OMEO KUMAR DAS INSTITUTE

OF SOCIAL CHANGE AND

DEVELOPMENT

Brochure (2009)

OMEO KUMAR DAS INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL CHANGE

AND DEVELOPMENT(OKDISCD)
VIP ROAD
UPPER HENGRABARI
SIX MILE
GUWAHATI-36
Phone no.: 0361-2334209
Fax: 0361-2335206
Website: www.okd.in

1
 Governing Body of the Institute

Chairman
Professor Ashok Jain
Institute of Informatics and Communication
Delhi University, South Campus
New Delhi

Members

Member Secretary
Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi

Commissioner / Secretary
Planning and Development Department, Government of Assam

Commissioner / Secretary
Finance Department, Government of Assam

Secretary, North Eastern Council, Shillong

Vice Chancellor
Gauhati University, Guwahati

Vice Chancellor
Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar

Vice Chancellor
Assam University, Silchar

Professor Madhura Swaminathan

Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata

Professor Anuradha Dutta

Peace Studies, OKDISCD

Profesor Abu Nasar Saied Ahmed

OKDISCD

Professor Bhupen Sarmah

OKDISCD

Permanent Invitees

L. C. Jain, Former Member, Planning Commission, GOI

Bhaskar Barua, IAS, Former Agriculture Secretary, Government of India
Vice Chancellor, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh

Member Secretary
Professor Indranee Dutta, Director, OKDISCD
2
ABOUT THE INSTITUTE

Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development (OKDISCD) is a vision
turned reality for some of the most eminent academics of the entire Northeast. The
institute was established after a prolonged and strenuous effort of the academicians on
March 30, 1989 under the joint initiative of the Government of Assam and the Indian
Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi. OKDISCD is registered under
the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Formerly known as the Institute for Social Change
and Development, the Government of Assam renamed it after the first Education Minister
of Assam, Omeo Kumar Das in 1995 as a mark of respect towards him on his birth
centenary.

The Chief Minister of Assam, Sri Tarun Gogoi, laid the foundation stone of the Institute
on April 13, 2005 and inaugurated the building on February 20, 2009.

OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of the Institute are:

• Promoting and coordinating research on development issues of North East.

• Providing academic and professional guidance to agencies, institutions and

scholars engaged in research on social development issues.

• Acting as clearing house of ideas and information through periodic publications

and discussions, seminars, conferences and workshops.

• Collaborating with national and international agencies in conducting studies and

research on issues of critical importance to the region.

• Offering scholarships/fellowships to candidates from the North East in

furtherance of research in social sciences with particular reference to the region.

• Organizing programmes to impart advanced training to university and college

teachers.

• Conducting workshop and training programs for workers and functionaries of the
institutions of local self-government.

• Arranging lectures by eminent individuals and social scientists from time to time.

3
GOVERNANCE OF THE INSTITUTE

Governing Body

The Governing Body of the Institute is the decision-making authority with a tenure of
three years. It meets at least twice a year. A scholar of national/ international repute heads
the Governing Body as the Chairman. The period of the Chairman’s tenure is usually
three years, and is also extendable for another term.

Besides the Chairman, the Governing Body has 15 members comprising of the Vice-
Chancellor of Gauhati University, one Vice Chancellor from a University of Assam, one
Vice Chancellor from a University in the North East region other than the State of
Assam, two nominees each of ICSSR and Government of Assam, the Secretary to the
North Eastern Council (NEC), the Commissioner of Finance Department, Government of
Assam, and the Commissioner of Planning and Development Department, Government of
Assam, two senior Professors of the Institute and one representative of the Institute’s
Faculty staff. Director of the Institute is the Member Secretary of the Governing Body.
The Chairman presides over the proceedings of the Governing Body.

Professor Ashok Jain, C V Raman Chair Professor of Development Studies at Dr C V

Raman University and Vice President (Academic Development and Research), EMPI
Business School, Institute of Informatics and Communication, University of Delhi, who
is known for his contribution in popularizing science-social science interface, is the
present Chairman of the Institute.

Administration

The chief executive of the Institute is the Director. The Governing Body appoints the
Director for three years, which can be extended for another term. In the day-to-day
functioning of the Institute, the Director is assisted by an Administrative Officer and the
secretariat staff. The Director is also assisted by the Faculty of the Institute in matters
relating to academic and administrative functioning.

