HRD mega push for social sciences

NEW DELHI: Scholars wishing to pursue research in social sciences will soon be able to get opportunities under a new Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry scheme for which the government plans to inject ₹414 crore in the next two years. The ministry also plans to pump in another ₹418 crore for another scheme which envisions collaborative research between top Indian and global institutions in the scientific domain, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said.

Javadekar on Thursday launched web portals for two schemes— Impactful Policy Research in Social Sciences scheme (IMPRESS) and Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC)—WITH an aim to build an ecosystem of research in educational institutions.

He said under IMPRESS, 1,500 research projects will be awarded for two years to support social science research. The Indian Council of Social Science and Research (ICSSR) will be the project implementing agency. The scheme will focus on areas such as state and democracy, media, culture and society, social media and technology among others.

“SPARC is a scheme for promotion of academic and research collaboration. Under the scheme, we are giving ₹418 crore for 600 joint research proposals. The idea is to stop brain drain and provide facilities...,” Javadekar said. Iit-khargapur is the national coordinating institute to implement the SPARC programme.

The research work under both the schemes will start from January next year, the minister said.

“For quality research infrastructure as well as funding is required...since the government is focusing on quality of research, I consider this a welcome step,” said former UGC member Inder Mohan Kapahy.

Responding to questions, Javadekar said the ministry was working on a scheme to bring in BA (Professional), BSC (Professional) and Bcom (Professional) courses under which additional vocational skills would be taught.