Given the vast number of agencies and organizations working in the area of water resources management and the resultant fragmentation of efforts and thinking, this project aimed at exploring the development of independent, autonomous think-tanks at the national and regional levels. The think-tanks comprised scholars and experts from within and outside the government and from across the region. The objective was to promote a process-oriented strategic planning approach by which the think-tanks could potentially function independently and with interlinks with other national and regional think-tanks.

To create these think-tanks, grants were disbursed to:

• Department of Sociology, University of Delhi, for organizing a conference on The Cultural Politics of Water. Researchers, academics and water resources management practitioners from over 10 international universities and NGOs presented original studies. The proceedings have been recorded in the form of a report.
  
  
• A consultant working on community-based management of natural resources with the National Council of Applied Economic Research, for presenting a paper in the international symposium "Frontiers of Urban Water Management: Deadlock or Hope?" Marseille, France. The experience helped him build an informal network among participants to continuously share and update their experience and knowledge.
  
  
• The Third World Centre for Water Management for the publication and distribution of a book "Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Region: A Framework for Sustainable Development", which presents a framework developed by teams from three co-basin countries (India, Bangladesh and Nepal) for the region with water driving the development process.
  
  
• "Moving Images" for the preparation of a series of five films titled "Silent Violence", three of which will examine three principal points of crisis in the Indian water management scenario - drought, floods and urban water supplies. The other two will examine two major strategies that have been used in trying to tackle water issues - dams and centralized water management, and alternatives to big dams in a decentralized environment.