Category Entrepreneurship, ICT and Innovation

Digital Development Compass 2026: Reading India’s Digital Governance

Policy Update, Center for ICT for Development, Centres, Economy and Infrastructure, Entrepreneurship, ICT and Innovation, Generation Alpha Data Centre, Governance and Law, Insights, Thematic Areas

1. Background: What Is the Digital Development Compass?

Governments across the world routinely describe themselves as pursuing 'digital transformation,' yet few possess a comparative, evidence-based way of establishing where they actually stand. The Digital Development Compass (DDC), developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), was built to close this gap. Rather than functioning as one more competitive ranking, the Compass is designed as a diagnostic: a visualisation of a country's digital indicators, drawn entirely from publicly available datasets, that allows a government to identify its own strengths and weaknesses and locate itself within a five-stage digital maturity scale.

IMPRI Desk
September 14, 2026

India’s National Cyber Security Strategy 2020: Assessing Institutional Gaps and the Need for a New Strategy

Policy Update, Center for ICT for Development, Entrepreneurship, ICT and Innovation, Public Policies, Programs and Schemes

India's first national cybersecurity policy was the National Cyber Security Policy (NCSP) 2013, which came into effect on July 2, 2013

IMPRI Desk
September 12, 2026

Gujarat’s Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence, 2025

Policy Update, Center for ICT for Development, Entrepreneurship, ICT and Innovation

Gujarat has emerged as a pioneer in India's artificial intelligence landscape with the establishment of its Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence, Gandhinagar. Inaugurated on 27 January 2025 by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, the CoE reflects the state's proactive vision to integrate emerging technologies into governance, industry, and skill development.

IMPRI Desk
September 11, 2026

IndiaAI Datasets Platform (AIKosh) 2025: A Unified National Datasets Platform for AI Innovation

Policy Update, Center for ICT for Development, Entrepreneurship, ICT and Innovation

India generates one of the largest volumes of data globally, yet this data remains fragmented across ministries, institutions, and private silos. This fragmentation posed a critical challenge for students, researchers, and innovators seeking authentic, machine-readable, and India-specific datasets. Consequently, reliance on Western datasets like ImageNet has been noted as a contributing factor to the limited representation of India's linguistic diversity, socio-economic realities, and local contexts in AI models.

IMPRI Desk
September 9, 2026

Understanding the Micro & Small Enterprises Cluster Development Programme Framework (MSE-CDP), 2007

Policy Update, Center for Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Economy and Infrastructure, Entrepreneurship, ICT and Innovation

The Micro & Small Enterprises Cluster Development Programme (MSE-CDP) is one of the primary schemes run by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). The idea behind the program is simple: small businesses often struggle to grow because they cannot afford modern machinery, proper testing labs, or good infrastructure on their own. Instead of giving scattered subsidies to individual shops, this scheme brings local businesses together into enterprise clusters.

IMPRI Desk
September 8, 2026

E-Waste (Management) Rules (2022): Assessing India’s Extended Producer Responsibility Framework

Policy Update, Center for ICT for Development, Economy and Infrastructure, Entrepreneurship, ICT and Innovation, Science and Technology

India's approach to e-waste has shifted over time, from simply regulating disposal to making producers themselves responsible for what happens to their products after use. The E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016, notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), built this Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework, requiring producers to ensure collection and environmentally sound management of e-waste from their products. It covered 21 categories of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE).

IMPRI Desk
August 31, 2026

Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA), 2024 : A Sustainable Urban Governance Model

Policy Update, Center for Habitat, Urban and Regional Studies, Center for Work and Welfare, Economy and Infrastructure, Entrepreneurship, ICT and Innovation, Social Sector

Historically, Hyderabad was known as “City of lakes”, it was built with a cascade of interconnected lakes (Golusu Katuu), and storm-water drains (nalas) around the Musi river to store and redistribute monsoon runoff across the Deccan plateau. Following the Musi river floods of 1908, prompted engineer M. Visvesvaraya designed an integrated flood-defense system featuring Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar reservoirs, supported by thousands of catchment tanks (swarajya, 2016)

IMPRI Desk
August 31, 2026