Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics

Infobox University
name = Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics


motto = Education: An Ennobling Influence
established = 1930
type = Public
Academic Term = Semester
Courses Offered= MA (Economics), MPhil (Economics), PhD (Economics)
Academic Year = August - July
free_label = Director
free = Ajit Sinha
city = Pune
country = India
affiliations = UGC
campus = Urban
website= [http://www.gipe.ernet.in www.gipe.ernet.in]

The Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), commonly known as Gokhale Institute, is one of the oldest research and training institutes in Economics in India. It is located on BMCC Road in the Deccan Gymkhana area of Pune, Maharashtra – the city often termed as the Oxford of the East.

History

The Institute was founded on June 6, 1930 by late Shri R R Kale as a centre for research and higher learning in economics. The Institute was founded with an endowment offered to the Servants of India Society by Shri R R Kale. The Servants of India Society, a registered body founded by the nationalist leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915), are the trustees of the Institute. The Institute is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950.

The Institute was set up with an objective to conduct research on the economic and political problems of India and to train research workers in these disciplines. Professor Dhananjaya Rao Gadgil, a renowned scholar and visionary, was the first Director of the Institute. Under his leadership, the institution laid the foundation for research, teaching and training in different branches of economics. From those days it has evolved into a premiere institute for advanced study in economics boasting of faculty and alumni who have distinguished themselves nationally and internationally as academicians, policy makers and consultants.

Research

The major research areas of the Institute, developed over the years through financial assistance from various sources, are: Agricultural Economics, Population Studies, Economic History, Input-output analysis for planning and development, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Monetary Economics, Financial Economics, Public Economics, International Economics and the study of economics of East European countries.

In the early years, the research activities were financed through assistance from various ministries and public funding agencies including the Government of Maharashtra and private foundations like the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. In 1954, the Union Ministry of Food and Agriculture established the Agro-Economic Research Centre of the Institute. During the early fifties, the Rockefeller Foundation made a substantial grant, spread over years, for the conduct of a research programme in rural demography. The Union Ministry of Health also gave grants for conducting some specific demographic studies in 1954-57; and in 1964, the Ministry decided to strengthen and expand the research work on population by financing on a continuing basis a Population Research Centre as an integral part of the Institute. Ford Foundation gave a very generous financial assistance for more than a decade beginning with the year 1956. Later on, the Ford Foundation, in co-operation with the Planning Commission, provided a separate grant for research and training in the areas of planning and development, mainly devoted to input-output studies. In 1962, the University Grants Commission recognised the Institute as a Centre of Advanced Study in Agricultural Economics to start with and later, in 1964, as a Centre of Advanced Study in Economics. In 1977, the UGC, as a part of its Area Studies Programme, established at the Institute a Centre of Study of Economics of East European Countries. In the same year, the Reserve Bank of India instituted a Chair in Finance at the Institute.

Teaching

Although GIPE was primarily a research institute, it was recognized as an institution for higher learning in the field of economics, and it awarded MA, MPhil and PhD degrees in Economics under recognition from the University of Bombay from 1930 to 1949. With the establishment of the University of Pune in 1949, GIPE became a constituent recognized institution of the University of Pune until 1993. Keeping in view its professional standing and scope for further development, the Government of India, on recommendation of the University Grants Commission, declared GIPE as ‘Deemed University’ from May 9, 1993. With the grant of this status, the Institute now awards its own MA, MPhil and PhD degrees in economics. The Deemed University status allows the syllabi to be updated regularly in line with the domestic and international developments in Economics and related fields. The Institute was accredited it with A+ (grade) (score 90-95%) for a period of five years by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council on, and with effect from January 08, 2004.

Academic Programmes

The mainstay of the Institute is its MA Programme in Economics, which is acknowledged as one of the best in the country. Though the Institute offered the M Phil Programme for about a decade (1978-89), it discontinued the same, perhaps to devote better attention to the MA Programme and the research projects. The PhD Programme, started right from the inception of the Institute, still continues with a highly selective intake and hence a limited output. Several batches of students have been awarded the MA degrees and more than 165 students have obtained their doctoral degrees in different branches of economics since the inception of the Institute.

The goal of the Institute —to conduct research into the economic and political problems of India and train research workers in these subjects— has been reconceptualised over years so as to confine the activities of the Institute to teaching and research in Economics alone, leaving aside the political problems of India. However, the applied and empirical research into Indian economic problems and policy evaluations indirectly encompass the political dimensions as well.

The curricular content of the ongoing MA Economics Programme offers a blend of core and applied optional courses. The student-faculty ratio is 3:1 for the MA Programme. The Institute offers an option of undertaking a Master’s Thesis as one of its subject credits. Thesis course at the MA level is unique to the Institute; established with an aim to sharpen the research skills of students and enabling them to put their theoretical knowledge to practical use. The Institute also provides a one-year diploma computer programme to provide training on various econometric packages.

