Yamini Aiyar is the president and chief executive of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR). In 2008, she founded the Accountability Initiative at CPR, which is credited with pioneering one of India’s largest expenditure tracking surveys for elementary education.
Ms. Aiyar’s research interests span the fields of public finance, social policy, state capacity, federalism, governance, and the study of contemporary politics in India. She has published widely in academic publications and the popular press. She serves on a number of government and international policy committees, as well as boards of nonprofits and think tanks. Ms. Aiyar believes think tanks play an essential role in promoting public dialogue about policymaking.
What do audiences in the United States commonly misunderstand about public policy, think tanks, and the expert community in India?
Think tanks have existed in India since the 1950s. Because Indian universities, unlike those in the United States, did not and do not have policy-focused research centers, think tanks served to fill a gap by offering a platform for both academics and practitioners to actively collaborate, spur research, and impact policy. The American idea that a think tank’s function is, in addition to research, also to facilitate formal interactions between technocratic experts and government was less prevalent in India until the late 2000s. Today, besides conducting research, Indian think tanks, both old and new, are a part of the policy ecosystem at the central and state government levels.
There are further differences between U.S. and Indian think tanks. India does not have a “revolving door” between government and think tanks. When Indian political parties form a government, they work through the permanent civil service bureaucracy, which is not structured to open doors for lateral entry and exit from government to think tanks. As a result, think tank policy engagement with the government comes through providing research, advising government through participation as external stakeholders in government committees, conducting training sessions, and serving as an expert platform for both formal events and informal interactions.
Furthermore, public policy schools in India are still nascent, so much of the training and mentoring for young practitioners takes place primarily through think tanks. Finally, for the most part, the Indian think tank community is independent and non-partisan. A few, explicitly party-affiliated think tanks have begun to emerge, but this is a relatively new phenomenon.
What are the most consequential factors in your work—heading a prominent intellectual institution and researching domestic political institutions—that you think will play a role in India’s relationship with the United States or the world over the next three to five years?
Well, you know, the U.S.-India relationship has a long, checkered history. However, increasingly, both countries are committed to finding ways to make it work and recognize that working together is in both of our national interests.
Read More at https://www.cfr.org/blog/yamini-aiyar-why-think-tanks-are-critical-indian-policymaking