About
The India Project at Brookings leverages the Institution’s multidisciplinary expertise to examine critical policy challenges and opportunities related to India, as well as U.S.-India relations. The Project is one of two components of the Brookings India Initiative. The other component is Brookings India in New Delhi, India. The Initiative has the twin goals of providing policymaking communities in the U.S. and India with independent policy research and raising the profile and understanding of Indian policy issues in Washington.
India is a dynamic and complex country that faces a number of significant opportunities and challenges with regard to its security, prosperity, and environment. It is the world’s largest democracy and a rising power with one of the fastest growing economies. It shares a border and an uneasy and often tense relationship with a nuclear-armed Pakistan that struggles to maintain political control over much of its territory. India is navigating a relationship with China that can be both cooperative and competitive. Growing prosperity has lifted millions out of poverty, but at the same time millions struggle to survive on meager incomes; widespread migration from rural areas to India’s cities presents new challenges to infrastructure, housing, and employment. India’s appetite for energy resources to fuel its economic growth has dramatically impacted global markets and made the country a major factor in the efforts to control climate change. Policymakers in India, working to meet these challenges and continue the country’s remarkable growth and development, face difficult choices.
Given India’s considerable strategic importance to the United States and the larger international community, how India deals with these challenges and opportunities is a matter of great interest across the world. With that in mind, the Brookings Institution’s India Project highlights the work of its economic policy, social policy, foreign and security policy, and metropolitan policy scholars who have deep expertise in India and/or on functional and regional policy issues related to India.
Scholars conduct research and analysis and provide policy recommendations in the areas of their expertise. Affiliated scholars’ research has focused on three clusters:
Foreign and Security Policy: Scholars including Stephen P. Cohen, Sunil Dasgupta, Bruce Jones, Tanvi Madan, Bruce Riedel, Teresita Schaffer and Strobe Talbott examine India’s role in the world, its relations with countries in the region, including China and Pakistan, its defense policy and organizations, as well as U.S.-relations.
Social and Economic Development: Scholars including Barry Bosworth, Eswar Prasad and Homi Kharas research issues related to the Indian economy, including fiscal and trade policies, infrastructure needs and the country’s growing middle class. They also explore India’s growth and development prospects, as well as its impact on the global economy. As India continues to urbanize, Bruce Katz and Amy Liu examine economic and other links between key Indian and U.S. metropolitan areas. Other Brookings scholars work on Indian social infrastructure policies, such as Ross Hammond and Kavita Patel on healthcare, and Urvashi Sahni, Kevin Watkins and Rebecca Winthrop on education.
Energy and Climate Change: Charles Ebinger examines Indian energy policies, as well as the country’s current and potential international energy links, including with the U.S. Michael Greenstone has been exploring Indian environmental policies and their economic impact.
The Project also organizes public events and private roundtables, bringing together participants from governments, the corporate sector, think tanks, academia and the media to discuss critical Indian policy issues.
Tanvi Madan serves as director of the Project. For further information, please contact IndiaProject@brookings.edu.