Funds And Budget Of The Institute

The Administrative and Finance Committee under the overall control of the Governing
Body oversees the funds and annual budgetary requirements of the Institute. The
Committee prepares the Annual Budget and the annual statement of accounts for
approval of the Governing Body. The Director is the Chairperson of the Administrative
Finance Committee.

The Institute’s annual budgetary requirement is primarily met by the annual grants from
the ICSSR and the Government of Assam. Besides, there are project based funding from
both Indian and foreign agencies. Apart from the annual grants in aid from the ICSSR
and the Govt. of Assam, the Institute has corpus grants. The first grant worth rupees one
crore from the Planning Commission of India supports the Institute’s research. Ford

4
Foundation has granted the second corpus worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
for establishing the Chair of Professor of Peace Studies.

The finances of the Institute are annually audited and reports are submitted both to the
ICSSR and the Government of Assam.

ACADEMIC THRUST OF THE INSTITUTE

The Academic Programme Committee of the Institute comprising of scholars from

different fields of Social Sciences and the members of the Institute’s Faculty finalize the
annual research and other academic programmes. It examines the research proposals and
finalizes the academic calendar of the Institute in consultation with the Faculty.

PRIMARY MANDATE

Research

The primary mandate of the Institute is to conduct research in issues of critical concern
for social and economic development of North East region of India. Keeping in view the
major social issues concerning the region, the Institute has identified the following thrust
areas of research.

 Regional Economy
 Education and Health
 Population, Resources and Livelihood
 Women and Empowerment
 Environment
 Local Governance and Planning
 Ethnicity and Politics
 South-East Asian Studies
 Peace Studies
 Look East Policy

5
MAJOR PROGRAMMES

Junior Research Fellowship Programme (JRF)

The JRF programme, initiated in 1993 offers scope to young scholars from the region to
develop their skills in research work. JRF programme has been restructured into a
Certificate Course on Development Studies with financial support from the ICSSR since
the year 2007. Under this Certificate Course every year 10 to 15 young researchers are
selected as Junior Research Fellows for a period of one year with a monthly stipend of
Rs.6000.

This pre-doctoral Certificate Course is structured into a semester programmethe first

semester with course work and second semester for dissertation. A total of five courses
are offered to the selected fellows. Amongst the five courses, two courses viz. Research
Methodology and Regional Development are compulsory. There are three optional
courses and a fellow has to choose one course out of three optional courses depending on
her/his individual choice and preference. The three currently offered optional courses are
(i) Health, Education and Social Security, (ii) Ethnicity and Governance, and (iii)
Agriculture and Food Security.

The course work of the programme involves regular lectures and assignments including
presentations by the students. With specific focus on the northeastern region of India, this
course is essentially designed to give a comprehensive idea about contemporary issues in
development studies. Students are introduced not only to the theoretical debates but also
the tools of analysis. The courses are being regularly updated and in the coming years we
look forward to the introduction of more innovative contents.

Research Methodology Course

A course on “Research Methodology in Development Studies” is conducted annually for

a period of 15 days in which 20-25 prospective Ph D candidates or young college and
university teachers participate. The basic idea of the course is to make young scholars
from the region familiar with the tools and techniques of research, besides acquainting
them with the latest trends and thoughts in development studies. Apart from formal
lectures, the course includes first-hand field training in survey and participatory research
methods.

In addition to this, short-term capsule courses are also run for three days on ‘How to
write research proposals’ and ‘How to write research reports’. While the Research
Methodology Course is usually held in the month of January, the capsule courses are
usually held in June and September.

Computer Application Course

At least one computer application course is conducted every year for college/university
teachers and research scholars. It is one of the most popular courses of the Institute. The

6
course deals with the specialised data processing and analysing software and has a
pragmatic approach where starting from questionnaire coding to tabulation is dealt with
at length.

Ph.D. Fellowship Programme

The ICSSR has placed three Ph. D. Fellowships at the Institute. This programme is tied
up with the Dibrugarh University and Gauhati University, which have recognized the
Institute as a research centre for the purposes of doctoral programme. Of the three
Fellowships, one is meant for the in-service teachers with pay protection facility. This
programme can be availed by aspirants holding a postgraduate degree with UGC norms
and qualifying NET /JRF examinations. At present the fellowship amount is Rs.6000 per
month. So far the Institute has offered this fellowship to seven Ph.D scholars. Two
scholars completed their Ph.D. under the programme.

