The primary challenge of the modern human race is to improve well-being across generations, an objective now widely recognized as Sustainable Development. This challenge necessitates numerous interventions concerning each of its components: environmental, social and economic. These interventions range from eradication of hunger and poverty to reduction in inequality; from the provision of quality education, good health, decent work environment, water, sanitation, affordable and clean energy to fostering gender equality; from economic growth to effective institutions; from responsible consumption and production to taking urgent actions to combat climate change.

The Department of Policy and Management Studies (DoPMS) at TERI School of Advanced Studies (TERI SAS) aims to contribute to theoretical and empirical enquiry towards informed prescriptions, implementable policies, sustainable practices and management through research, teaching and training. The continued research in sustainability for the business is also one of the key concerns of the Department.

Faculty of the Department have disciplinary backgrounds in Anthropology, Economics, Population Studies, Sociology, Finance & Accounting, Corporate and Commercial Laws, Public Health, Strategy, Business Sustainability, Circular Economy Finance, Climate Finance, Development Studies and Public Policy. This diversity enables the promotion of multi-disciplinary research and learning at the economy-society-ecology interface. The faculties are engaged in active research in their disciplines as well as within the broad theme of sustainable development. This is reflected in their publications, sponsored projects, consultancies and training programmes and supervised research. The faculty regularly engage with the scientific community through seminars and conferences, participate in different forums as experts or resource persons, and engage with the general public through their lectures, print and digital media.

Vision

To contribute to a better understanding of sustainable ecosystems, societies, economies and businesses locally and globally.

Mission

• To build a cadre of sustainable development practitioners, thought leaders, change agents, entrepreneurs, effective managers and executives who can generate new knowledge, influence policies and practices embracing the idea and intent for a sustainable local, regional, and global future.
• To develop a hub for an integrated/holistic research to help frame, design, implement and guide sustainable development policies and sustainable businesses.

Impact: Department of Policy and Management Studies

Research Profile: The world and India are facing multi-layered and multi-faceted development challenges. These include, but not limited to, issues concerning poverty and inequality, discriminations based on gender and other identities, climate change induced development concerns, issues pertaining to just energy transition and energy policy, unsustainable human-nature interactions, and issues concerning sustainability in business practices. The published work of the students and the Faculty reflects these real-world concerns, connects these apparent dis-jointed development challenges, and attempts to provide recommendations through appropriate policies and practices, to mitigate the sufferings of significant sections of the human population. While the focus of research has been primarily centred on India, yet, the nature of the problems that were sought to be addressed through researches have global implications. Interdisciplinarity and collaborative research forms the core components of students and faculty research activities at the Department without, in any way, compromising on the rigour and quality of it.

Student research activities:There are the broadly three themes of the Doctoral Programme at the Department viz., Policy Studies and Legal Studies.

The vibrant research culture at the Department was reflected through the student representations in various recent exchange programmes between TERI SAS and other Institutions. Students have participated in the Exchange Programmes between TERI SAS and Deakin University and the University of Graz.

Besides, Thesis/Major Project is an integral component of the Master’s Programmes at the Department which is offered in the final semester of the Master’s Programmes. Likewise, Projects are one of the important cfeatures of the Bachelor’s Programmes at the Department.

Faculty research activities: Faculty members of the Department undertake research projects funded by the government and private institutions. These include research projects funded by the government institutions like the Department of Science and Technology, and the ICSSR, among others, and private organisations like the Nature Conservancy Centre and the Asian Development Bank Institute, to name only a few.

The Faculty have regularly participated in the consultancies and collaborated with the industry groups. These include collaborations with the leading public sector institutions in the realm of energy, like the GAIL (India) Limited and the Indian Oil Corporation, through organising training programmes and workshops.

Additionally, the Faculty have been publishing articles on a regular basis, in top quality journals and involved in publishing edited books and published chapters in edited books of acclaimed publication houses.

Research driven Curriculum: combining theory, confronting challenges, providing solutions
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Research driven Curriculum: Combining theory with experiential learning

A research-driven curriculum entails continuous engagements with multiple thoughts and ideas—often conflicting and contradictory to one another—within and across disciplines and Programmes.

The curriculum across Programmes are, (a) foundational, that enables the students to identify and understand the paradigm and the theoretical underpinning 0f research, (b) quantitative methods, that includes training and application of statistical software, for analysis of data based on statistical techniques and (c) courses that are designed to provide training on framing the research question and the objectives of research, introduces with the secondary sources of data, and methods of collecting data from the field.

The theoretical insights enable the students to understand and question the economic and social processes and development and sustainability issues that India and the World is currently encountering. A combination of theoretical insights and command over the methods enable the students to argue for relevant policy interventions to mitigate the adverse livelihood outcomes of a significant section of the population. The creation of such a diverse combination of skill-sets greatly enhances the career prospects of the students, in the policy and research organizations in the development sector and in Institutions whose core theme of research is based on sustainability concerns.

Connecting the academia with the industry: Internships are the core components of the Master’s and Bachelor’s Programmes at the Department. The internship schemes facilitate student participations in the development sector, policy research organizations and/or the corporate sector and to connect the theoretical insights that was attained through the classroom lectures, with the real world challenges. In addition to providing the crucial industry and research exposures and enhancement of the professional skills and ethics that includes teamwork, among others, it allows the students to take advantages of the networks, thus created, for furthering their prospects in the job markets following the successful completion at the respective Programmes.

The patterns of final placements of the students closely reflected the patterns of internships. The placement offers of the students had two distinct trajectories—corporates and the development and policy research institutions—often connected through issues pertaining to sustainability and policy. Of the total number of students who opted for placements in 2025, across Programmes, about 85-90 per cent received offers in the job market. For instance, about two-third of the students were placed in either of these two domains and a fifth of the students moved into academics to pursue higher education. Some of the well-known recruiters include the Ernst and Young (EY), Moodys, KPMG, ICIMOD, India Infrastructure Publishing Private Limited, cKinetics, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).