In 2016, Raghuram Rajan , then governor at the Reserve Bank of India and public intellectual, in his keynote address at the Indian Express lecture Series, clearly delineated the need for creating and strengthening adequate think tanks in the country for better prospects and all round prosperity. The idea of a Centre for Excellence appeals exactly to this thought process, now owned by many who work out of the not for profit domain.

Nation’s policy and development stakeholders readily acknowledge the fact that in the changing domestic and international contexts, scenario and dynamics, nations with shared values require to have more effective collaboration.  It might not be ambitious at all to expect that state departments, international foundations, multilateral agencies and politico-economic unions of multiple states will collaborate for greater good and development.

The Council for Social and Digital Development (CSDD) has been constituted in 2020 as a research and policy think tank in critical areas of social and digital development in the North East India Region towards addressing key pressing sustainable development, governance and digital divide challenges in the region. CSDD is a not-for-profit Company under Section (8) of the Companies Act of 2013.