Vision: To be India’s leading Centre of Excellence on the digital economy, building a digital future that is inclusive by design, efficient by practice, and sustainable for future generations.
Mission: To generate rigorous, evidence-based research on India’s digital transformation and translate it into actionable policy insights. By bringing together ICRIER’s research excellence and Prosus’s innovation-led entrepreneurship, IPCIDE convenes government, industry, academia, and civil society to inform the decisions that drive India’s digital economy.
About the Centre: The ICRIER Prosus Centre for Internet and Digital Economy (IPCIDE) is a joint initiative of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), one of India’s premier economic think tanks, and Prosus, the largest consumer internet company in Europe. Established in 2022, the Centre is focused on building policy evidence to shape India’s digital future.
At a time when technology and artificial intelligence are redefining how economies grow, services are delivered, and people live and work, the Centre’s work with a multidisciplinary orientation uncovers a complex interplay between economics, emerging technologies, regulation, markets, and society.
Focus Areas: The Centre’s flagship output is the State of India’s Digital Economy (SIDE) report, an annual benchmark assessment of India’s digital economy performance, with sub-national and international comparisons. The SIDE report has become a reference tool for policymakers, regulators, and researchers, and is increasingly used by government bodies as an evidence base for policy decisions.
Alongside the SIDE report, the Centre produces policy briefs, working papers, and research notes on India’s key digital economy growth levers, such as the startup ecosystem that goes beyond valuation, digital public infrastructure, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, and data governance architecture that enables rather than constrains innovation and competition. These research outputs, alongside multi-stakeholder convenings including workshops, roundtables, and the annual IPCIDE Conference, provide a platform for refining policies, regulations, and practices for India’s digital economy. They create spaces for dialogue between government, industry, academia, and civil society.
Global Relevance: India’s digital approach offers a blueprint for the Global South. The Centre’s research informs South-South and North-South dialogues, grounding universal questions of inclusivity, sovereignty, and competition in real-world Indian experience. It also collaborates with institutions inside and outside India to deliver high-quality research and assist policy formulation.
Governance: The Centre’s activities are guided by an advisory board comprising eminent academics, policymakers, and industry representatives.