Training programmes
Training programmes of varied nature, depending upon the requirements of the cliental
groups is conducted. One of the most sought after training programmes of the Institute is
the Training of Grassroots and Panchayat Functionaries. The Institute’s specialized
module involving PLA and PRA technique has proved to be effective. The Institute has
been regularly conducting this programme across all the States of the region.

Data Consultancy

The ICSSR has recognized the institute as one of the data consultancy centers for young
research scholars. Under the ICSSR Financial Assistance Scheme, scholars can avail this
consultancy services for which they should apply to the ICSSR directly. Individual
scholars, however, come on their own availing this service.

LECTURES

The Institute organizes an annual lecture every year in the month of March to celebrate
the Foundation Day of the Institute. Journalist M S Prabhakara delivered the first
foundation day lecture. The other series of lecture Professor Atul Goswami Memorial
Lecture is held in the month of June in remembrance and honour of Late Professor Atul
Goswami, former Director of the Institute. Professor Atul Sharma, former Director of
Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi and Vice-Chancellor of Arunachal University (later
known as Rajiv Gandhi University), delivered the first Lecture in 2005. These lectures
are published annually.

Apart from the regular annual lectures, special lectures are held on issues of historical
and social importance. To mark the completion of two hundred years of India’s freedom
struggle, the Institute organized a special lecture on ‘Empire and Nation Today’ by Prof.
Partha Chatterjee, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata.

7
SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS

Seminars and workshops on myriad issues are organised by the Institute with an aim to
provide an edifying platform for brainstorming over contemporary social issues and
concerns. These are organized all over the Northeastern region in collaboration with
various local universities, colleges and departments.

Some of our collaborative partner organizations are National Foundation for India (NFI),
National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH), Japan Foundation, Indian
Council for Research in International Economic Relations (ICRIER), Ministry of
External Affairs (MEA), and UNICEF.

LIBRARY

OKDISCD library has a collection of more than 14000 books, 100 theses/dissertations
and 1100 reports, 1500 documentation including census, non-book materials like
Cassettes, CD_ROM Databases, and Maps etc. In addition to these, it has a collection of
1600 micro documents such as working papers, discussion papers, seminar papers,
monographs, and occasional papers and 1000 reports. There are 60 regularly subscribed
national and international journals besides the JSTOR online archive and six magazines.
It receives over 500 newsletters/bulletins from various research and academic
institutions, government agencies and overseas. The government publications available
areCMIE, Census, NSSO, World Bank, RBI etc.

The library is fully computerized and maintains bibliographic and dictionary databases
under the SOUL and CDS/ISIS network system. The Library has institutional
subscription to indiastate.com.

Membership

Membership fee is nominal and subsidized for student scholars and researchers. The fee
structure for library membership is as follows:

Categories of readers Per month Per Year

A. Student/ Research Scholar & Others (Without Rs. 50.00 Rs. 250.00
Fellowship)
B. Student/ Research Scholar & Institutions (With Rs. 100.00 Rs. 500.00
Fellowship)
C. College, University Teacher, Salaried Research Rs. 200.00 Rs.1000.00
Scholar

The library has been catering the needs of research scholars from the region and the
online JSTOR has been especially helpful for the scholars.

8
COMPUTER LABORATORY

The computer lab at present has fifteen computers and twenty are connected to individual
faculty and research associates. All the computers run on cable and Wi-Fi LAN. The lab
has a centralized UPS and power back-up system. Two high-speed Internet connections
with one having dedicated IP for accessing secured electronic databases and resources are
also available. The lab has acquired comprehensive GIS set up with the financial support
of ICSSR. The GIS unit is equipped with
• One dedicated Xeon Workstation with high graphics ability
• One quad processor based high end PC
• One 44 inch broad format Contex Scanner
• One 44 inch broad Canon Plotter
• One high graphics ability Notepad
• One GRAMIN 76CSX GPS system with antenna

The lab is also equipped with specialised licence software like ArcGIS 9.3 with 3D
analyst, Image Processing Software like ENVI 4.6 with DEM extraction module,
Statistical Packages like SPSS 13.0, STATA9, Origin and EPiINFO.

CONFERENCE HALL

The A/C Conference Hall has a decked out structure with U-shaped sitting arrangement
accommodating 80 persons, 42″ Plasma T.V, LCD projector, white board, Chairman-
Delegate microphone system with recording facilities, video-recording facility, and back-
up genset. The hall is open to other organizations for holding conferences, seminars,
symposia etc for various purposes.

