HYDERABAD: The Council for Social Development (CSD) on Saturday organised a brainstorming session on social development and the need to strengthen social sciences in the State. Vice-chairman of the State Planning Board, B Vinod Kumar, was the chief guest at the event.
Speaking at the event, Vinod Kumar expressed concern over the weakening of the social sciences and reiterated his support to strengthen social science programmes and institutions. He said there is a need to universalise education and healthcare access from the primary to the tertiary level. He said that social scientists must ensure just governance through their research and recommendations.
CSD’s director, Professor Kalpana Kannabiran, said the think tank’s Telangana Social Development Reports were an important contribution to the State’s planning process. She outlined the scope of research undertaken by CSD over the past decade, supported by annual grants-in-aid from the State, funding from the Indian Council for Social Science Research and a corpus grant from the RBI.
She also offered support to research scholars from State universities, doctoral supervision and research capacity building. Professor G Haragopal spoke about the threat faced by the social sciences in the country. Professor D Narasimha Reddy stated that a small institute such as CSD had produced a significant body of research, focusing on critical areas of marginality and social vulnerability.