New Delhi:

Searches by the Income Tax Department are underway at Delhi-based independent thinktank Centre of Policy Research.

Once headed by academician Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a prominent critic of the BJP government, the CPR governing board is at present chaired by Meenakshi Gopinath, a political scientist who taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University and was principal of Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi. The president and chief executive is Yamini Aiyar. Members of the board include former foreign secretary Shyam Saran and IIM professor Rama Bijapurkar.

Established in 1973, CPR describes itself as “a non-profit, non-partisan, independent institution dedicated to conducting research that contributes to high quality scholarship, better policies, and a more robust public discourse about the issues that impact life in India”.

“Asking the relevant questions and building evidence on key policy challenges in India” is one of its stated goals.