ONE of the United States’ … best-known think tanks, the Brookings Institution … has decided to open an India branch … Brookings is only the latest, but possibly the most weighty, entrant into an increasingly crowded space: the foreign think tank searching for a place in New Delhi. … Is this a worrying development, or a welcome one? On the one hand, it is clear that India’s think-tank infrastructure is underdeveloped. Good ideas aren’t being incubated within the government, but there are precious few of them outside it, either.

…In contrast, the efforts of non-governmental organisations … are far more effective in influencing government policy. Other Indian organisations that work in the policy space are compromised, largely by their dependence on government money. …It is hardly surprising, therefore, that foreign think tanks imagine India as terra nullius within which they can expand freely. It will be an unequal competition in terms of funds; the DC-based organisations have deep pockets. …In the end, given the aridity of India’s public policy sphere … any addition to it should be welcomed. Concern about foreign priorities should not be overstressed…. And hope should attach to the crop of newer, assertive and independent policy research bodies being incubated in India that are capable of challenging and informing government policy — organisations such as the Centre for Civil Society, PRS Legislative or Accountability Initiative. These … contenders might outdo the behemoths of the New Delhi and Washington, DC policy circuit. — (Feb 1)