Behavioural Insights for Business & Policy
Behavioural Insights for Business & Policy
You will learn to see behavioural challenges at work with new precision, design thoughtful interventions, and communicate insights in ways that shift action. Whether you’re improving customer conversions, driving product adoption, driving decisions, or engaging diverse stakeholders — lead with empathy and evidence.
- Date: November 2025
- Price: INR 89,999/-
Overview
Grounded in theory and evidence while focused on application, the 8-week programme takes you from the core ideas of behavioural science to real-world application. Learn from globally recognised behavioural scientists and practitioners—Dr. Pavan Mamidi and Pooja Haldea—who established India’s first Behavioural Science Lab within the Indian government. Together with Dr. Shagata Mukherjee and other accomplished guest experts, gain insights into nudges, experiments, storytelling, ethnography, social norms, and more.
Translate behavioural insights into solutions for consumer journeys, development programmes, and workplace challenges. Along the way, practise storytelling for influence, build better habits, and collaborate on a live capstone project. You’ll leave with a practical toolkit and a peer network to drive meaningful change.
This course is for you if you are a…
| Sales and marketing leaders Struggling to convert prospects into loyal, long-term customers? | Strategic communication Finding it difficult to move audiences from awareness to meaningful action? | Digital / product leaders Facing adoption plateaus and looking for fresh levers to drive uptake? | Public programmes and policy specialists Frustrated with reports that generate data but fail to change real decisions? |
Learning Outcomes
Diagnose behavioural roadblocks →
so you can spot why a campaign gets multiple likes on social platforms but fails to bring people to donation drives.
Design nudges and choice architecture → so you can use streaks that keep learners hooked, or autoplay features — subtle UI/UX cues that sustain engagement and build lasting habits.
Build bias-free decision routines → so you can use hospital triage protocols or the global checklists used to standardise vaccine roll-outs to reduce variability and noise.
Tell stories that move people → so you can reframe data-heavy reports into narratives, like the campaign that challenged narrow beauty ideals or the cleanliness drive that turned hygiene into national pride.
Programme
| Week 1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Introduction to Behaviour Science | ||
| How to Change Behaviour |
| Week 2 | ||
|---|---|---|
| How to Outsmart Your Biases | ||
| How to Invent Nudges |
| Week 3 | ||
|---|---|---|
| How to Run Experiments | ||
| How to Conduct Ethnographic Research |
| Week 4 | ||
|---|---|---|
| How to Design for Social Norms | ||
| Guest Lecture on Storytelling |
| Week 5 | ||
|---|---|---|
| In-person Gathering (Mixer) | ||
| Christmas Eve Holiday – 24th |
| Week 6 | ||
|---|---|---|
| From Theory to Field – Development Sector Focus | ||
| Winter Break – 29th Dec to 2nd Jan |
| Week 7 | ||
|---|---|---|
| From Theory to Field – Private Sector Focus | ||
| Guest Lecture on Behaviour Science in Digital Products |
| Week 8 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Project Review | ||
| Final Project Presentations |
Faculty
Pavan is an empirically informed senior advisor in the policy space, and a dedicated teacher, who believes in democratising education, and demystifying complex ideas, and communicating them effectively to management and policy students. Substantively, he pursues two streams of professional work and scholarship – law/policy, and applied behaviour science.
He currently serves as the Director of the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change at Ashoka University, and also works closely with Niti Aayog. He has led the initiative to set up India’s first Nudge Unit, the Behavioral Insights Unit of India, which is an embedded team out of Niti. He has also helped set up a Behavioral Insights Units for the states of Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. His main work focuses on development related issues in education, health, nutrition, and gender.
Additionally, Pavan takes immense pride in cooking rural Telangana food, and believes that the green chilly is good for the soul, and builds character!
He has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from the University of Oxford, a Masters (LL.M.) from Harvard Law School, and a highly subsidised and inexpensive Bachelor’s in Mathematics from the finest public institution in the world – Osmania University!
Dr Pawan Mamidi
Director, CSBC
Rudrangshu Mukherjee is an internationally renowned historian and author and the founding Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka University. He was previously Editor, Editorial Pages of The Telegraph, Kolkata and has taught History at the University of Calcutta and held visiting appointments at Princeton University, the University of Manchester and University of California.
His works on the Revolt of 1857, beginning with Awadh in Revolt, 1857-58: A Study of Popular Resistance, and including his recent A Begum & A Rani: Hazrat Mahal and Lakshmibai in 1857 have become the standard references in the field. He has also authored and edited several books including The Penguin Gandhi Reader, New Delhi: The Making of a Capital, Great Speeches of Modern India, Nehru & Bose: Parallel Lives and most recently Tagore & Gandhi : Walking Alone, Walking Together.
