YIF – ELM FAQs

The Client organisation/individual is represented by a Project Head (PH) and a Project Lead (PL), who have to be involved in the project throughout the ELM duration.

Project Head: The Project Head leads the project from the Client’s end and is responsible for the final success of the project. S/he is expected to have domain expertise in the project, oversee the work of the ELM team, and guide them at regular intervals. The Project Head is expected to engage with the ELM team at least once in a month.

Project Lead: The Project Lead is the one who liaises and engages with the ELM team on day-to-day activities and becomes the point of contact for all the work done. S/he may or may not be the same person as the Project Head. The Project Lead, along with the Project Head, is expected to guide the team through the project, and provide the team with the training, data, and other resources that are needed for the successful completion of the project. Both will also be responsible for assessing and evaluating the progress of the ELM team at the end of each ELM Phase.

The ELM is not a paid project, though the Client is expected to bear all project-related expenses incurred by the ELM team.

The team of 5 people typically incurs an expense of Rs 10,000/- during the course of the project, towards travel and related expenses within NCR. In some projects, for instance those involving field work outside the NCR, the expenses may be higher.

An ideal ELM project solves for a specific problem, which requires 5 bright young people to engage with the problem and come up with an implementable and sustainable solution at the end of the ELM journey.

It should be outcome-based, and not task-based.

It should have the scope for learning and growth for the 5 individuals working on it, and should meet the stated ELM objectives as much as possible.

It should allow for timely and substantive engagement with the Project Head and Project Lead

All stakeholders sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement before the project begins. This ensures that specific data of the project is not shared publicly by any stakeholder, without the other’s consent.

However, general information about the project (such as project outlines and Client organisations) may be shared by the YIF Programme for external communications.

Details of projects may also be discussed within the YIF student community of the ongoing year for academic purposes during their internal training or reviews.

While the YIF Programme can provide work spaces for ELM teams when they work from campus, it will not be able to provide other infrastructural/technical support to individual teams. Clients are expected to provide the same to their teams.

The YIF Programme will provide basic training in research, analysis, and problem solving. However, Clients are encouraged to provide training/expertise to their teams in any specific skills required for the successful completion of their project.

After project proposals are submitted, they are evaluated by an internal Selection Committee, which shortlists the projects.

The shortlisted projects are shared with the Fellows, who then pitch for the project that they wish to work on based on their interests.

Fellows pitch for projects as 5-member teams, which they form on their own. There are always more projects in the pool than teams of Fellows.

The pitches made by these teams are sent to the Clients, who decide whether they would like the team to work with them or not.

The Clients are encouraged to conduct interviews/provide pre-work assignments to ensure that the team is the right fit for the project.

If the Client confirms the team, both stakeholders are connected officially by the YIF Programme team, and ELM work begins.

While the field visit component is set up in the ELM calendar, these visits will be subject to the status of COVID-19 and public health protocols. Safety and security would be achieved by, among other things, ensuring that places visited by the ELM team are known to be safe by the Client, and making available a known point person during such field visits.

Each Fellow is graded twice – once after every ELM Phase (defined under “Timelines”).

Each Fellow is assessed at the end of each phase to gauge their progress in the project and ELM learning objectives and is given grades accordingly.