Business and politics is not a combination you can study in most places. It’s either one or the other. But I read the news every day and I’m interested in politics and political affairs. And these days political marketing is emerging. It’s not traditional politics with just campaigning. Politics uses social media and digital marketing, mass media and so on. So I want to combine both of these and carve a profession out of it.

There’s a firm called Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC), run by Prashant Kishor. Its work has inspired me.

One area I’m interested in is caste, how marketing strategies are tailored to caste realities in our politics.

Policies need to be marketed, whether you are supporting them or opposing them. In the recent elections we saw how digital marketing has played a big role. Modi, for example, is a brand, and there’s something behind him.

I see a lot of scope in this field. IPAC is one firm and other political start-ups are also coming up. So having a sense of policy and getting into marketing, would be helpful.

Alternatively, I might go deeper into the policy space, looking at places like CPR (Centre for Policy Research) or Niti Aayog, and get a sense of how to do things. Even within FLAME, this is a rare combination. But I was very particular about choosing this combination.