The Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan on December 5 inaugurated the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) Research Internship Programme in Social and Human Sciences. He also distributed appointment letters to the ICSSR Research Interns and distributed prizes to the winners of the National Argumentative Essay Writing Competition on “Simultaneous Elections in India: One Nation, One Election” to the UG, PG and Doctoral Students.
Dhananjay Singh, Member Secretary, ICSSR, Prof. Deepak K. Srivastava, Chairman, ICSSR; academicians, heads of institutes, many scholars and students were also present at the event held in Delhi, an official statement released in this regard said.
Pradhan, while speaking at the occasion, said that the internship seeks to present a unique opportunity to postgraduate students of social sciences and aim to strengthen social science research. This, he says, is pivotal to achieving social progress, embracing technological disruptions and driving economic growth and aligned to the national objective of Viksit Bharat.
He further said that the nature of jobs is changing rapidly with technologies like AI driving this change, and research in the area of social sciences will play a pivotal role in ensuring that technological disruptions aid social development.
Pradhan also said that the National Education Policy 2020 has recognized the need for quality social science research, which plays a pivotal role in shaping societies.
ICSSR internship programme is another step towards fostering individual growth and creating a pool of skilled researchers who can contribute to areas like policy research, data analysis, and social innovation, he said.
The Internship Programme at ICSSR has been designed with a fundamental objective to match education with research skills to prepare young social scientists and a humanist for the changing dynamics of employability and ensure their meaningful contribution towards national development. The uniqueness of the Internship Programme is the integration of modern education and skills with traditional knowledge and techniques.
This internship focuses on bridging the gap between academic knowledge and employability skills. It aims to foster research skills, including ideation, data collection, experimentation, and report presentation. Interns shall gain hands-on experience in research tools, methodologies, and real-world applications by working with experienced and successful mentors from universities, research think tanks, industry and community. The programme aims to be multidisciplinary, with the selected candidates representing different domains of social and human sciences including statistics, population studies, sociology, applied psychology, public health and policy, international relations, development studies, language studies and anthropology.
ICSSR has selected 40 candidates from different parts of the nation to be appointed as interns. The Internship Programme would involve national and international workshops on skills required for research studies on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN firmly reiterated and newly contextualized by Bharat in the highly successful G-20 presidency declaration.