Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Harsha de Silva delivering the keynote speech at the 5th South Asia Regional Conference of the Think Tank Initiative in Gurgaon, India, today called for stronger ties between think tanks and policy makers. 
 
He articulated the need for evidence based policy making in the complex world of today where there is no room for policy blunders. 

Referring to the policy challenges in Sri Lanka the Deputy Minister noted that with large amounts of money spent on various social programs it’s important that robust evidence is gathered to evaluate their success. 

He also called for think tanks to engage with the policy community to understand the their needs so that the research agendas can be tailored for the priorities of governments.    
 
India’s Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha also addressed the group of intellectuals and described the many challenges the Indian government was successfully overcoming by focusing on their reform agenda. 
 
Organized by the Centre for Policy Research in India close to one hundred top researchers at the best think tanks from Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and India had come together to exchange ideas, discuss challenges and opportunities, and share successes on key national, regional and global public policy issues they work on.
 
Along with several representatives from each think tank, participants included high-level policymakers, donor representatives, and other policy stakeholders.  Dr Saman Kelegama and Dr Udan Fernando led respective small teams of senior researchers from IPS and CEPA, Sri Lanka.