Publications

The Institute publishes a quarterly journal of economics in English, Artha Vijnana, the first publication of which was made in March 1959. This journal publishes results of research work carried out in the Institute as well as works of scholars from outside the Institute after a refereeing process. The Institute also publishes research works in the form of books and mimeograph series. The Kale Memorial Lecture, organised by the Institute every year on the occasion of the Founder's Day, is published under the Kale Memorial Lecture Series. Over 70 lectures have been delivered under this Lecture Series, and the list of speakers includes such prominent figures as: B R Ambedkar, John Mathai, P C Mahalanobis, V.K.R.V. Rao, K N Raj, V M Dandekar, I G Patel, Andre Beteille, Manmohan Singh, Amresh Bagchi, Jagdish Bhagwati, C Rangarajan and A P J Abdul Kalam. All the Kale Memorial Lectures delivered at the Gokhale Institute are published, and most of the Lectures' Text can be found on JSTOR (Journal Storage - an online archive for academic journals made available to researchers through participating libraries and institutions).

This is a List of Kale Memorial Lectures held at Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics since 1937 .

Campus

The Institute has a serene and beautiful campus of 5.25 acres and is located in the urban setting of Pune in Deccan Gymkhana area. The residential campus of the Institute comprising faculty and staff houses, guest houses, and the student dormitories, is built on a separate plot of 5.39 acres, a few metres away from the Institute. There are two hostels, one for boys and another for girls. Adequate hostel accommodation is available for the existing students. The girls’ hostel was designed by the famous architect and urban planner Christopher Charles Benninger during 1996-1998.

The Institute campus is a mélange of old and new buildings spread over a large and lush green area. It provides just the right sylvan, solitary and peaceful setting required for learning and researching. After having undergone a recent landscaping, the campus attracts many a visitors as well. The campus constitutes of an academic block, faculty block, administration block, seminar hall and the Dhananjaya Rao Gadgil Library. There is a conference hall, known as Kale Memorial Hall, on the top floor of the Library which is used by the Institute and also let out to others on rent. The austere and majestic buildings radiate the old charm characteristic of the Pune city. On the Fergusson Hill behind the Institute lies the spot where Gokhale took the vows of the Servants of India Society – poverty, obedience, and service to nation - and administered them to three others. It has become a landmark because of the erection of a column there. Gokhale’s bungalow still stands in the precincts of the campus. A massive and graceful banyan tree adds to the charm of the place. This is said to be the tree under which Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Mahatma Gandhi (who regarded Gokhale as his political guru) used to muse over political issues in their times. The residential campus of the GIPE too, is set in the midst of lush greenery and gives the place a uniquely quaint contour, especially in the rains.

Library

The Dhananjaya Rao Gadgil Library was established in 1905 as a public library under the aegis of Servants of India Society with late Gopal Krishna Gokhale as one of its founding members. With the establishment of GIPE in 1930, the Library has started to act as the library of the Institute. Presently the Library is housed in a majestic four-storey building, which is a rare combination of colonial and modern architecture. Besides, some of the Library collections are also housed in a separate building inside the campus of the Institute.

The Library has one of the largest collections of social science documents in India. The total collection exceeds 2.5 lakhs of books and 470 national and international journals. It has a large number of publications on Economics and all allied social science subjects and successfully caters to the needs of scholars, academicians, policy makers and other users working in social science subjects in India and abroad. Though attached to GIPE, the library extends membership to outsiders also and thereby performs the dual function of an academic and a public library as well.

The Library is a depository library of the publications of the United Nations and its agencies, the World Bank, the European Economic Community, the International Monetary Fund, and the Government of Canada. The Library possesses quite a large number of rare books published before the advent of twentieth century and which may not be available elsewhere. The oldest book in the Library dates back to 1680. Besides, there are quite a few hundred books which were published during the 18th and 19th centuries.

References

* cite web
title = Annual Report 2005-06
url = http://www.gipe.ernet.in/pdfs/annual%20reports/AR2005-2006.pdf
accessdate = 2007-11-01|format=PDF
* cite web
title = NAAC Rating
url = http://naacindia.org/Universities.asp?state=14#
accessdate = 2007-11-01
* cite web
last = Arora
first = RK
title = Technocity Pune
date = 2000-01-14
url = http://www.cdac.in/html/press/archives/jtmn00/spot12.asp
accessdate = 2007-11-01
* cite web
title = Christopher Charles Benninger's Projects
url = http://ccbarch.com/proj_chronology.htm
accessdate = 2007-11-01

External links

* [http://www.gipe.ernet.in/ Official Website]
* [http://www.gipe.ernet.in/lib/default.html Dhananjaya Rao Gadgil Library]
* [http://www.gipe.ernet.in/map.asp Map to Campus]
* [http://www.gipe.ernet.in/alumnifinal/alumnihome.html Gokhale Institute Alumni]
* [http://www.gipe.ernet.in/activities.asp Student Activities and Placements]