The 19th Annual Conference
The 19th Annual Conference of the Indian Association of Social Science Institutions will be held during 11-13 January 2019 at the National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR), Hyderabad, India. The conference will be organized in collaboration with the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad. Professor Yoginder K. Alagh, Chancellor, Central University of Gujarat and former Union Minister is the conference President. Dr. Gyanmudra, Professor & Head, Centre for Human Resource Development, NIRD&PR is the Local Organizing Secretary of the Conference.
13th Tarlok Singh Memorial Lecture
The 13th Tarlok Singh Memorial lecture will be delivered by Dr. Y.V. Reddy, Former RBI Governor. In the lecture he is expected to focus on contemporary social and economic issues.
Some recent events organized in the past:
The 18th Annual Conference
The 18th Annual Conference of the Association was organized during 3-5 December 2017 in Guntur. The conference was jointly organized by the Acharya Nagarjuna University and the Centre for Economic and Social Science Studies (CESS), Hyderabad. Professor R. Radhakrishna, Chairman, Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, was the conference President and Professor M. Koteswar Rao, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, was the Local Organizing Secretary of the Conference.
The broad theme was “Inclusive Development: Perspectives and Policies”. The event hosted more than 80 paper presentations with participation from Indian and international scholars.
The event was presided over by Prof. V. N. Pandit Former Vice Chancellor, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, who also delivered the inaugural address. Presidential Address was delivered by Professor R. Radhakrishna wherein he argued that the present pattern of development comprising high growth, slow expansion of productive employment and worsening inequalities is not inclusive and may lead to social discord in the long term. This may ultimately act as a barrier to high growth. The institutional development discussed in the address suggests a pathway to inclusive growth. He advocated that the conscious efforts should be made to eliminate barriers to inclusive growth, and macro-economic policies should be aligned with inclusive growth.
The 12th Tarlok Singh Memorial Lecture
The 12th Tarlok Singh Memorial Lecture, 2017, was delivered by Prof. D Narasimha Reddy, Former Professor and Dean, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad on the topic “Epistemic, Ethical and Value Questions in Social Sciences: The Past Experience and the Present Challenges”. The lecture presented worrying state of higher education in general and social sciences in particular. The tendency has been more towards system rationalization than pursuit of knowledge with the public or social purpose. An attempt has been made with reference to Economics to show how these tendencies had evolved historically by sacrificing ethics and values in the name of objective rational science. There has been declining public support more so under the neoliberal regime. The role of social scientists as public intellectuals becomes essential to learn from the public as much as sharing knowledge with the public. The enhancement of public value of social sciences lies in the ability in interacting with the public that would have reason to value social science research.