Әллахабад университетінің әлеуметтік ғылымдар институты

Research institute at Allahabad University

The Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute (GBPSSI) is a research institute located in Jhusi in Prayagraj district of India. It is one of the 14 institutes establishments in India established by Indian Council of Social Science and Research. Established in 1980 as one in the network of Social Science Research Institutes, which the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) set up in association with the state governments, the institute entered privileges of the University of Allahabad in 2005. The institute undertakes interdisciplinary research in the field of social sciences. The main areas of research at the Institute include development planning and policy, environment, health and population, human development, rural development and management, culture, power and change, democracy and institutions. Historian and cultural anthropologist Professor Badri Narayan is the director of the institute.

The G. B. Pant Samajik Vigyan Sansthan (Social Science Institute) was set up at the initiative of the government of Uttar Pradesh. Pd. Kamalapati Tripathi, the then chief minister of UP wrote a letter to Shri S. Nurul Hasan, Education Minister, Government of India, in 1972, expressing the desire of the government of UP to set up an Institute for Social Science Research at Allahabad (Prayagraj). The proposal was backed by two subsequent chief ministers of the state. The government of India subsequently constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Prof S. Chakravarty, Member, Planning Commission, to work out the details. The committee recommended in 1975 that a non recurring grant in aid of Rs. 50 lakh be made to the institute, to be shared equally by the ICSSR and the GoUP, and a recurring grant of Rs. 10 lakh be made to the Institute per year, to be shared equally by the iCSSR and the GoUP. On the recommendation of the Chakravarty committee, the government of India decided in 1975 to approve the request of the UP government to set up an Institute in Allahabad in collaboration with the Central government. It was decided that the proposed Institute would be supported under the grants in aid scheme of the ICSSR for financial assistance to Research Institutes doing research in the field of social sciences. It was further decided that the government of India and the UP government would provide funds to the institute on a matching basis. This recommendation was accepted in principle by both the ICSSR and the GoUP. The Indian Council for Social Science Research started providing funds to the Institute starting from 1976 to 1977. Subsequently, the Government of Uttar Pradesh took a decision to fund the institute on a matching basis from 1979 to 1980 and an initial grant of Rupees one lakh was made to the Institute in July 1979. The institute was registered as a society in the year 1980 by representatives of the government of UP, the central government, and the ICSSR. Prof. A. D. Pant, became the director of the institute after it became a registered entity in 1980, succeeding Prof. S. C. Dube who was director of the institute up to 1979. The institute became a constituent institute of the University of Allahabad, after the university became a central university in July 2005. Its structure and its relationship with the University of Allahabad is now governed by the ordinances of the university. Specifically, Ordinance XXXIV of the University of Allahabad lays down the basic structure of the constituent institutes of the university. The central government also decided to fund the institute through the UGC and the University of Allahabad.

The campus is situated on the National Highway No. 2, also called the famous G. T. Road (also linking Allahabad to Varanasi). It is about 10 km. from Allahabad Junction Railway station and 1 km. from Triveni Sangam. The institute has a campus spread over 10 acres. It has its own water supply system. As a supportive measure for uninterrupted power supply, the institute has installed a 62.5 KVA electricity generator.

The institute has a library that serves as a national collection of books, archival material, journals and recent documentation for studies and research and development, management and ethnography. It has over 50,000 books, archival material and documentation of studies and research in almost all social science disciplines and subscribes to 150 national and international journals. The library has access to INFLIBNET.

The only postgraduate professional course apart from research courses (Ph. D./M. Phil/D. Phil/and Various Fellowships) offered by the institute is the two year full time Masters of Business Administration Rural Development, MBA (RD) which was initiated in 2001.

Mode of Admission to this institute is only by completing an entrance exam organized by the University of Allahabad.

In 2020, the government of Uttar Pradesh created the "Kumbh Research Centre." As the Kumbh Mela happens nearby every six years, the Uttar Pradesh government and GBPSSI leadership decided to house a permanent research centre at GBPSSI; research from previous Kumbh Melas can be securely stored and available in one central location, and which would sponsor future research

The institute in its thirty third year, continues to pursue its research in the area of contemporary relevance, moving from local to global and back to local concerns transversing in the heterogeneity of time and space. The research extends into the changing scenario of India and a de territorialized global socio cultural world. One of the thematic areas of research emerging in the institute is around various kinds of marginalities produced by the traditional structures and the globalizing world.