Delegations aren't just about meeting politicians, there is as much to learn from meeting thinktanks whom, after all, contribute many of the ideas that politicians then adopt. And so, as a board member of a thinktank myself, I was interested to see whether Indian thinktanks operate in a similar fashion. The Centre for Policy Research, which describes itself as the premier think tank shaping policy debates since 1973.
Unlike most thinktanks I am familiar with, CPR has a faculty, headed by K C Sivaramakrishnan, former Secretary at the Ministry of Urban Development. And that, perhaps, gives you a sense of the calibre and influence of the group. Many of them have been senior bureaucrats in a country where bureaucrats carry real clout, and politicians come and go.
One of the issues we discussed was the question of internal revolt by the Naxalites, a Maoist group that I had only heard of in passing, but whose activities now extend across Bihar and Orissa, into Madhya Pradesh and across parts of the North East. In a number of areas, they have effectively replaced formal government, eliminating every trace of regular public services, all the way down to post offices.
It is perhaps no coincidence that Bihar and Orissa have, for some time, been claimed to be some of the worst governed of the Indian states, and I was intrigued by the potential link between distance from the great trading cities. Certainly, whilst Bihar was once known as being an industrial hub, Orissa has given an impression of poverty for some time.
As the first formal event, it was an excellent way to start, and set the tone for much that followed.
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