Policy and think tank resumes in Delhi: publications, not job titles

Delhi holds most of India’s policy research capacity — think tanks, multilaterals, regulatory advisory, and the consulting practices around them. Hiring here reads what you have published before it reads where you have worked.

A conventional corporate resume, with employers and responsibilities, tells a research director almost nothing they want to know.

Publications as a section of its own

Reports, briefs, journal articles, book chapters, op-eds and working papers, with authorship position and where they appeared. For a policy application this section carries what the work history carries elsewhere.

Co-authorship is normal here and should be stated accurately. Lead authorship on a modest brief is worth more than an unmarked contribution to a flagship report.

Whether the work was used

Policy research is judged on uptake. Cited in a committee report, adopted in a state policy, referenced in legislation, briefed to a ministry. This is the equivalent of a business outcome and most policy resumes omit it.

Where uptake cannot be claimed, the convening counts: who attended, which departments engaged, what the follow-up was.

Funding and grants

Grants won, funders, amounts and your role as principal or co-investigator. Think tanks are funded institutions and a researcher who brings funding is a materially different hire.

Method, stated plainly

Quantitative, qualitative, mixed, field-based, econometric, legal analysis. Research directors screen on method because it determines which projects you can be put on.

Government and multilateral engagement

Committees served, consultations contributed to, ministries briefed, international bodies engaged. In Delhi this network is part of the professional record rather than an aside.

Moving from policy into corporate roles

Increasingly common as companies build public affairs functions. The translation involves restating research as risk assessment and regulatory foresight — same work, commercial framing.

How Content Factory writes it

Content Factory writes the publications section in the citation convention your field expects, with authorship position marked and uptake stated where it exists.

We interview for the convenings and the engagement history, because Delhi policy professionals treat these as routine and they are frequently the strongest evidence available.

For policy-to-corporate moves we write the commercial translation, with the cover letter included. Fixed price agreed in writing.