Observer Research Foundation

Observer Research Foundation (ORF) is an independent think tank based in India. It began as a platform providing non-partisan research, where policymakers, journalists, civil society actors and academicians could come together to build pragmatic solutions in the liberal era. The foundation’s strong faculty has only risen with three centres coming up in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. ORF was founded by the Ambani family and is currently endowed by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Group.

ORF started out with an approach towards dealing with internal issues of the economy in the wake of the 1990s reforms. However, today its mandate extends to security and strategy, governance, environment, energy and resources, economic and development. ORF has wide ranging objectives pertaining to the aid and formulation of government policies; enabling representation of a broad section of opinions from all walks of life to strengthen India’s democracy; providing a coherent, well-thought out policy formulations and recommendations to improve governance; improving economic development and consequently bettering the quality of life for Indian citizens and giving directions to India’s foreign policy objectives.

ORF has been ranked as the highest think tank in India, according to the latest Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, 2017. It ranked 64th in the category of ‘Top Foreign Policy and International Affairs Think Tanks’ category. It also finished 5th, ranking among the top 10 think tanks among the think tanks in in China, India, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.

Above-all, it is an organisation that aims to encourage voices from all corners of the world. Recently, ORF in collaboration with MEA organised its second edition of Raisina Dialogue from 19th to 21 January 2017, which is India’s premier foreign policy dialogue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the inaugural address for the conference, which saw coming together of former PMs of Australia and Canada apart from ex-Afghan President Hamid Karzai.