Impacting the world of policy making as a youth | Tanvi Ratna | TEDxYouth@CHIREC
I hope everyone’s doing well thank you
Shere for hosting me thank you s for
inviting me here um it’s an honor to
speak to you today about my journey I’m
usually up on TV talking about Ai and
blockchain uh but I never talk about my
journey so this is quite an interesting
opportunity uh so I was given uh the
question to talk about uh of how I made
it in this field as a young person and
uh so before I dive into how I did it I
think I’ll spend 2 minutes taking you
through what we do and what I’ve done I
so like to just go over the slides uh
this is a quick this is me on the slide
um I am an engineer from Georgia Tech I
have a m student policy from George
toown and the ly school I worked on
Capitol Hill when we was Secretary of
State and I worked with our prime
minister in his election campaign of
20134 I was done at ernston Young where
I was a blocking leader for them and
then I Ste down and set up this body
called policy 4.0 first um I have had uh
had some forture of working on crypto
regulations across some 11 countries um
I also represent India at the iso where
we working on blockchain
standards so what is policy 40 policy 40
is a very unique think tank it’s a new
age Think Tank um and I believe we are
um amongst the best in the world is our
digital rouy uh Quantum and digital
public
infrastructure uh sitting out of India
we have managed to build from scratch a
footprint which is uh informing
governments and policy makers in over 44
countries uh We’ve also been covered by
Major mainlines International and Indian
and just a quick glimpse into our
government work um we are working on an
Innovative AI policy framework for India
which was unal briefly at the G with
Prime Minister Modi and 30 governments
uh we also our recommendation part to2
recommendations on crypto asset rules uh
we also invited to the EU and the EU
Parliament on the eii
regulations um train different
governments and we have a small and
sweet connect with T State where we
helped um uh with the web three sandbox
that exists here uh so that’s all um I
will just come now to the question of
how do you do this as a young person
right so my story began in engineering
school and uh I lived a pretty regular
Life as a engineering college student
and in my second year I had um stumbled
into a class and elective which uh I
hope you can hear me um yeah and I
stumbl into an elective class would
change the trajectory of my life forever
and that was a class on International
Affairs and I’ve just taken it as an
elective but it triggered something very
deep in me so my life was not very
traditional you know I did not grow up
in India I grew up in three continents
and I had always been exposed to new
societies new cultures and I had that
drive that IR class for me was almost
like decoding the complexities of the
world it was like decoding those hidden
rules that shaped everything and I
really wanted to do it I felt like I
found my passion I found my calling and
when I shared this with my family and
friends I did not get the reaction I
expected because at that point policy
was nothing and now I think it’s quite a
mainstream feeli but at that point
nobody did this so I got the general
advice it was beta stti to engineering
dat what is all this right because I
have been sent to a very big engineering
program and it seemed very daunting
because I didn’t come from a political
family I didn’t have connects I didn’t
have backing how would I make it and so
I said no to my dream at that point and
then I was living my life as an engineer
and then I had a Serendipity happened
and I came across an ad on Facebook I
think with from a very large policy
school and uh the deadline to apply was
in a date and uh something came over me
and I said said just do it I’m just
going to apply and I’m going to apply
quietly um and I did it and I said let’s
see I mean if I get accepted then I’ll
think about it then maybe this is my
true
calling um and as straight haded I got
accepted and they gave me a scholarship
and then I had to have that conversation
with my family that you know I think U
I’ve done this work in engineering I
like it but I think this is what I
really want to do and my father just
said one thing he said you’re taking a
risk and you’re taking a Gamble and you
can’t fail and I said that I can only
make one promise I don’t know if I will
fail or not but it will not be because
of me I will not fail because of lack of
PR for my friend right and I accepted
that admission and when I accepted that
admission I crossed a threshold into an
entirely new universe and it was that
that very complex world of policym of
international Affairs so different from
engineering you know in engineering we
have a right answer for things there are
ways to solve problems but when it comes
to policym it’s the world of grave and
it’s a world of so many conflicting
streams of interest groups and power
struggles and go on and it was a very
confounding uh new space for me that I
