The Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDCD), a policy think tank of the Delhi government, can now hire top experts from different fields, which will help it contribute more towards the city’s development, DDCD Vice-Chairman Jasmine Shah said on Tuesday. A proposal for institutional strengthening and restructuring of the DDCD has been approved by Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal and now DDCD has been given power to hire top experts from different fields and 26 such posts have been sanctioned, Mr. Shah said. The commission will now focus on six fields to develop the Capital into a world-class city. “Last year, the Chief Minister had announced Delhi’s vision for 2047. When we assessed ourselves against this goal, we realised that as an institution, the DDCD needed to be strengthened,” he said, adding that the requirement for experts has been notified in the Delhi Gazette. Mr. Shah said with an expansive mandate and recruitment flexibility, the DDCD will be able to contribute to a wide array of critical development challenges and work effectively towards achieving the Chief Minister’s vision of making Delhi the ‘number 1 city’ in the world by 2047. “DDCD’s experts will advise and assist the government’s work across six core policy sectors — social, environment, transport and infrastructure, economy, governance, and monitoring, evaluation and learning. DDCD will have the flexibility to hire high-quality professionals as staff as well as consultants/young professionals from around the world,” he said. He said the 26 experts will be hired on a contractual basis for up to 5 years and total 48 posts have been sanctioned, which also includes 22 regular cadre posts to strengthen the DDCD. “Last week itself, we had signed an MoU with MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) that will prove to be immensely helpful in our endeavours. J-PAL was co-founded by Nobel laureates Prof. Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee. We aim to involve more such scholars from the best institutions in the country and the world into our projects,” Mr. Shah added.
