Observer Research Foundation (ORF) is an independent global

think tank A think tank, or 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-govern ...

based in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

, India. The foundation has three centres in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

and

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. ORF provides potentially viable inputs for policy and decision-makers in the

Indian Government The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

and to the political and business communities of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. ORF started out with an objective of dealing with internal issues of the economy in the wake of the 1990s reforms. However, today its mandate extends to security and strategy, governance, environment, energy and resources, economy and growth.

Origins

ORF was founded in part by the Dhirubhai Ambani family; it claims to operate independently, though. According to some reports, until 2009, 95% of the foundation's budget was provided by

Reliance Industries Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Mumbai. It has diverse businesses including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Relian ...

, however, it is now estimated to be around 65% as the foundation diversified its source of finance to government, foreign foundations, and others.

Objectives

ORF has wide-ranging objectives pertaining to the aid and formulation of government policies; enabling representation of a broad section of opinions from all walks of life to strengthen India's democracy; providing a coherent, well-thought out policy formulations and recommendations to improve governance; improving economic development and consequently bettering the quality of life for Indian citizens and giving directions to India's foreign policy objectives.

Activities

As an organisation that aims to encourage voices from all corners of the world, ORF holds multiple international conferences including a flagship multilateral conference called Raisina Dialogue in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs. Speakers and participants at the annual conference have included renowned journalists, business leaders, civil society organizers as well as domestic and foreign delegates including Prime Ministers and other foreign ministers and officials.

Ranking

ORF was ranked 20th in the list of top think tanks worldwide in the 2020 edition of the ''Global Go Think Tank Index Report'' published by the

Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) was a non-profit program at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that operated from 1989 to 2021. TTCSP was originally established at the Foreign Policy Research Instit ...

of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

. It was ranked 2nd among think tanks in China, India, Japan and South Korea.

Notable advisors and fellows

* H. H. S. Viswanathan, Indian Ambassador * H. K. Dua, former Member of Parliament; former Media Advisor to the Prime Minister * J. M. Mauskar IAS, former Chairman, Central Pollution Control Board and special secretary MOEF; member of HON PM climate change council * Jayanta Bandyopadhyay, Former Professor of the

Indian Institute of Management Calcutta Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM Calcutta or IIM-C) is a public business school located in Joka, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was the first Indian Institute of Management to be established, and has been recognized as an Institu ...

* K. K. Nayyar, former Vice-Chief, Indian Navy * M. Ashraf Haidari, Director General of Policy & Strategy of the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan * Manoj Joshi, journalist *

Mihir Sharma Mihir Swarup Sharma is an Indian economist who is senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation and an opinion columnist for Bloomberg News. Before that he was the opinion editor for ''Business Standard'' and a columnist for the ''Indian Expr ...

, Bloomberg opinion columnist and Senior Fellow *

Mitali Mukherjee Mitali Singh (née Mukherjee) is an Indian-Bangladeshi classical and playback singer, she hails from Mymensingh, Bangladesh. She received the National Film Award of Bangladesh in 1982 for the song ''Ei Dunia Ekhon To Ar'' for the film ''Dui P ...

, Financial journalist and Fellow * Maya Mirchandani, journalist * N. K. Singh, Indian Administrative Service officer * Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, Indian Ambassador * Capt. P Raghu Raman, former U.N. Peacekeeper; former CEO Mahindra Special Services Group; former CEO, National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID); former President, Risk Security and New Ventures, Reliance Industries * Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, former Assistant Director, Indian National Security Council * Rakesh Sood, Indian Ambassador * S. Paul Kapur, Professor, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School *(Dr.) Satish Misra, veteran journalist * Sergey Kurginyan, Russian politician * Vijay Latha Reddy, former Deputy National Security Advisor *

Vikram Sood Vikram Sood is the former head of India's foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), and an advisor to the Observer Research Foundation, an independent public policy think tank in New Delhi. Sood was an officer of the Indi ...

, former head of the Indian intelligence agency

Research and Analysis Wing The Research and Analysis Wing (abbreviated R&AW; hi, ) is the foreign intelligence agency of India. The agency's primary function is gathering foreign intelligence, counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, advising Indian policymakers, ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1990 establishments in Delhi Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in India Research institutes established in 1990 Research institutes in Delhi Think tanks based in India