Great piece by our friends at Pragati on the importance of think tanks and particularly of independent think tanks in India. This quote camptures it well: “Without negating the importance and influence of government’s own research on politicians and policy developers, it can be safely argued that policy innovations are far more likely to originate from a independent think tanks. By their very nature, and in order to remain relevant, think tanks must offer alternative policy formulations that militate against conventional thinking. While their work may be ideologically motivated, consensus-seeking, or even partisan, it challenges government’s exclusionary claim and inevitably enriches the policy making process. In contrast, Government-funded think tanks have little inclination to advance bold ideas since they tend to defend the status quo, being inextricably linked to their funding sources and vulnerable to political pressure.”
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