Social Research Gets A Boost: Union Government Allocates Rs 832 Crore For IMPRESS And SPARC Programmes 

The government has allocated Rs 832 crore for the expansion of two projects which promote research and innovation in social sciences, The New Indian Express has reported . Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar announced the new schemes on Thursday (October 25).

Impactful Policy Research in Social Sciences (IMPRESS) scheme will receive Rs 414 crore and the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) will get Rs 418 crore over next two years, the minister announced.

Academics in the area of social sciences from India will benefit from the launch of two web portals which will facilitate collaborations in research projects among academics. Prakash Javadekar assured that projects proposed would be selected for funding in an impartial manner.

However, applicants have to be from Indian institutes which rank in the top 100 of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) list or the top 100 of the NIRF subject ranking to apply for these grants.

The projects funded through IMPRESS will focus on multiple areas such as state and democracy, urban transformation, media culture and society, employment skills and rural transformation, governance innovation and public policy, agriculture and rural development, social media and society, politics law and economics.

The government also hopes to encourage research collaborations between Indian and foreign universities through SPARC.