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India, the world's most populous democracy, has historically been one of the West's strongest allies in a challenging region. RAND research has explored India's nuclear standoff with Pakistan, its economic and military competitions with China, its foreign relations with other South Asian neighbors, and domestic issues from politics and economic development to health care and education.

Commentary
Modi's Multipolar Moment Has Arrived
Russia's war in Ukraine has benefited India as great powers are competing more vigorously for New Delhi's affection, particularly the United States and China. India has also prevented its Russia policy from spoiling partnerships with key European and Indo-Pacific partners. These trends, if sustained, will contribute to India's rise to great-power status and in turn, shift the global system toward even greater multipolarity.
Jun 6, 2022
Report
Regional Responses to U.S.-China Competition in the Indo-Pacific: India
One of the United States' key partners in long-term strategic competition with China is India, which has the world's second-largest active-duty armed forces and is already a peer or near-peer competitor of China across a range of military capabilities. However, U.S. planners must be keenly aware of the constraints on both India's willingness and capacity to forge a partnership based on strategic competition with China.
May 24, 2021

Explore India

Commentary
A Milder Modi?
India has never had an election like this one—and its political landscape will likely never be the same again. Narendra Modi, India's most polarizing political figure in a generation, will become prime minister with a virtually unchecked mandate.
May 19, 2014
Commentary
India Votes — and What It Might Mean for the United States
If elected, Modi could turn out to be the politician that India's Congress accuses him of being, focusing on an internal agenda that discourages foreign engagement. The U.S. would no doubt prefer that he follow the economic course he charted in Gujarat.
May 5, 2014
Commentary
Four Issues That RUSA's Plans for Research Universities Ought To Address
The Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan, or National Higher Education Mission, is the key implementing initiative of the Indian government's 12th Five Year Plan for higher education. It promotes three policy priorities in higher education — equity, expansion, and excellence.
Mar 18, 2014
Project
How Can Antiretroviral Therapy Prevent HIV/AIDS?
Many complex issues surround the use of antiretroviral therapy as HIV prevention. RAND Europe is partnering with several organisations on Mapping Pathways, a project that is exploring potential treatment regimes and conduct research, community engagement, and policy work in the U.S., India, and South Africa.
Feb 10, 2014
Commentary
U.S.-India Dispute: A Diplomat and a Double-Standard Laid Bare
From the perspective of India, not to mention Pakistan and many other nations, the United States expects privileges that it does not grant to others. If the U.S. subjects foreign visitors (particularly diplomats) to the strictest possible interpretation its own laws, it had better be prepared for other nations to do the same.
Jan 9, 2014
Commentary
India Embraces MOOCs, but What If It Is a 'Lousy Product'?
One hundred engineering colleges around India will rely heavily on virtual instruction under a new program. Given the amount India is investing, it is important to make the best possible use of the complex and evolving Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) model.
Jan 8, 2014
Journal Article
Gender Disparity in Late-Life Cognitive Functioning in India: Findings from the Longitudinal Aging Study in India
The authors examine gender disparities in cognitive functioning in India and the extent to which education explains this disparity in later life.
Jan 1, 2014
Dissertation
Monopoly and Micro-Irrigation in Smallholder Water Markets
Many rural agricultural areas around the world are facing severely depleted groundwater resources, which farmers rely on for irrigation. This dissertation explores the changes that would follow a move to formalize water markets and establish tradable water rights.
Oct 30, 2013
Commentary
Modernisation and Austerity
In a time of austerity, strategic planning is about prioritisation. How should India prioritise its future military modernisation to meet its envisioned security requirements? Each of the three services can claim urgent need.
Sep 16, 2013
Commentary
Double Trouble: A Realist View of Rising Chinese and Indian Power
Washington sees Indian power as part of the solution to the challenges posed by the rise of China, but this view underestimates the complex, sometimes inter-related challenges America will face as both Asian giants become more powerful, write George J. Gilboy and Eric Heginbotham.
Sep 5, 2013
News Release
India's Rapidly Expanding Higher Education System Could Be Improved by Linking Education Quality to Funding
India's higher education system faces challenges from underprepared faculty, unwieldy governance, and other obstacles to innovation and improvement. Instituting policies that link funding to quality could hold schools accountable for their performance, encourage greater innovation, and further the nation's education goals.
Jul 23, 2013
Research Brief
Linking Funding and Quality to Improve Higher Education in India
RAND researchers developed a course of action to help India implement policies and reforms that link higher education quality to funding to increase accountability, encourage greater innovation, and contribute to national goals.
Jul 23, 2013
Report
Linking Funding and Quality to Improve Higher Education in India
India's higher education system faces challenges from underprepared faculty, unwieldy governance, and other obstacles to innovation and improvement. Instituting policies that link funding to quality could hold schools accountable for their performance, encourage greater innovation, and further the nation's education goals.
Jul 23, 2013
Commentary
Book Review: 'Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839–42' by William Dalrymple
While Dalrymple's account of the British retreat is masterful, his effort to generate lessons for today is at times simplistic, writes Seth Jones. Massive social and political changes in Afghanistan make it thorny to pull many lessons from the first Anglo-Afghan war.
Jun 26, 2013
Testimony
Lashkar-e Taiba and the Threat to the United States of a Mumbai-Style Attack
Lashkar-e Taiba poses a grave danger to U.S. interests and citizens in South Asia, but is less of an immediate risk to the American homeland than a Mumbai-style attack — one dramatic and shocking enough to inspire widespread terror even without the use of weapons of mass destruction or a casualty-count in the thousands.
Jun 12, 2013
Testimony
The Threat of a Mumbai-Style Terrorist Attack in the United States
A Mumbai-style attack is conceivable in the United States, although probably not one at anywhere near the scale of the 2008 assault in India, writes Brian Michael Jenkins.
Jun 12, 2013
Commentary
Preventing a Nuclear 'Great Game'
America's imminent withdrawal from Afghanistan raises the possibility of renewed tension between Pakistan and India. With this month's election of Nawaz Sharif as Pakistan's next prime minister, Islamabad and New Delhi have a fleeting window of opportunity to improve relations.
May 30, 2013
Journal Article
Options for Effective Mechanisms to Support Evidence-Informed Policymaking in RMNCH in Asia and the Pacific
This RAND Europe report looks at providing timely, reliable and high-quality evidence to inform decision-making to improve women's and children's health.
May 1, 2013
Commentary
Increase Funds for Quality
In India, perhaps if the funds that are needed are put in with the help of philanthropists like Shiv Nadar, Azim Premji or Rajendra Pawar, it may be possible to build world class universities, writes Rafiq Dossani.
Apr 15, 2013
Dissertation
Three Essays on Entrepreneurship in India and the U.S. Policies, Social Ties and Mobility
Explores the role entrepreneurship plays in the lives of the economically disadvantaged in both India and the United States.
Apr 4, 2013

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Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Troy D. Smith

Associate Economist

Troy Smith is an economist at the RAND Corporation and professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His research is in applied microeconomics focusing on education, entrepreneurship, development, and labor.
Salil Gunashekar

Senior Research Leader and Associate Director of Science and Emerging Technology, RAND Europe

Salil Gunashekar is a senior research leader and associate director at RAND Europe focusing on science and technology policy. With over a decade of experience of working in policy research, he has a particular interest in exploring the impact of digitalisation and emerging technologies, and in…

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