indiaUpdated: Sep 13, 2020 17:49 ISTUsing nudge theory that involves subtly leading people to desired directions, a study of India’s public policy response to Covid-19 has concluded that nudges from Prime Minister Narendra Modi were critical in creating herd effect on lockdown and social distancing norms across the country. Published in science journal PLOS One, the study at the University of Cambridge used machine learning and AI-based algorithms to identify key nudges in policy responses across various government departments to deal with the pandemic, including the lockdown. Follow latest updates on coronavirus here“Hence these prompt nudges were required while simultaneously generating the digital backup infrastructure. Primary data for the study was collected from the Press Information Bureau in the form press releases of government plans, policies, programme initiatives and achievements. The topics were then interpreted through a nudge theoretic lens to derive critical policy heuristics of the government, with the results showing that most interventions were targeted to generate endogenous nudge by using external triggers.

Source: Hindustan Times September 13, 2020 10:47 UTC