Book Diary 3. This rather thick volume(631 pages ) 'Social Science Research in India' published by OUP in 2017 will be of interest to those who are interested in the status of higher education and research in India with particular focus on social science. One of the editors, Samar Verma gifted me a copy in February when I met him in Delhi and it took me few months of installment reading to complete the book.
The book has thirteen chapters with substantive data and provides an excellent overview about the state of social science research India, discussing all aspects from social science infrastructure, research output ,quality, funding to the need for a coherent social science research policy in India. From disciplines such as Economics and Law to sociology, political science, education and a whole range of interdisciplinary studies, the arena of social science research is rather wide and in many sense dispersed.
At a time when social science studies in general and social science research in particular is facing considerable challenges due to internal institutional factors, and external political context ( where lots of obscurantism of neo-conservative Hindutva variety is passed on as 'research' of a imaginative past rather than high quality research for the future). The situation of both quality research in science, technology or social science is rather bleak in India when compared to the developed countries in the world. Without investment in Research and Development in Social Science, Science and Technology, it will be difficult for an emerging economy to move to the next phase of sustainable economic growth and development. When compared to other Asian countries such as Japan, Singapore, South Korea, China, Thailand, the situation of Research and Development in India needs substantial investment and broad policy framework to be on par with countries in Asia and elsewhere.
At a time when social science studies in general and social science research in particular is facing considerable challenges due to internal institutional factors, and external political context ( where lots of obscurantism of neo-conservative Hindutva variety is passed on as 'research' of a imaginative past rather than high quality research for the future). The situation of both quality research in science, technology or social science is rather bleak in India when compared to the developed countries in the world. Without investment in Research and Development in Social Science, Science and Technology, it will be difficult for an emerging economy to move to the next phase of sustainable economic growth and development. When compared to other Asian countries such as Japan, Singapore, South Korea, China, Thailand, the situation of Research and Development in India needs substantial investment and broad policy framework to be on par with countries in Asia and elsewhere.
I read several books simultaneously. Mostly during my travels as my most quality reading happens at the airports and while flying ( which constitute significant part of my time). I began reading this book in February, usually one chapter at a time as I was reading five books simultaneously. As a student of social science and as a researcher of public policy, governance and development, this book was indeed useful for me to get a general overview of the Social Science Research In India. And the situation is rather depressing which also results in considerable brain-drain wherein most well known Indian scholars are often based in Universities elsewhere, though there are few good exceptions ( mostly confined to few centres) in India as well.
This book is edited by two of my good friends Sukhadeo Thorat ( former chairperson of UGC and ICSSR) and Samar Verma (in charge of the Think Tank initiative of IDRC, Canada). This book is a result of the research by Indian Council of Social Science Research in collaboration with the Think Tank Initiative of IDRC. This book is a result of the collective research output of 33 social science scholars across India and also with the advice of some of the top practitioners of social science research in India. The book gives a detailed analysis of status, issues and policies of Social Science Research in India.
What does the book tell ?. The quantity of Social Science Research has increased , though there is hardly any improvement in the quality. The funding for the social science research in India is pathetic. Though the bulk of Social Science Research institutions are in the state Universities, state governments only allocate only 84 crores, accounting for only 17 percent. Even at the union government, social science research gets a mere 0.025 percent of union budget ,when compared to 0.86 percent for science'. In fact the allocation for social science as well as science' research are the lowest among BRICS Countries and nowhere near the developed countries. There is a correlations between budget allocation and research output , development of knowledge, Science and technology and more Sustainable economic Growth. It is here that India is lagging behind.
There are 740 universities in India .Out of this 46(6 percent) are central universities.342 are state Universities and 35 are deemed Universities. The big shift happening is that 227( 37 percent) are private Universities. There are another 90 private deemed Universities (12 percent). This means 46 percent of our higher education system is private . This also means only those in the higher income category can afford to pay very high fees in these Universities where more than 90 percent of people of India can't afford them.
Out of 740 Universities, only 486 Universities offer 2042 social science departments, mostly in the discipline of econmics, law, education and History. What is interesting is that there is a substantial increase in the output. Over a period of ten years 7235 books and 22309 articles are published. This increase has something to do with UGC norms for promotions and also accreditation.
But the problem is that while output has increased, quality has gone down. In terms of scholarly citation, the situation is pathetic. With 61 percent of output has zero citation.And even in the rest of 39 percent, 85 percent has mere one citation. Another interesting point is that 2031 social science journals. This means every single department published a journal. Untill 1990 there were only 427 journals and 1343 were added in the last ten years. So it is clear that more than 90 percent of publications which hardly snyone read is simply meant for promotions and accreditation as per the norms of UGC. This also means hardly 10 percentage of research out is of some value. This is also evident from the PhD output as most of them are for the sake of promotions and for namesake with hardly any quality. It is also interesting to note that largest number of PhDs are produced in UP, followed by Delhi.
Overall the status, quality and funding of Social Science Research is depressing. Except few central Universities ( JNU, Hyderabad etc) and few other instutions ( National Law School , Bangalore, TISS , CDS Trivandrum and ICSSR supported few institutions), the general situation of social science research , particularly in terms of quality, is rather depressing.
This is also one of the reasons that some of the best Social Science researchers choose to work outside India and rather in India. Though there are indeed some of the very good social science researchers who chose to be based in India, they themselves face uphill challenges in terms of funding and facilities for research.
This is also one of the reasons that some of the best Social Science researchers choose to work outside India and rather in India. Though there are indeed some of the very good social science researchers who chose to be based in India, they themselves face uphill challenges in terms of funding and facilities for research.
A significant number of very good social science researchers are now based in Private Universities. Many university such as Jindal Global University, Azim Premji University, Askoka University provide better facilities and support for social science research than most of the state universities and central universities. However, the major challenge is that only those from the economically well-off strata can afford to study in these universities. Despite number of excellent scholars in these private universities, these universities often end up as 'gated knowledge communities' of the students from a particular class and caste background, which will in the long run may also affect the 'class' charterer of social science researchers in India.
If you note most of chief economic advisers of the government are based outside India. The situation also leads to cumulative brain-drain where the top researchers go to universities in UK, US or elsewhere. This has also implications for public policy formulations for which high quality social science research is indispensable.
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