The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program of the International Relations department of the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia has recently come out with the much-awaited global rankings for think tanks for the year 2011. And in spite of the mushrooming growth in the number of think tanks in India, not a single one figures in the top 30 global list.
China and Brazil have one each and Poland has two. Even Chile and Kenya have one each in the list. The list is dominated by US and Europe-based think tanks which account for 26 of the top 30 think tanks in the world.
The Centre for Civil Society which makes policy studies on livelihood studies, good governance, community and markets in environmental protection, education choice and economic freedom is the only Indian entity in the top 50 Non-US think tanks in the world.
India has the third highest number of think tanks (292) after the US (1815) and China (425) in the world.
Many of the Indian think tanks are funded by government, semi-government agencies and corporate entities. Very often, contacts at the right places rather than pure dependence on merit are more surefire means to land a position in these places.
More often than not, these entities work to justify government policies and corporate decisions than suggesting measures and policies to the implementers. Their work is supposed to go the other way.
However, if it is any consolation, as many as five Indian think tanks made it to the top 30 Asian institutes.
Though the methodology seems sound, the list is a bit ambiguous as the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO, RAS) of Russia and the African Economic Research Consortium of Kenya are both ranked in the global top 30 list (which includes US and the whole world) but fail to secure a position on the non-US top 50 list.
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