NCAER’s roots lie in Prime Minister Nehru’s early vision of a newly-independent India needing independent institutions as sounding boards for the government and the private sector. Remarkably for its time, NCAER was started in 1956 as a public-private partnership, both catering to and funded by the government and private industry. NCAER’s first Governing Body included the entire Cabinet of economic Ministers and the leading lights of the private sector, including names like C. D. Deshmukh, J.R.D. Tata, John Mathai, and Asoka Mehta.