Contacts:
Pooja Haldea
Co-Founder, CSBC
Shagata Mukherjee is the Lead – Behavioural Insights Unit of India, NITI Aayog, and a Deputy Director at the Centre for Social and Behavioural Change at Ashoka University.
Prior to this position, Shagata was an Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Meghnad Desai Academy of Economics. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Mumbai and an Affiliated Faculty at the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences (CESS) Nuffield -FLAME.
He is the recipient of the Vernon L. Smith Young Talent Award in Experimental Finance for his research on gender and microfinance and is a co-founder of the Mumbai Behavioural Network.
Dr. Shagata Mukherjee
Deputy Director (Policy), CSBC
Samyak Chakrabarty is a Forbes-listed entrepreneur and founder of Workverse – a simulated workplace environment to train and assess graduates in 21st-century soft skills like creative problem-solving, critical thinking, emotional intelligence and storytelling. He began his entrepreneurial journey at 16, with students through Model United Nations initiatives.
As a passion project, he is also building a movement, Adopt India, to encourage and enable millennials to consider adoption as a family planning alternative.
Contacts:
Samyak Chakrabarty
Founder, Workverse, Nimaya Foundation and Adopt One
Jafar Baig is the founder of a behavioural-science and user-research consultancy. He draws on his reputation for combining behavioural science with product strategy, designing user journeys and research programmes that surface motivations, decisions and behavioural barriers in online environments.
Prior to founding his consultancy, Jafar held senior research and behavioural-science roles at Swiggy, ALLEN Digital and Final Mile Consulting, where he led research efforts across consumer, food-delivery and education-tech ecosystems. He holds a Master’s in Behavioural Economics from the University of Nottingham and a Master’s in Economics from St Joseph’s College, Bangalore.
Contacts:
Jafar Baig
Founder – Behavioural Science & User Research Consultancy
Nirat Bhatnagar is a Senior Advisor at Dalberg Advisors and the founder of Belongg, an inclusion-focused venture working at the intersection of identity, access and opportunity. He leads Dalberg’s Delhi office and its global Water & Sanitation practice. Nirat brings multidisciplinary experience in strategy consulting, human-centred design and entrepreneurship, with a conviction that complex social issues demand solutions at the intersection of methods and sectors.
He holds degrees from IIT Kharagpur and IIM Bangalore and remains committed to building scalable, systemic social-impact solutions grounded in design, strategy and inclusion.
Contacts:
Nirat Bhatnagar
Senior Advisor at Dalberg Advisors and the founder of Belongg
Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury is a National Award-winning filmmaker whose storytelling mastery uses narrative frames and cinematic craft to explore human behaviour, social systems and cultural change. His work sits at the intersection of storytelling and behavioural insight: he uses film to reflect how people act, decide, resist and transform in real-life contexts.
Aniruddha’s early career in advertising gave him a grounding in audience psychology and narrative structure; he then moved to film, creating acclaimed works such as Antaheen and Anuranan, and achieving his breakout with Pink (2016), which won the National Film Award for Best Film on Social Issues. His films engage with gender-justice, consent, social norms and behaviour change while remaining cinematic and mainstream in appeal.
Today, Aniruddha works across feature films, OTT platforms and brand narratives, collaborating with writers, actors and production houses.
Contacts:
Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
Award-Winning Filmmaker
FAQs
The programme blends the convenience of online interactive sessions on Zoom with the opportunity for in-person gatherings to deepen connections.
For leaders interested in understanding human behaviour to solve problems and drive change at work; whether in sales and marketing, strategic communications or digital innovation, across the private and public sector.
No prior experience is required. The course is designed for learners from diverse backgrounds.
Yes, participants who complete the course successfully will receive a certificate of completion from Ashoka University.
₹84,999 (inclusive of all taxes and duties).
Yes. An early-bird discount is available until 5th October. After that, group applicants are eligible for special discounts.
Yes, the flexible online format is designed to fit into the schedule of working professionals.
You can register your interest here. Applications will open soon. Look out for this space.
For any questions, reach out to certificates@x.ashoka.edu.in or call us on + 91-7497099940
How to Apply?
- Registration
Register your interest
- Application
Submit your application
- Registration
Tell us a little about yourself and we’ll help with the rest. Our convenient online registration form only takes a few minutes to complete.
- Application
After you submit your application, an AshokaX representative will contact you and will help you to complete the process.
- Selection
Once you’ve completed your application and made the payment, you’re ready to join your cohort.