Company lists · Data refreshed September 2026
Top 25 Think tanks based in India
RevenueBase identified 145 think tanks headquartered in India as of September 2026 and tracks 5,564 professional contacts across them, including 592 with verified work emails. New Delhi is the largest hub.
This list covers think tanks headquartered in India, matched on what each company actually does as described in its own words. Ranked by team size, largest first. Every row shows the company's own description, its RevenueBase Smart Search rating, and when it was last checked. Data refreshed September 22, 2026.
Published by RevenueBase, a B2B data infrastructure company. This list was built with RevenueBase Smart Search, the natural-language company search RevenueBase customers use to build their own targeted lists and unlock verified emails and direct dials at the companies on them. How these lists are built and judged.
The 25 largest think tanks based in India
Ranked by team size| # | Company | Contacts | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 285 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Set up in 1990, ORF seeks to lead and aid policy thinking towards building a strong and prosperous India in a fair and equitable world.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 2 | 215 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy is an independent think-tank doing legal research to make better laws and improve governance for the public good.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 3 | 207 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “CSTEP is one of India’s leading think tanks, with a mission to enrich policymaking with innovative approaches using science and technology for a sustainable, secure and inclusive…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 4 | 155 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “The Geostrata is an independent Indian think tank standing for a distinctly Indian take on world affairs.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 5 | 133 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Established in August 1981, ICRIER is an autonomous, policy-oriented, not-for-profit, economic policy think tank.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 6 | 113 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Centre for Civil Society advances social change through public policy.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 7 | 107 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) is an independent, Indian public policy think tank that works on economic growth & development, energy, resources &…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 8 | 90 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “About Us Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) is a think tank dedicated to extensive and in-depth research on current economic, social, and political issues.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 9 | 82 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “The Centre for Policy Research (CPR) has been one of India’s leading public policy think tanks since 1973.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 10 | 57 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “GRAAM (Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement) is a non profit public policy research and think-act-tank based in India.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 11 | 53 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “NFPRC undertakes extensive, peer-reviewed research for long-term projects, as well as incisive, quick-turnaround research for actionable agendas.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 12 | 53 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Pune has always been a city of learning, scholarship, liberal values, enlightened thinking and action, and prides itself on the presence of thought leaders from all walks of life.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 13 | 49 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “CPRG is an independent research think-tank that aims to improve policy and decision-making through research and analysis.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 14 | 48 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “CENJOWS was raised at the initiative of Ministry of Defence on 24 Aug 2007.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 15 | 32 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “The Dialogue, a leading public policy think tank based in India, has been at the forefront of shaping discourse at the intersection of technology, law, and governance.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 16 | 32 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “VIF is a New Delhi-based think tank specialising in Foreign Affairs, National Security & Strategy and Public policy.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 17 | 28 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Sapiens is a multi-functional research and intelligence think tank which focuses on providing socio-political/political solutions to existing issues.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 18 | 27 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Founded in 1996, the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) is an independent think-tank working on global traditional and non-traditional security issues, with an…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 19 | 22 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “New Delhi based think-tank that combines rigorous academic research with policy advocacy and strategic consultancy.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 20 | 22 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “The Peninsula Foundation (TPF) is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, public policy research think tank, established to promote innovative thinking and stimulate critical…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 21 | 16 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS) is a premiere policy research institution in India and South Asia.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 22 | 13 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “A technology policy think tank based in New Delhi, India.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 23 | 12 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Change Engine strives to think about and solve the big problems of today by focusing on fundamental or first-principle thinking.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 24 | 10 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Public Policy Research Centre (PPRC) is a research organization established under the Dr Mookerjee Smruti Nyas, a public charitable trust.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 25 | 9 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Forum for Integrated National Security (FINS) is a non-profit organisation.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 22, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
RevenueBase Smart Search
RevenueBase Smart Search assesses information from a company’s LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website, and other publicly available sources. It uses that information to rate how closely the company relates to this list’s category: think tanks. Every row carries its rating and the description the rating was read from, so each one can be checked rather than taken on trust.
- Strong evidence
- The company's own public description of its business names think tanks.
- Partial evidence
- Its own public description names part of think tanks, so it works in or next to the category without describing itself that way.
- Indirect evidence
- The description shown does not name think tanks. The match rests on the rest of the company's public profile rather than the one sentence quoted here, so this is the rating to check first.
