The Institute conducted a ten-day training programme on “Research Methodology in Social Science” from January 4–14, 2022. The programme was sponsored by ICSSR and coordinated by Dr Satyaki Roy, Associate Professor, ISID. Dr K Seenaiah, Assistant Professor, ISID was the co-cordinator. The course was designed to provide an in-depth coverage of research methods in social science research to familiarise the participants on various research methods and perspectives pertaining to contemporary social science research. Prof Nagesh Kumar, Director, ISID while inaugurating the course shared some brief initial remarks about the Institute and also the purpose of the course. This programme broadly covered the themes relating to quantitative and qualitative techniques along with data preparation, empirical analysis, and academic writing and reporting. The aim was to reach out to the young scholars of social science research, enrolled in MPhil/PhD/PDF programmes across the country in recognised national and state level research institutes/universities. Out of the 127 applications received, 47 participants were selected given their areas of interest and also considering gender, and regional and disciplinary representations. The course was conducted through online mode due to the pandemic situation but for the same reason we could accommodate some more interested participants than being done in normal times. The resource persons who delivered lectures in this course are experts in their respective fields, belonging to reputed institutions and central universities across India including JNU; Delhi University; Ambedkar University Delhi; IIT Delhi; Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram; Centre for Policy Research, Delhi; and, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. In total, 30 lectures were delivered by external and internal experts covering the following broad themes: (a) conceptual issues on social science research, (b) emerging areas in social science research and growing importance of new issues, (c) databases and technical aspects of research methods and quantitative and qualitative techniques, and (d) how to write report or publish research work in peer-reviewed journals and ethics of academic writing. The course was well-attended and the participants from across the country got an opportunity to interact with the experts on various issues. Finally, the evaluation was done on the basis of brief presentations by the participants and on their engagement in lectures captured digitally on online platforms. On the closing day, the valedictory lecture was delivered by Prof Nagesh Kumar, Director, ISID, who highlighted the broad issues and concerns of industrialisation in India. This was followed by a lecture on issues and challenges in social science research delivered by Prof V K Malhotra, Member Secretary, ICSSR. The participants at the end shared their positive and encouraging feedback about how the course contributed to augmenting their knowledge of theory and techniques and expressed their wish to join such course at ISID in future.
