no forms
What it takes
Reliability, warmth and a genuine interest in public life. No prior policy background required — just the will to show up for your city, answer every message, and protect the standard of the room. You will not be assessed on how quickly you started. You will be noticed for whether you were still doing this in month nine.
Apply to become a City Policy Chapter Leader → Read the CPCL Handbook 2026 (PDF) →Meet some of the people behind our chapters
Some of the people who hold PPI together in their cities.
Not just a following. A community.
A newsletter open rate several times the typical industry range, and a WhatsApp read rate above 80% verified from receipts, are both rare at this scale. This is what trust looks like in the numbers.
Who is in the room
What the community says
I remember moving back to India after working in government and realising there was no single centralised platform to find roles in policy. Yash is the Tom Manatos of India's public policy space.
PPI played a huge role for me by providing network and community remotely. The access to information from the newsletter and group chats was very comforting. I have just started my career in policy as an intern in Delhi.
I have collaborated with the PPI community for nearly three years across public policy programmes. What makes the PPI family special is its commitment to a strong community of future policy professionals and changemakers.
PPI over the past six years has done a great job demystifying public policy careers. By bringing people together and sharing information across different channels, PPI is filling an important gap.
Find your people
Subscribe to the newsletter, join your city's chapter and come to a Policy Circle. It is free, and it is open.