GUEST HOUSE

The institute has its own guesthouse facility for accommodating 18 persons at a time and
the in-house canteen caters to the need of the guesthouse whenever required.

PUBLICATIONS

The Institute has been publishing its various studies, seminar proceedings regularly for
wider dissemination. Currently, it has five sets of publications - Books, Working Papers,
Project Report Series, Journal and Newsletter.

Books

The Institute has published number of books. Most of these books are results of research
studies conducted by the Faculty members of the Institute. Besides, the presentations
made at the seminars organized by the Institute are published as edited volumes. The
books deal with a range of burning issues like national security, election politics, conflict
and peace in North East India, the socio-political movements, Panchayati Raj, health and
gender issues.

9
Working Papers

Working Papers are periodic publications of the Institute. So far the Institute has
published several Working Papers.

Project Report Series

Project Report Series are occasional publications of the Institute. These embody the
findings of major research projects done by the Institute. This series is meant for wider
publicity and dissemination of the findings of the projects undertaken by the Institute.

Journal

The Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development has been bringing out
a research journal entitled Social Change and Development since 2002. The purpose of
the journal has been to provide a platform for scholars working on the northeastern region
as also to disseminate facts and analyses relating to the socio-economic and political
scenario of the Northeast among the broader academic community of the country. In the
last few years the journal has attained a large measure of acceptability in the academic
circles and it is now being proposed to give it in a new thrust by focusing on major issues
relating to the process of participatory democracy in the northeastern region and the
challenges being faced by it, and also by widening its reach and ensuring its regularity of
publication.

Newsletter

The institute publishes its newsletter twice a year, in the months of June and December.

FACULTY

Abu Nasar Saied Ahmed, Ph.D

Professor
Fields of specialization: Political Theories, International Relations and American Foreign
Policy.

Indranee Dutta, Ph.D.

Professor
Fields of specialization: Education, Health and Gender Studies

Bhupen Sarmah, Ph.D.

Professor
Fields of specialization: Panchayati Raj, Ethnicity and Politics

10
Kalyan Das, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Fields of specialization: Labour and Livelihood.

Saswati Choudhury, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Fields of specialization: Banking, Finance and Credit.

Joydeep Baruah, M.A.

Assistant Professor
Fields of specialization: Regional Development and Policy Analysis, Data Programming,
and GIS

VISITING FACULTY

So far, seven such scholars belonging to various social science disciplines have served as
Visiting Faculty.

• Late Dr. B.N. Bordoloi, former Director, Tribal Research Institute, Assam (1995-
96)
• Professor Amar Singh Yumnam, Manipur University (1995-97)
• Professor A.C. Talukdar, Arunachal University (1996-98)
• Professor J.B. Ganguly, former Vice-Chancellor, Tripura University (1997-2000)
• Dr. Gurudas Das, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong (2000-2001)
• Dr. Anil Saikia, Principal Moran College (2001-2002)
• Professor Partha S. Ghosh, Director, Indian Council of Social Science Research,
New Delhi
(July 2003 to July 2006).

CHAIRPERSONS OF THE INSTITUTE

• Shri L C Jain,
Ex-member of the Planning commission of India and India’s former High
Commissioner to South Africa.
Tenure: March 1991-January 2000

• Professor Mrinal Miri.

Eminent Scholar, former Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies,
Shimla and Former Vice-Chancellor of North Eastern Hill University, Shillong
Tenure: February 2000-February 2005

11
 • Professor Ashok Jain.
C V Raman Chair Professor of Development Studies at Dr C V Raman
University, Vice President (Academic Development and Research), EMPI
Business School, Institute of Informatics and Communication, University of
Delhi.
Tenure: March 2005-till date

DIRECTORS

1. Professor Annada Charan Bhagabati (June 1992 to November 1993)

2. Professor Mohammed Taher (Acting Director from November 1993 to March
1994)
3. Late Professor Atul Goswami (March 1994-March 2000)
4. Professor Abu Nasar Saied Ahmed (March 2000-March 2006)
5. Professor Indranee Dutta (March 2006 till date)

Before Prof. Bhagabati took over as the first Director of the Institute in 1992, Shri
Bhaskar Baruah, the then Commissioner, Planning and Development Department, Govt.
of Assam was in charge as the Administrative Head of the Institute.

----------------------

12