A survey of Research Institutions working in the field of Social Science in India

What is it about?

This is a study of research infrastructure in the field of social sciences in India by focusing on institutions working in this field. It discusses another important component of research infrastructure, namely, research organizations engaged in Social science Research (SSR) or research institutes. In addition to carrying out research, research institutes often also offer PhD courses. The discussion in this chapter is around the number of research institutes and the infrastructural facilities in them. The research infrastructure includes both physical and human resources, including the size of the faculty and quality of researchers involved in SSR, the volume of research journals and books in libraries, Internet access and online repositories, as well as other research-related facilities. The research output, as measured by the quantity and quality of research institutes, is determined by these facilities. The study is based on data generated through an extensive online survey of the research organizations working in the field of social sciences. Th is was done at two layers—at the level of thematic and discipline-wise search with a combination of several keywords. The government and autonomous research organizations were sorted out. The research infrastructure consists of physical, digital, and human resources and plays a pivotal role in carrying out any meaningful SSR. In addition to social science departments and chairs in the universities in India, there are about 311 research institutes engaged in SSR. Of the total research institute, about half are autonomous research institutes, 27 percent are government research and training institutes, and another 23 percent are research and advocacy groups. Among the 311 research institutes, only 159 are autonomous institutions and main research bodies engaged in dedicated research. For a country as vast as India, 159 autonomous institutes is a small number. The detailed analysis of 148 institutes from among these 159 indicates that they are concentrated in Delhi. Geographically peripheral states, like Jammu and Kashmir, north-eastern states, Goa, and Chhattisgarh, lack SSR institutions. Majority of the institutions are endowed with basic facilities and in many cases, with digital facilities. The strength of the faculty engaged in SSR across the country barely crosses 1000. The average faculty per institute is only seven, and 39 percent of the research institutes operate with faculty size of less than five. It may not be a far-fetched speculation to conclude that such tiny faculty strength will have a direct implication on the volume as well as the quality of research output. In term of subjects, while economics and allied subjects receive priority, sociology/anthropology, politics, and history receive less research space in these institutes. In case of government-run institutes in the field of education, rural, and tribal development covered under this study, the research component is weak as their focus is mainly on training and capacity enhancement of government and other staff. In case of research and advocacy groups also, the focus is on advocacy and research is a supplementary activity.

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Why is it important?

It is necessary to recognize that autonomous research institutes are crucial for generation of empirical and theoretical knowledge. Th erefore, there is a requirement of overcoming the weaknesses of these institutes. First, there is a need to set up institutes in regions where there are none or few, such as in Jammu and Kashmir, northeastern states, Goa, and Chhattisgarh. Second, the infrastructure in many of these institutes needs to be improved, particularly provision of separate rooms to faculty members. Th ird, the most important limitation of these institutes is the neglect by state and central government with respect to faculty strength, which in turn aff ects the research output of these institutes. On average, there are only seven faculty members per institute and about 39 per cent have less than fi ve faculty, which is quite low. Th is is much less compared with the average number of faculty in research institutes under the Chinese Academy of Social Science Research. For adequate research output, there is an urgent need to ensure sizable faculty. Fourth, there is need to promote research in neglected disciplines like sociology/ anthropology, politics, and history, which receive less research space in these institutes, and also encourage interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research. Th e government institutes covered in this study have more focus on training. Since these institutes have a reasonably good infrastructure, they should accord equal priority to empirical research useful for policy purposes.