RevenueBase Smart Search is how these lists are built: RevenueBase's data engine and AI assemble the companies that match a category defined in a user's own words, so a list can be about what companies actually do rather than about whichever industry code they were filed under.
Showing 25 of 145 think tanks based in India
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Think tanks based in India at a glance
As of Sep 22, 2026Companies by employee count
Email recency for this list is measured worldwide rather than for India, so it is reported there. Company counts and contact totals on this page are exact for India, over 145 companies.
How this list was built
Company categories are rarely black and white. RevenueBase reads each company's own description of its business to decide whether it belongs among think tanks, so some rows will be adjacent to the category rather than pure plays. The description and RevenueBase Smart Search rating on every row are there so you can check each match yourself.
- Source
- The RevenueBase company graph: 60 million companies and 398.9 million professional contacts resolved from primary sources, queried with RevenueBase Smart Search, the natural-language company search available to every RevenueBase user.
- What qualifies
- Companies headquartered in India whose own description of what they do matches “think tanks”. Matching reads each company's description, not its industry code or its name.
- RevenueBase Smart Search
- RevenueBase Smart Search is how this list is assembled and how each row is rated. RevenueBase's data engine and AI assess a company's LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website and other publicly available information, then relate it to a category defined in a user's own words. Each row is rated strong evidence (its own description names think tanks), partial evidence (it names part of the category) or indirect evidence (the description shown names none of it and the match rests on the rest of the company's profile). The description supporting each rating is quoted on the row.
- What we exclude
- Companies whose own description does not clearly place them among think tanks, and records with no verified work email. Companies headquartered outside India are excluded even when they keep an office there.
- Match quality
- In blind human judging of this matching method, 86% of matched companies were on target. Expect roughly 1 in 7 rows to be adjacent to the category rather than a pure play. Every row shows the company's own description and its RevenueBase Smart Search rating so you can judge each match yourself. Read the full methodology: how the lists are built, how the judging worked, and what the figure means.
- Ranking
- Team size, largest first: companies are ordered by the number of professionals RevenueBase tracks at each one. Employee ranges shown are reported bands, for context.
- Verification
- Every listed company carries at least one verified work email, 592 across the full list. Contacts re-verify on a rolling cadence, and each contact's own verification date is shown inside RevenueBase.
- Refresh
- This page's figures were pulled from the company graph on September 22, 2026. Lists refresh periodically as the graph is re-checked.
- Corrections
- Wrong category, wrong headquarters, or a company that has closed? Use “Report an issue” on any row. Reports go to the RevenueBase Data Team and feed back into the company graph.
Think tanks by metro
- Think tanks in New Delhi59
Frequently asked
What is RevenueBase Smart Search?
RevenueBase Smart Search is how RevenueBase decides which companies belong on this list and how strongly each one fits. Its data engine and AI assess a company's LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website and other publicly available information, then relate it to the category the list is about. Each row is rated strong evidence when the company's own description names think tanks, partial evidence when it names part of the category, and indirect evidence when the description shown names none of it and the match rests on the rest of the company's profile.
How many think tanks are there based in India?
RevenueBase identified 145 think tanks headquartered in India as of September 2026, matched on each company's own description of what it does rather than its industry code.
What is the largest company on this list?
Observer Research Foundation, headquartered in New Delhi, tops this list with the largest team on record.
Which city has the most think tanks?
New Delhi leads with 59 headquartered companies, followed by Delhi (13) and Mumbai (9).
How do I get contact information for these companies?
A free RevenueBase account lets you run this exact search and work the top results, verified emails and direct dials included. Upgrading unlocks all 592 verified decision-maker contacts tracked across these 145 companies.
How current is this list?
The list refreshes periodically as the company graph is re-checked. This page's figures were pulled on September 22, 2026.
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About this data
RevenueBase is a B2B data infrastructure company. Its company graph covers 60 million companies and 398.9 million professional contacts, with emails verified on a rolling cadence rather than scraped once and left to decay. These company lists are generated directly from that graph with RevenueBase Smart Search, the same natural-language company search every RevenueBase user has: describe a market in plain words, get the companies that match, and add verified emails and direct dials for the people at them. It is the same data that powers RevenueBase's B2B data products, and a free account includes 500 credits to start. How these lists are built and judged.