The New Delhi centre will be headed by top strategic thinker C Raja Mohan, as its founding director, and former journalist Shivnath Thukral will serve as managing director.
Carnegie India will produce high-quality public policy research about critical national, regional, and global issues, a media release said.
As with Carnegie's centres in Beijing, Beirut, Brussels, Moscow, and Washington, Carnegie India will be staffed and led by local experts who will collaborate extensively with colleagues around the world, it said.
The centre's research and programmatic focus will include the political economy of reform in India, foreign and security policy, and the role of innovation and technology in India's internal transformation and international relations.
The centre's creation has been supported by Carnegie India's Founders Committee, a group of Indian and international donors co-chaired by former cabinet secretary and Indian ambassador to the US, Naresh Chandra, and former United States ambassador to India, Frank Wisner.
"India - with its strategic partnership with the United States and its growing role in the Asia-Pacific and around the world - is a significant development on the international landscape and a natural area of focus for Carnegie," said Chandra and Wisner.