MHRD to spend Rs 200 cr on research in social science

New Delhi : The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) on Thursday launched a scheme here in which it will be spending Rs 200 crore for promoting research in social sciences.

The 'Impactful Policy Research in Social Science' (IMPRESS) will fund around 1,500 projects on merit basis and each will be allocated Rs 20-25 lakh.

The fund would be released in four phases, with the first batch being finalised by January 2019.

"Society cannot progress without progress in social sciences. Technology is very important... But technology is not life. Humanities has a great thing to do. This is a milestone development," HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said at a press conference.

The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) has been entrusted with the task of implementing and monitoring the scheme.

The Minister said that the research fund will be in addition to the extant annual grant of Rs 250 crore which is allocated by the government to the ICSSR.

The focus of the scheme will be on topics including State and Democracy, Urban Transformation, Media, Culture and Society, Law and Economics, among several others.