The Centre for Development Economics (CDE) was set up with a grant from the Ministry of Finance, Government of India as a research adjunct of the Delhi School of Economics (Department of Economics). It is a non-profit organization that supports research in all areas of economics. It came into existence in August 1992 and began effectively functioning from early 1993, with the full range of activities picking up only in late 1993 after it received its grants from the Government of India and the Ford Foundation