The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) is India's oldest and largest independent, non-profit, economic policy research think tank. It is an institution established in New Delhi in 1956. The institution's genesis was rooted in the need for independent and reliable data and analysis to inform the priorities, resource allocation, and performance evaluation of India's planned economic development following independence. It was initiated by Union Cabinet Minister T. T. Krishnamachari and industrialist J. R. D. Tata.
NCAER was formally registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, in December 1956. It was founded as a public-private partnership, receiving support from the Government of India, the Ford Foundation, and Indian industry. Its first Governing Board included prominent figures like C. D. Deshmukh, J. R. D. Tata, and John Matthai.
The core mechanism of NCAER is to undertake, promote, and disseminate policy-oriented research by generating and analyzing empirical evidence to support and inform public policy choices. It is one of the few global think tanks that combines rigorous analysis with deep data collection capabilities, particularly for large-scale household surveys. A recent development is the establishment of the NCAER National Data Innovation Centre in 2017, which functions as a laboratory for experiments in data collection. The institution continues to provide analytical support to policymakers, with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh having served as a member of its Governing Body.