The Centre for Policy Research (CPR) is an Indian

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

focusing on

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...

. Established in 1973 and located in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

, it is one of the national social science research institutes recognized by the

Indian Council of Social Science Research The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) is the national body overseeing research in the social sciences in India. It was established in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delh ...

(ICSSR). The objectives of CPR are to develop substantive policy options on matters relevant to the Indian polity, economy and society; to provide advisory services to governments, public bodies and other institutions; and to disseminate information on policy issues through various channels. The governing board of CPR consists of various public figures from Indian government, academia, and industry.

Research areas

Based on the profiles of its faculty members, CPR focuses on the following research areas. *Urbanization and Infrastructure *International Relations *Internal and External Security *Law and Society *International Environmental Law *Legislative Research (through

PRS Legislative Research PRS Legislative Research, commonly referred to as PRS, is an Indian non-profit organisation that was established in September 2005 as an independent research institute to make the Indian legislative process better informed, more transparent an ...

) *Political Economy and Governance *Service Delivery *Economic Development

Funding

CPR, being a non-profit organisation, receives its funds from: *Its own

corpus Corpus (plural ''corpora'') is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of ...

*Grants obtained for research *From governmental bodies for assistance *International Agencies and Private sector sources *Educational Testing and Policy Research *

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be List of wealthiest charitable foundations, the third largest char ...

Open Society Foundation Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the st ...

World Resources Institute The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research non-profit organization established in 1982 with funding from the MacArthur Foundation under the leadership of James Gustave Speth. Subsequent presidents include Jonathan Lash (1993– ...

Controversies

In 2015, the Delhi Police registered a criminal complaint for breach of trust against

Mehta Mehta () is an Indian surname, derived from the Sanskrit word ''mahita'' meaning 'great' or 'praised'. It is found among several Indian religious groups, including Hindus, Jains, Parsis, and Sikhs. Among Hindus, it is used by a wide range of castes ...

and the Center for Policy Research in connection with a recruitment scam at the

Airports Authority of India The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is a statutory body under the ownership of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (India), Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India. It is responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining, and managing civi ...

(AAI). The CPR's examination cell had been awarded a contract for conducting examinations for recruitment at the AAI. However, there were allegations that the examination results were tampered with to favour certain candidates. The CPR's examination cell has since been shut down. On 7 September 2022, the

Income Tax Department The Income Tax Department (also referred to as IT Department; abbreviated as ITD) is a government agency undertaking direct tax collection of the government of the Republic of India. It functions under the Department of Revenue of the Mini ...

Officers conducted raids on CPR premises to investigate possible violations of the

Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 The Foreign Contribution (regulation) Act, 2010 is an act of the Parliament of India, by the 42nd Act of 2010. It is a consolidating act whose scope is to regulate the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality b ...

. The FCRA registration was suspended on 27 February 2023 and eventually canceled on 10 January 2024.

Notable faculty members

Notable academics in CPR's core faculty from various fields of public policy include: *

Brahma Chellaney Brahma Chellaney (born 18 January 1962) is an Indian geostrategist and columnist. He is a professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi; a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow of the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin ...

Bharat Karnad Bharat Karnad is an emeritus professor in National Security Studies at the Centre for Policy Research, Delhi and a national security expert. He is the author of ''India's Nuclear Policy'' (Praeger, 2008), ''Nuclear Weapons and Indian Security: T ...

Pratap Bhanu Mehta Pratap Bhanu Mehta (born 1967) is an Indian academic. He was the president of the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi-based think tank and was the Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka University from July 2017 to July 2019. Early life Pratap was bor ...

* G. Parthasarathy *

Lavanya Rajamani Lavanya Rajamani (born 1973) is an Indian lawyer, author and professor whose area of expertise is international climate change law, environmental law, and policy. She is currently a professor of International Environmental Law at the Faculty of La ...

Shyam Saran Shyam Saran (born 4 September 1946) is an Indian career diplomat. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1970 and rose to become the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India. Prior to his appointment as the Foreign Secretary he served as ...

International Faculty Collaborators

Patrick Heller Patrick Heller is an American sociologist and the director of the development research program at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Education Patrick Heller completed his bachelor's degree in arts ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Centre For Policy Research (Cpr) Think tanks based in India 1973 establishments in Delhi Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in India Think tanks established in 1973