Public policy-making offers job security, says Professor Pushpa Trivedi

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All industries in the world require economics graduates, said S. Pushpa Trivedi, Senior Professor and Head of Economics Department at Shiv Nadar University Chennai during her talk on ‘Careers in Economics and Data Science: Pathways for the Future’ at The Hindu EducationPlus Career Counselling Fair 2025 here on Sunday.

Addressing students on the importance of studying economics today, she explained the three layers of economic problems — open economy macroeconomics, including trade wars and sustainable development; macroeconomics, which covers national issues such as poverty, inflation, growth, health, and education; and microeconomics focusing on consumer firms.

Furthermore, she spoke about how data science is incorporated into economics, and encouraged students to pursue the field. “We used to think that data is only numbers, but now data is visual like face recognition, audio, text and more, all used for analysis.”

While addressing the different career paths for economists, Dr. Trivedi laid out the essentials. “Those who are doing economics, and want to become economists should not stop at undergraduation; it is just the foundation. You should pursue higher studies to become a professional,” she said, while speaking about the diverse opportunities in policy-making bodies, civil services, journalism, NGOs, start-up services, and others.

“For job security, public policy-making is a more stable option. But while many economics students and their parents are drawn to finance, it’s a volatile field. There are also opportunities in research, especially in education and healthcare,” she added.

During the Q&A session, when students asked if Artificial Intelligence would take over the jobs of economists, Dr. Trivedi reassured them saying, “AI will not take over your jobs as much as we think, or as it is made out to be. The human mind is more versatile than any AI.”