We’ve had plenty of curious well-wishers ask, “What does NPoC mean? How did you come up with that name?” It all started on an Alappuzha houseboat. Somewhere between the sway of the backwaters and yet another heated debate about what we should call ourselves, Anand blurted out a name- “Nayaneethi”. Everyone went quiet for a moment. It just felt right. Justice. Fairness. Better living standards for all. We added Policy Collective as a tail, because our style was always collaborative- drawing the best out of our team, our clients, and our partners.

 

We were six people from wildly different worlds BTech, Development Studies, Humanities, English, Natural Sciences. We’d met during the Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (2021–23), each of us posted in a different district of Kerala. Most of the time we worked alone. But whenever we got together, whether at IIM Kozhikode training sessions, late-night calls, or while huddled over a project in some dusty district office, something clicked. We challenged each other’s ideas, pushed each other’s limits, and somehow made the work more fun.

 

Along the way, a few partners we were working with asked the question that changed everything:
“Why don’t you enter the policy field and help firms in Kerala with your gyan, experience, and perspective?”

 

So we did.

 

We didn’t rush it. We had endless discussions on our vision and mission, tore them apart, rebuilt them, and tore them apart again. We kept trial-and-erroring our capabilities, going deep into the areas where we could really shine and parking the ones we’d get to later. We even reinvented what we called ourselves- think tank? Project management team? Policy consultants?, before finally settling on think–do-tank. Because for us, thinking without action is incomplete, and action without thought is reckless.

 

Even during the fellowship, when our primary responsibility was to collect data, identify the gap, and give skilling project suggestions, we couldn’t stop ourselves from going beyond. We ended the program by putting forward 15 statewide recommendations as a Policy Document to strengthen Kerala’s skill ecosystem, and then took it a step further. We met with all the major stakeholders in power to push for its implementation, refusing to let it remain just a document. That was our bit, and it’s the same mentality that drives us today as a true think–DO–tank.

 

By November 2023, we’d registered NPoC and set up in Kochi. The transition was smooth, friendship and shared purpose made it easy, but the challenges were real. Still, that’s the fuel we run on: solving bottlenecks, building solutions, and telling stories that matter in the social sector.

 

Today, we work in livelihoods, education, and skills development, expanding beyond Kerala to other states. We keep learning, keep reinventing, and keep doing that extra bit, because that’s just how we’re wired.

 

And this? This is only the beginning.