The Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) is a social science
research institute
A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...
in
Bangalore
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. Founded in 1972, it is the largest among the 27 institutions supported by
Indian Council of Social Science Research
The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) is the national body overseeing research in the social sciences in India. It was established in New Delhi in 1969.
Council
The Council is currently chaired by Bhushan Patwardhan. Current ...
(ICSSR).
ISEC is one of three major institutions established by Prof.
V. K. R. V. Rao, along with the
Delhi School of Economics
Delhi School of Economics (DSE), popularly referred to as "D School", is a Higher Educational Institution within the University of Delhi. The Delhi School of Economics is situated in University of Delhi's North Campus in Maurice Nagar. Establ ...
and the
Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi.
Institute for Social and Economic Change
(ISEC) multi-disciplinary
social science
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...
research institute established by Prof. V.K.R.V Rao in 1972, funded by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and the
Government of Karnataka
The Government of Karnataka, abbreviated as, GoK, or simply Karnataka Government, is a democratically-elected state body with the governor as the ceremonial head to govern the Southwest Indian state of Karnataka. The governor who is appointed ...
. The thrust of the institute is to integrate the social science research skills in initiating, complementing, participating and furthering the social, economic and political changes of the societies with an emphasis on equity and justice. Prof. Rao’s vision was to build purposeful interactions within social science disciplines as well as with other
life science
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy t ...
streams to create a strong
interdisciplinary
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...
work. ISEC’s concern for the social and economic welfare of the poor and disadvantaged groups reflects strongly in the large number of studies it has undertaken to understand the various dimensions of
poverty
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...
and human development. Analytical and applied research studies particularly in policy-related areas have also been areas of priority at ISEC. Central, state and local level governments have come to rely on the Institute for evaluation of various policies and programmes.
ISEC has also developed some research linkages. In order to promote core-funded activities at ISEC, Prof Rao got the support of the Union Ministry of Agriculture to house one of its three agro-economic research units i.e. the Agricultural Development and Rural Transformation (ADRT) at the Institute (the other two are housed at the
Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, and the
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad) is the world's number 1 business school, located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The school has been accorded the status of an Institute of National Importance by Ministry of Human Resourc ...
). The
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is an Indian government ministry charged with health policy in India. It is also responsible for all government programs relating to family planning in India.
The Minister of Health and Family Welfare ...
has also established the Population Research Centre (PRC) at ISEC.
ISEC is the biggest research Institute amongst ICSSR sponsored interdisciplinary research institutions. The research and academic activities of the institute are structured under eight centers covering the areas ranging from economics,
ecological economics, agricultural economics, population research, sociology, health, education, political science, public administration, decentralization and rural development. The research under the centres is collectively discussed and monitored through statutory bodies.
ISEC has a faculty of forty five from different areas of social and life sciences. Some of the collaborations are with: NORDIC Centre,
Netherlands
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,
Maastricht University
Maastricht University (abbreviated as UM; nl, Universiteit Maastricht) is a public research university in Maastricht, Netherlands. Founded in 1976, it is the second youngest of the thirteen Dutch universities.
In 2021, 22,383 students studied at ...
,
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
,
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field office ...
,
UNFPA
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, is a UN agency aimed at improving reproductive and maternal health worldwide. Its work includes developing national healthcare strategies ...
,
UNDP
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
,
USAID
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...
,
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
, the Swedish C-Dot,
DANIDA
Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) is the brand used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark when it provides humanitarian aid and development assistance to other countries, with focus on developing countries. There is no dist ...
and
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
. In the honor of Dr.V K R V Rao, ISEC has instituted a visiting chair, presently held by Prof.
Ashutosh Varshney
Ashutosh Varshney (born 1957) is an Indian-born political scientist and academic. He is currently the Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Brown University, where he also d ...
, Professor of Political Science at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
.
ISEC has a programme for training social science students for their
PhD. The students are taken for the course from an open advertisement and after a rigorous scrutiny of about 12 out of 300 applicants the students are undergo training for one year. ISEC provides fellowships to the students and up till now about 200 students have obtained their PhD in Social Sciences through ISEC. ISEC has infrastructure that includes a library, data bank, digital sources of information, seminar halls, auditorium, students’ hostel, residential accommodation and guest house.
