India ranks 4th in number of thinktanks, after US, China and UK

MUMBAI: India ranks fourth on the list of nations with the most number of thinktanks, with nearly 100 new ones taking the country’s total to 280 in 2015.

Last year, India ranked fifth with 192 thinktanks.

The US tops the list for 2015 with 1,835 thinktanks, followed by China and the United Kingdom with 435 and 288, respectively, according to the ‘ Global Go To Think Tank Index Report (GGTTI) 2015’ released on Friday.

Among the 6,486 thinktanks worldwide, the US-based Brookings Institution emerged on the top for the eighth consecutive year. Six Indian thinktanks figure in the global top 175 list—Centre for Civil Society (CCS, rank 79), Institute For Defence Studies and Analyses ( IDSA, 104), Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (109), The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI, 111), Observer Research Foundation ( ORF, 118) and Development Alternatives (136).

If the lists of thinktanks in the US are excluded, then four more Indian thinktanks make it to the top 175 list (nonUS)—Brookings India, Gateway House-Indian Council on Global Relations, United Service Institution of India and Vivekananda International Foundation.

The report classifies and ranks think tanks in various ways, including by region, area of specialisation and even on aspects such as use of social media.

Thinktanks to watch out for are those who have done excellent research in the past 24 months and six Indian organisations made it to this list—ORF (10), IDSA (13), Vivekananda Institute of Technology (20), Gateway House (38), Council on Energy, Environment and Water (54) and Centre for Land Warfare Studies (69). The annual rankings are compiled under the auspices of the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Flows of information for rich policy analysis and research today are often disparate and fractured, which leads to a vital need for resources that highlight the best policy research out there,” said James McGann, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s TTCSP in a statement.

“The independent index is designed to help users of information and policy analysis identify the leading centres of excellence in public policy research around the world,” he added.