"The year under review marked the first full year with Mr Nandan Nilekani as President of NCAER’s Governing Body. Despite his many other commitments, Mr Nilekani devoted a great deal of his own time and that of his Infosys colleagues in assisting us in undertaking an intensive strategic review of the Council’s “business model”. I and my senior colleagues were most grateful for the intensity and quality of this support. More recently, Mr Nilekani resigned as co-chairman of Infosys Technologies to take up a new position as Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, a cabinet level position of enormous importance in many of the areas that are the subject of study by NCAER. I would like to congratulate him on this appointment and to wish him every success in this endeavour. I would also like to felicitate Dr Ashok Ganguly on receiving the award of Padma Vibhushan; and Dr Isher Ahluwalia and Mr Tarun Das on being awarded Padma Bhushan in the Republic Day Presidential honours."

"In other areas as well NCAER had a successful year. A large number of regular staff were occupied in the execution of the third census of handloom weavers, commissioned by the Development Commissioner (D.C.) Handlooms in the Ministry of Textiles. This has been a mammoth logistical exercise, involving data and photographic capture of more than two million weaver households across the country. NCAER carries the prime accountability before the sponsor, but in turn is working closely with commercial firms to conduct the field-work under NCAER’s supervision. The project, which is expected to be concluded in late 2009, has helped deepen our own skills in a number of areas. Of particular note has been the in-house design of software to receive, collate and check data arriving from the field in digital form, collected on personal digital assistants (PDAs) by our subcontractors."

"In summary, the year just concluded provides a good demonstration of the range of instruments and methods by which NCAER contributes knowledge to assist India’s economic development. While we enthusiastically embrace a broad range of partners in our work, at the heart of our endeavour is a cadre of trained researchers with a commitment to objectivity and rigour. In conclusion, I would like to thank my colleagues on the staff and in administration for their professionalism and dedication, without which this diverse volume of work would not have been possible."