It is rightly recognized that policy-making in India requires a great deal of systematizing and active lobbying of scholarship. Aware of practical difficulties in connecting research to policy, ISEC from the very beginning has established itself as a credible and accountable institution to provide policy feedback to the
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
and the
state governments
A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...
. In addition, ISEC has regularly contributed and assisted central, state and local governments by providing advice on important issues.
Data bank
ISEC has set up a
data bank In database management and information architecture, a data bank or databank is a repository of information about one or more subjects, that is, a database which is organized in a way that facilitates local or remote information retrieval and is abl ...
for storing both secondary and primary data collected for several projects. It has also gathered and stored basic
NSS and
census data and other secondary data from World Bank,
RBI, etc., as well as data on the
Indian economy
The economy of India has transitioned from a mixed planned economy to a mixed middle-income developing social market economy with notable state participation in strategic sectors.
*
*
*
* It is the world's fifth-largest economy by nomin ...
, polity and society and classified them in a user-friendly manner. Manned by a data bank manager, there are plans to index the data available in the bank for easier use. All these will be put on the network and the entire work will be taken up in a time bound manner to make it available to ISEC users.
Infrastructure
The ISEC campus is located in
Nagarbhavi
Nagarabhavi (also referred to as Nagarbhavi)is a residential area of Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Located in West Bangalore, Nagarabhavi is located between Mysore Road and Magadi road.
It is surrounded by Vijaynagar on the north, Bangalore Uni ...
Village, Bangalore on the south-western outskirts of the city. Set amidst 16 hectares, it abuts the
Bangalore University’s Jnanabharati premises. The campus has an academic and administrative complex, student hostels, a guesthouse for visiting scholars, residential facilities for 77 faculty members and staff, four seminar halls, two committee rooms, and a 300-seater auditorium.
V.K.R.V. Rao Library
The V.K.R.V. Rao Library at ISEC has a collection of two lakh titles, 400 microfiche copies of periodicals, official and non-official documents and back volumes of professional journals and periodicals. ISEC also subscribes to about 350 professional foreign and Indian journals, and nine newspapers.
Using a grant from Government of Karnataka ISEC has started a
digital library
A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, or a digital collection is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital me ...
and a large number of rare books and reports in social sciences have been digitised. Additionally, some books published by ISEC students and other ISEC publications have been digitised and all of these are available online to users. ISEC has entered into agreements with Mythic Society,
Mysore University
The University of Mysore is a public state university in Mysore, Karnataka, India. The university was founded during the reign of Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore. The university is recognised by the University Grants Commission ...
and
Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics
Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), commonly known as Gokhale Institute, is one of the oldest research and training institutes in economics in India.
History
The institute was founded on 6 June 1930 by R. R. Kale as a centre f ...
to take ahead the process of digitisation.
Specialization
Research
Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...
activities are conducted under the various centres, which also match the thematic research areas and the requirements of the funding agencies. The various centres are:
* Agricultural Development and Rural Transformation Centre
* Centre for Economic Studies and Policy
* Centre for Decentralisation and Development
* Centre for Human Resource Development
* Centre for Political Institutions
* Governance and Development
* Centre for Ecological Economics and Natural Resources
* Population Research Centre
* Centre for Study of Social Change and Development
The larger impact of ISEC has been through dissemination of the results of its research studies. In the past 38 years of its existence, the Institute has completed studies on wide-ranging topics in social sciences. The papers and publications have been shared widely with other social science research institutions and are well received by scholars in social sciences and policy makers alike. This includes 650 applied and policy-related studies on various economic, social, political and administrative issues, 225 books, and over 2,500 technical articles published by the faculty. Of these, over 1100 articles were published in refereed journals in India and abroad, 400 articles in various magazines and about 1,000 articles in various media. ISEC faculty members have made their presence felt in many national and international seminars, conferences and workshops. Regular contributions by ISEC faculty and students appear in leading newspapers to raise the standard of public debate and influence public opinion on several contemporary issues. 225 working papers and 20 monographs by the faculty have been published.
Current Director
Prof. Rajashekar (In charge Director)
See also
*
List of think tanks in India
The following is a list of notable Indian think tanks.
India has the second- largest number of think tanks in the world, with the country's total hitting 509 in 2018 behind 1871 in the United States of America and ahead of the People's Republic of ...
References
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Research institutes in Bangalore
Social science institutes
Organizations established in 1972
Organisations based in Bangalore
Think tanks based in India
1972 establishments in Mysore State