steep into
uh but I was determined to make it and
um my father’s words used to haunt me
that um you know you taking a Gamble and
you can’t fail and um so I hustled right
I hustled at that point there were no
real internship opportunities there was
no real career PA apart from the
IAS uh but I went out and I found myself
internship opportunities um with the
multilateral agencies uh with the chief
minister of the State uh but the one I
really wanted was an international
Affairs and that was with the MBA and
that opportunity was always very elusive
uh because the mea in the early days was
a fortress almost like it was like the
gates of Bala they would never
open um and it was not an agency that
allowed lateral entry and then one day
it was as if someone heard my prayer and
um the MA’s first ever inter Le ship
opportunity opened up and that was with
a person who was a rockar in the field
of diplomacy and I think now you all
know him as a rockar Mr J Shanker he was
at that point the ambassador to China
and um everybody I knew was applying and
I was very determined and make it and I
spent a long time on my
application um every single issue on
India China whether it was dlam it was
tibit it was the trade discrepancies I
Fe all of it into my application and I
got it and I felt like it was a dream
come
true but there was a Twist because you
know when you have dreams come true and
then they suddenly start slipping
through your fingers like sand flipping
away because just a month before the
internship was to begin the mea went
silent and it seemed like they were
winding up that program that there
wasn’t probably bureaucratic support for
it
and uh I could have just sat there
quietly but I refused to let my dream go
so I wrote to the Indian ambassador to
the US and I followed up and I followed
up and he finally gave me an appointment
and he told me look the reality is that
there’s been budget cuts and you know
this program is you know it’s not going
to be funded and I said look I will make
you an offer and uh I will bear all the
expenses of this internship uh I’m a
valedictorian Georg toown I will bring
my best work to the MAA but you just
have to give me a chance and for some
reason my determination seem to appeal
to them and they gave me that
opportunity and that was a very pivotal
experience in my career and on my first
week there I got to sit in on some
negotiations that India China were
happening uh were having on to uh I got
a very obscure project to work on which
was on Central Asia there’s an area I
know nothing about and my supervisor
didn’t expect much from me but I spent
all those three months um you know there
there are lot of confidential documents
and like confidential libraries that
exist right for whether it’s maps that
we used in negotiations or it’s um
transcripts of uh debates and things
that happen and for those three months I
was the first one in and last one out
every single day in those libraries that
and I pieced together a policy brief on
Central Asia and um uh I did not expect
much from it but I learned a month later
that that had become part of the
official policy and uh 10 years later
when I visited the NBA they said that
they still refer to that week and that
was a very big validation for me and I
think as a young person those mentors
and those people who give you that early
validation um are the most precious and
I owe the ma big Deb for
and then my career sort of started I got
an opportunity at Capital Hill it was
amazing I was out of the academic world
Al together and it was the world of real
politic where uh you see day in and day
out all the GE games that are happening
everywhere the constant baring that
happens in interest between senators and
congressman and um amongst all that so
many different interest groups whether
it’s on issues from gun control all the
way to ringas and it was very exciting
and I was doing quite well and I thought
I’m stead I thought this is it you know
my path is clear and like I want to make
a trajectory here but no I mean life has
other plans and I faced probably my most
difficult ethical dilemma in that
situation where um a policy came up
which was very good for the Americas but
it was bad for my home then it was bad
for India and um I had to face a very
difficult choice of what do I do do I
work for the country I’m working in or
do I B for my homeless and do i b for my
country and it’s a very tough decision
to do as in 20 something right when you
know that even if you come back it’s not
very easy it’s not going to be easy but
I made that call and I knew that my true
purpose was in come back to India and
work in India so I made that decision
and um pack my bag and moved here and it
wasn’t as simple as just to countries
because you know politics in the US
policy in the US and what it is in India
they are completely different it was as
if I enter a new maze it had new rules
it had a new language it had new actors
I had very little time to climatized
because you hit the road running a
