NCAER plays a leading role in initiating and contributing to informed debate on economic policy issues of deep public concern through its research and outreach activities. In the research conferences that it sponsors every year such as India Policy Forum (IPF), there is a strong focus on the quality of papers and the commitment to use empirical evidence. The proceedings of the conference are published every year. The Neemrana Conference remains a unique collaborative endeavour between NCAER, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and ICRIER. A Budget Seminar, in which CPR, ICRIER, IDF, NCAER, and NIPFP participate, is organized every year to analyse the Union Government’s Budget.

NCAER continues to manage a large portfolio of research projects sponsored by government, private and public sectors. A number of its own research initiatives are funded through the endowment-based resources and donor grants. Its research in recent years has fallen within four broad themes: growth, trade and economic management; the investment climate, physical and economic infrastructure; agriculture, rural development, and natural resource management; and poverty, human development, household behaviour, and gender. In all these areas, NCAER seeks to provide timely, high quality, independent analysis, often based on primary survey data.

NCAER’s research on rural development has expanded to incorporate attention to political changes affecting rural India. Its research on rural decentralisation and governance, supported by a grant from IDRC, Canada, seeks to fill this gap by studying governance processes and elite capture. The India Human Development Survey (IHDS) on different aspects of the Indian economy and society now generates a stream of research from NCAER and other research institutions globally. The IHDS is a joint effort of NCAER and the University of Maryland in the US, with generous support from the US National Institutes of Health. NCAER has been conducting the Market Information Survey of Households (MISH) since 1985. Building on MISH, the NCAER Centre for Macro Consumer Research (CMCR) has launched a new round of the National Survey of Household Income and Expenditure (NSHIE).

NCAER conducts independent policy and programme research and undertakes monitoring and evaluation studies. Industry, infrastructure, agriculture, health and education, and social protection and safety nets have long been NCAER’s core areas of interest. NCAER’s work on Indian agricultural markets has been under way for some time in collaboration with the Universities of Melbourne and La Trobe in Australia. The Think Tank Initiative (TTI) has pledged a significant volume of multi-year funding which has allowed promising think-tanks to reshape their activities to achieve greater policy impact. Work has started along three directions: enhancing research quality, strengthening organisational performance, and improving policy linkages, communications, and outreach.