Corporate apathy, Indian think tanks' survival at stake
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 07 September 2010, 00:17 IST   |    3 Comments
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Corporate apathy, Indian think tanks' survival at stake
New Delhi: Except for a few big Indian think tanks that employ between 20 and 100 people, most are practically one-man operations. Ironically, as captains of India Inc liberally fund Ivy league U.S. universities, India's think tanks are struggling to survive, reports Shantanu Nandan Sharma from Economic Times. Pitted against the weight and clout of the western think tanks, India's research and policy bodies appear to be pygmies, hamstrung by lack of adequate independent funding and as a result they are overly dependent on foreign money. This is also due to the lack of government funds and corporate India's reluctance to fund independent research. So far, independent inputs for government activities have been woefully small. In fact, research-based interventions on public policy have hardly been forthcoming and rarely been asked for. The concern, therefore, is not just about Indian think tanks' inability to mobilize resources to create mega research capacity, but also whether India should follow the U.S. model. After all, American think tanks are politically aligned, and tread a fine line between policy advocacy and lobbying. Should Indian think tanks follow suit, in pursuit of attracting like-minded funding? If they do, will corporate sector be more excited about funding them? In India, academics and policy wonks are yet to make up their mind whether they should yield space to lobbyists even though the primary objective of a think tank should remain the creation of non-partisan research. BG Verghese, writer and former editor, says, "The ability of the think tanks to speak the unspeakable and think the unthinkable without fear of political, diplomatic or market consequences is invaluable in injecting new ideas and concepts into policy debate." Though governments can and do support such initiatives, corporate donations are what makes these entities viable. Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha argues that India Inc needs to come together and set up some foundations to create independent research organizations. "Globally, philanthropy has now become trendy. Indian companies can't afford to shy away from it. They must fund big research projects - but not influence their findings," Sinha says. Indian Council of Social Science Research, the primary source of domestic fund for think tanks, has had no member secretary for a year, is indication enough of the gap between need and delivery. ICSSR has funded over two dozen Indian think tanks, but the government component is a mere 10-20 percent of their annual turnover. According to public policy researchers, over 50 percent of their funds come from global foundations such as International Development Research Centre, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Governments and other large public institutions can no longer be closed shops, feels Verghese. "Think tanks have become a tool of public diplomacy - searching, prodding, forecasting, pointing to new directions and dangers. They enable those in power to think beyond and outside themselves if they are willing to see through other lenses and listen to other voices," he says. That axiom should apply equally to governments and corporations, when it comes to the formulation of policies.

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