campaign is just very intense very high
op in and you have to deliver from
day uh I got to work on some very peral
things um I was part of the PO team that
designed and executed
child campaign and as a young person
that’s amazing right because you dream
up something and then suddenly you see
the whole country mobilize around it I
mean it’s it’s quite amazing uh but even
then um I had that feeling again that I
don’t think this is my TR call it right
I think for me it’s not politics it’s
always been policy it’s always been deep
work technocratic work uh complex
problems that’s the space I want to work
in so again I have to make that choice
to leave behind opportunities that
opening up because ministers were you
know I had offers to join mea or other
Ministries but I said you know I want to
do techn private work in policy and I
got headed to the steam at Onan which
was working on the India staff and uh
that was very fulfilling for me I felt
like I was in the right place I was
working with the right people uh this
was the kind of work I wanted to do and
one thing led to another and I fell into
the world of emerging technology and um
I started handling lots of blockchain
projects for right and blockchain as a
policy person uh is the most fascinating
technology there is uh whatever we might
say about uh crypto it is quite the
colorful industry but uh it is audacious
enough to take on power structures which
I found very interesting as a young
person and um I just fell deeper and
deeper into that space and I said you
know I think this is it like it seems
like as Steve Jobs said you know looking
back all the dots were connecting I mean
my engineering background my experience
in policy my experience in the us and
India it all started connecting and I
just jumped right in I quit my job again
made that choice that I know I’m in the
right time right place I had an instinct
and I set up this spy policy for uh and
we work now across emerging Technologies
and The more I’ve deed into AI quum
crypto all of it I just feel like you
know sometimes in your G that you’re
doing what you’re supposed to do right
and um so that’s uh you know for my
journey uh all I’ve seen is that you
know this year we got uh recognized by
the world economic Forum uh I got
awarded that young Global leader award
which goes to like 100 people all over
the world uh people in my class are like
uh you know the Prime Minister of
Belgium uh the Finance Minister of the
UA you
know my class and you know I’m just this
girl world with a dream you know I
didn’t have any packing so it was just
um you know I think to see now even the
way that my my brilliant team is growing
policy for is growing um you know the
the challenges of being a solo woman
entrepreneur and a m dominated field
that’s a whole other set of challenges
that I could do a separate de talk about
but you know you’re always the youngest
person in the room sometimes um even as
the boss of my company running it as the
youngest person in my team many times
and um you know your advising decision
makers twice your age you’re dealing
with Technologies are moving so fast
you’re living and the cast for The
Unknown right that throws up very
different challenges and I think
entrepreneurship is now this new chapter
in my life which is culminating um you
know all those theories of learnings and
challenges that gone through so my
single uh you know message I think to
all the bright kids here and everyone um
you know looking to have a take away
from the stock is you have to believe in
yourself and you have to always come
back to what you know is your true
calling because only you know that and
nobody around you will ever give you
advice that will lead you to it and we
have a tendency many times to um our
decision is somewhere the average of 10
things that we heard from people around
us and we ask other people to tell us
where I should go who I should be what I
should do I think that will never help
you be the never help you live that life
of complete impact right because you can
be successful doing that but you can’t
be impactful doing that so my limited
point when you ask me of how I do it as
a young person is 100 % self 100% hard
work 100% commitment to see f i whatever
I take up I’m Not Looking Back I’m not
asking in 10 directions am I doing the
right thing only you can do that and
that’s my love so thank you very much
How does the world of policy making look like? Especially from the eyes of a young person? And how can it make our futures more futuristic? Tanvi has deep and global experience in policymaking and emerging technology. Before founding Policy 4.0 she has worked with leading decision-makers such as the Prime Minister of India, the Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill, and multiple central and state government agencies in India.
As the founder & CEO for Policy 4.0, Tanvi is responsible for guiding decisions and achieving rational outcomes for decision-makers and regulatory bodies. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx