Policy is written for you. Now help write it.
आप बोलेंगे। नीति बनेगी।
Policy Labs connects the people who live with a policy to the people who write it. Send one practical suggestion — the problem, the fix, and who should act on it.
Think tankpartner
What is Policy Labs
Policies are written in offices. They are lived on the ground.
By the student whose course doesn't lead to a job, the farmer a scheme never reached, the young founder stuck in paperwork. Policy Labs connects the two. It is an open platform where anyone can send a suggestion. We check the facts, bring the strongest ideas to public discussion, and take them to the departments that can act.
Think tank partner
Research you can check, from Adhyayan Foundation for Policy and Research (AFPR).
An independent, not-for-profit research and educational organisation that produces research on national issues and helps formulate, assess and implement public policies.
At every Policy Labs Discussion, Shashank Shekhar Singh (CEO & MD, AFPR) presents 15 minutes of research on the last decade of policy reforms in Uttar Pradesh, straight after the film.
Visit afpr.in →How it works
From the people who live the problem, to the people who can fix it.
- 01
Suggest
Anyone sends one practical idea
The problem, the fix, and who would have to act on it — in 150 words, in Hindi or English.
- 02
Discuss
The strongest face the questions
At a Policy Labs Discussion, students first develop their ideas in a campus workshop. 7–15 days later the strongest are presented on stage and cross-questioned by an economist, an employer and a startup founder.
- 03
Refine
We check the facts and the costs
Our researchers check what each idea would take, what it would cost, and who is responsible for acting on it.
- 04
Submit
Taken to the people who make policy
Suggestions are published with their authors named and submitted to the departments that can act on them.
Open call 01 · UP's Youth Policy
Send your suggestion. Win an Amazon gift card.
Tell us the problem, the fix, and who would have to act on it — in 150 words, in Hindi or English. Our reading panel shortlists the strongest to present at a Policy Labs Discussion; the three best win.
Amazon gift cards · ₹10,000 in prizes
- ₹5,000Best idea · individual
- ₹3,000Second
- ₹2,000Third
Judged on the written suggestion and on how it holds up to the guests' questions on stage. Every suggestion is published, with its author named, in the Student Suggestions Paper.
What a good suggestion looks like
Be specific. “Improve education” is not a suggestion. “Let a final-year internship count as one elective” is.
Name who would act. A college, a university board, a department, an employer. A guess is fine — our researcher confirms it.
Say how you would know it worked. One number that would change within a year.
Open call 01 · Open now
First up: UP's Youth Policy.
Every Policy Labs open call takes one policy the state is drafting or reviewing, and asks the people who live with it what should change. Further calls will follow as other policies come up.
The first is timely. Uttar Pradesh has been rebuilt over the past decade — expressways, an international airport, a defence corridor, electronics plants and data centres. The state is now preparing an integrated Youth Policy: one policy for the students who will carry the decade ahead.
An integrated Youth Policy reads education, employability, skills, enterprise, technology, health and participation as one stage of life rather than eight departmental subjects — which is how a student actually experiences them.
The detail of what works and what does not sits with students: which scheme never reached them, which course teaches the wrong thing, which door was closed. Policy Labs collects that while the policy is still being drafted.
The Youth Policy, in short
Announced 15 August 2026 by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath — one integrated policy for ages 16–35, in place of scattered schemes.
Covers education and skills, employment, entrepreneurship and innovation, digital empowerment, health, sports, leadership and culture — with AI, robotics and cyber security named as training priorities.
A State Youth Commission of experts is proposed to review youth programmes before the policy is finalised.
Jobs & apprenticeships
AI & future skills
Entrepreneurship
Education & employability
An event of
Public dialogues held across Uttar Pradesh by Friends of UP
UP Dialogues · On campus
Policy Labs Discussions
Where the strongest suggestions face the questions.
Part of the UP Dialogues events happening around the state, held over two days on campus. On Day 1, a policy workshop helps students develop their suggestions and found the college's own Policy Club. On Day 2, 7–15 days later, the strongest are presented from the stage and cross-questioned by an economist, an employer and a startup founder, in front of their classmates.
- Days, 7–15 days apart
- 2Days, 7–15 days apart
- Students on the main day
- 300–400Students on the main day
- Policy Club and paper
- 1 + 1Policy Club and paper
- In Amazon vouchers
- ₹10,000In Amazon vouchers
- Cost to students
- ₹0Cost to students
Day 1 · Two hours
The policy workshop, and a Policy Club.
For 100–200 students. Everyone leaves having written a suggestion, and the college leaves with a Policy Club that carries the work forward. Timings in minutes from the start of the session.
00–10 min
Welcome and the question
The policy under discussion, why it matters now, and what students are being asked to contribute.
10–25 min
How a policy gets made
Our researcher on what the policy under discussion covers, how departments decide, and why some schemes never reach a campus.
25–35 min
Anatomy of a good suggestion
The suggestion form taken apart with a worked example: the problem, who it affects, the fix, who acts, the cost, and the number that would change.
35–75 min
Track tables
Students work in facilitated groups on the questions the college has chosen, testing problems against the evidence brief and drafting ideas.
75–95 min
Idea clinic
Each group pitches its strongest ideas in a minute and facilitators push back. Every student finishes and submits a 150-word suggestion.
95–115 min
Founding the Policy Club
The college's Policy Club is founded: a charter adopted, a faculty mentor and two student convenors named, track leads volunteering.
115–120 min
Close
How the shortlist is chosen, when submissions close, and the date of the main event.
Between the two days · 7–15 days
- Submissions stay open until three days before the main event, so students can refine their draft.
- In those last three days, our reading panel shortlists six or seven ideas, and those students work with our speaker coach.
- The new Policy Club takes the invitation across campus and to neighbouring institutions.
Day 2 · The main event · Two hours
One afternoon. Every minute has a job.
Timings in minutes from the start of the session.
Certificates for everyone who attends either day; up to three paid research fellowships.
00–13 min
The UP Decade, and the Decade Ahead
The session opens with the film. Then, Now, Next — ten years of the state and the ten ahead, every claim sourced on screen.
13–28 min
A decade of policy reforms in UP
A 15-minute research presentation by Shashank Shekhar Singh, CEO & MD of our think tank partner, Adhyayan Foundation for Policy and Research (AFPR).
28–40 min
Ceremonial opening
Lamp lighting, welcome, felicitation, chief guest address, handover to the chair.
40–54 min
Setting the stage
Three invited guests — an economist, an employer and a startup founder — explain what the policy under discussion covers and what it has to get right, four minutes each.
54–94 min
Student suggestions on stage
Six or seven students shortlisted from the workshop present one at a time. The guests cross-question each student and discuss the idea — what it would take, who would have to act, whether it can be done.
94–102 min
Open floor
Roving mics for any student in the hall who wants to speak. Everyone else writes their suggestion on a slip collected from the rows.
102–110 min
Judging
The guests decide the prizes while the hall completes scoring slips.
110–120 min
Close
Prizes presented by the chief guest, vote of thanks, group photograph.
Host a Policy Labs Discussion
You bring the rooms. We bring everything else.
Your college provides
- Day 1: a hall for 100–200 students, with room for group work and a screen, for two hours.
- Day 2: an auditorium seating 300–400, with stage, screen and sound, for one afternoon.
- A named coordinator — a few hours a week for about three to four weeks.
- A faculty mentor for the Policy Club, who stays with it after the event.
- Chief guest and felicitation on Day 2, to your own protocol.
Friends of UP provides
- The full programme — chair, researcher, workshop facilitators, a speaker coach for the shortlisted students and note-takers.
- The Policy Club starter kit — a model charter, roles and a first-term plan.
- The film and briefing, sourced and dated, and a 15-minute research presentation from our think tank partner, AFPR.
- The three guests — economist, employer and startup founder — briefed and confirmed.
- All materials — stage backdrop and event banners, standees and signage, workshop handbook, submission form, evidence brief, suggestion slips, delegate badges, certificates, consent forms and the survey.
- The paper — compilation, evidence check, student review, bilingual final copy and the departmental cover brief.
What your college ends up with
The Student Suggestions Paper.
One document, in your institution's name. Bilingual, formatted for departmental submission. Your Policy Club reviews it with the students before it goes in, and follows up on the responses at 30, 60 and 90 days.
- 01The participation record
- 02Every suggestion received, with its author named
- 03The recommendations, with the institution responsible for each
- 04What the guests said was possible on stage
- 05The points the hall disagreed on
Two things and we can confirm the dates: a named coordinator, and two afternoons — a workshop, then your auditorium 7–15 days later.
Friends of UP confirms the guests, the team, the film, the AFPR research presentation and all materials once the dates are agreed.
Allow at least two weeks between confirmation and the workshop, and 7–15 days between the workshop and the main event, so suggestions can be refined and shortlisted and the selected students coached.
The first edition is proposed at SR Group of Institutions, Lucknow.
This is a proposed programme — the workshop format, dates, venues, guest speakers and government participation are subject to confirmation. Campaign illustrations are artwork, not photographs of the event.
Friends of UP is an independent volunteer initiative. It is not an official government or political party platform.