This paper reviews the complex interplay between research and policy in India. On the one hand, India has a research capacity of which any country might be proud, in research councils, autonomous institutions and private organizations. On the other hand, it has a government which, in many respects, appears very open to research: for example, the Planning Commission is well-staffed and frequently organizes seminars where researchers and policy makers exchange ideas on the same platform. The same is true of Government of India Ministries.
In practice, the relationship between research and policy is variable. Sometimes, it is strong (Section 2); sometimes it is weak (Section 3). If the number of positive examples is to be multiplied, then action is needed by government, by researchers, by civil society, and by external donors (Section 4).
2 SOME POSITIVE EXAMPLES OF RESEARCH INFLUENCING POLICY
It is easy to be cynical about the role of research in policy. As in any democracy, policy decisions in India are often taken on purely political grounds, though later policy makers may find research justification for them. For example, the government nationalized 14 banks in 1969, with no research base to support this decision; however, it was not long before papers emerged, conveniently, to show how the banks had, in the past, neglected the rural sector. Similarly, the ceiling on ownership of agricultural land was reduced in 1972 for political reasons, in order to find more land for the poor: but the government soon found economic justification, as academic research showed that the productivity of land was inversely related to size of holding. A third example is the liberalization of the early 1990s, carried out as a reaction to the foreign exchange crisis of 1990-91 and only later justified by research findings on the mounting losses of public sector enterprises, the high