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Thrust Area

The Centre has identified the following thrust areas for research to be undertaken.  These areas have been identified by taking into account: (i) the emerging areas of research in the context of social, economic and political transformation in the country; and, (ii) the areas of specialization that CMDR has developed over time. Needless to mention that item (ii) has been developed in consistency with item (i).

1. Education and Development

  • Sociological and political dimensions of educational development 
  • Inclusive Education 
  • Linkages between educational development and development of other sectors
  • Quality and standard of education
  • Database for the educational sector
  • Globalization and education (challenges of entry of foreign institutions, foreign funding, brain drain of the educated, etc)
  • Private Public – Partnerships (PPP) in education
  • Equity in access, utilization and performance in education (with a focus on gender, regional and other social dimensions)
  • Financing of and resources for, education 
  • Issues of governance
  • Education accounts 
  • Scope and institutional framework of vocational/professional education
  • Policy Analysis of primary, secondary, and higher education
  • Linguistic Studies 

2. Health and Development

  • Economic, sociological, and political dimensions of health care services of different social groups
  • Database for the health sector.
  • Linkages between health sector development and the development of other sectors
  • Community mobilization for healthcare services
  • Globalization and health services (implications of WTO, globalization, and equity concerns, etc.)
  • Private Public – Partnership (PPP) in healthcare services
  • Resource costs of morbidity 
  • Health accounts – including sub-regional and disease-specific accounts
  • Health Care and Nutrition
  • Ethnomedicine, Health and Traditional healthcare system

3. New Paradigms of Livelihood in the Rural Sector

CMDR has done extensive action research in the field of tobacco economics with a special focus on issues related to tobacco cultivation and tobacco consumption in India, health implications of tobacco consumption, shifting from tobacco cultivation to other livelihood, subsidies from the government for tobacco sector, etc. Encouraged by the success realized in these action research studies, CMDR widen its scope of action research activities by including the research on challenges in shifting patterns of livelihood in the rural sector. It undertakes research/action research in the following specific areas:

  • Water resources and cropping pattern 
  • Off-farm avenues for livelihood
  • Shifts in the social and cultural living conditions in rural and tribal areas 
  • Gender issues in shifting patterns of livelihood
  • Micro-financing and livelihood; Different initiatives in the financial sector and their implications for the livelihood opportunities of the poor
  • Challenges in women’s empowerment
  • Eradication of child labour 
  • Rural-urban migration; impact of urbanization on rural livelihood system
  • Food security issues and Nutritional value
  • Farmers’ suicides: Multi-disciplinary perspectives with a focus on implications of the prevailing institutional support system for livelihood
  • Rehabilitation

4. Social Costs of Income-centric Development 

CMDR recognizes that development is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Growth of GDP alone would not define the scope, content, and value of development in relation to the goal of realizing optimum welfare for the people of a nation. This perception is in conformity with the objective of adopting multi-disciplinary approach in the study of the problems of the society. It is to undertake a series of studies at the regional level, sub-regional level and village level to analyze the social costs of development process that is pursued with an overwhelming focus on the economic aspects. The programme of analytical research and action research in this thrust area can deal with the following specific issues:

  • Human Development and economic growth 
  • Impact of economic growth on employment 
  • Impact of economic growth on poverty eradication 
  • Challenges of inclusive economic growth 
  • Impact of economic growth on cultural aspects of the society
  • Impact of economic growth on values and social institutions  

5. Challenges to Sustainable Development

  • Issues relating to environmental economics
  • Forest resources, water resources, and sustainability of development; challenges of drinking water supply in rural and urban areas 
  • Common property resources and the poor 
  • Politics, sociology, and economics of inter-state distribution of river water
  • Natural resources accounting with sub-regional perspectives 

6. Tobacco and Alcohol (Economics, Control and Health Issues) Research 

CMDR’s initiative on tobacco research as part of action research on tobacco control dates back to the late nineties. Since then, the efforts of CMDR have continued in this sphere. CMDR has been recognized internationally for its research and role in acting as a think-tank for facilitating policy discussions in the field of tobacco control. However, the tobacco menace continues to haunt the society and there are miles to go in the direction of a tobacco-free society. There is surely much scope and need to pursue tobacco control programmes without ignoring the problem of alternative livelihood opportunities for the farmers who are required to shift from tobacco cultivation to alternative crops.

7. Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes and the Marginalised

  • Issues of the Marginalised groups like Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes
  • Dalit and Tribal Studies 
  • Dalit Women
  • Health and Scheduled Caste Women
  • Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
  • Social Inclusion
  • Dr. B.R.Ambedkar: Social Reform Legacy
  • Cultural Studies, Indigenous Knowledge System
  • Egalitarian society and equal distribution of wealth
  • Affirmative action policies

8. Action Research 

Action research contains an inquiry, which is participative, experimental, and action oriented.  The discipline of action research relies on the assumption that theory can be translated into practice. This body of knowledge tries to bridge the gap between academics and popular wisdom, which constitutes the basic concern for practitioners.

Another major objective of CMDR is to combine conceptual research with action research so that the gains in the domain of theory can be effectively used to benefit the community in addressing real life situations. The research projects of CMDR, right from the beginning have been designed to contain action research components. The team of researchers at the Centre has been trying to help the community and policymakers by passing on the lessons from the pure academic research and facilitate the process of implementing the lessons on the ground. 

9. Capacity Building Activities

One of the main objectives of the Centre is to serve as a Think-Tank for the researchers and policymakers through its various targeted capacity building programmes and also publications.  The Centre has been striving to this objective over the past two and half decades.  After receiving recognition from the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, in 1991, as a national level Social Science Research Institute, the activities of the Centre in this connection have developed more vigorously.  

The capacity building programmes undertaken by the Centre have taken the following forms:

  • Capacity Building for Research
  • Orientation courses focusing on the application of statistical, econometric, ethnographic and socio-demographic tools for faculty teaching at graduate and post-graduate levels 
  • M.Phil./Ph.D. Programme (affiliated to Select Universities in Karnataka) at the Centre
  • Awareness Programmes to build the Analytical Capabilities of People Regarding Various Socio-Economic Issues
  • Bringing out CMDR’s research studies in the form of publications and monographs under CMDR Monograph Series
  • Developing Socio-Economic Databank with a focus on specific issues
  • Developing Inter-institutional collaboration
  • Library and Information System
  • Capacity Building through CMDR’s Action Research Projects
  • Skill Development Programmes for Rural Youth
  • Capacity building for elected representatives 
  • Faculty development programme (FDP)

10. Research and Development Initiatives in Diverse Areas

Though the study of ‘social sectors’ happens to be the main focus of research at CMDR, other issues also have received the attention of researchers associated with the Centre.  CMDR’s research and developmental activities have experienced the necessity of studying sectors other than social sector for the purpose of a better understanding of the social sector itself.  The impact of natural calamities on school attendance, the relationship of the overall fiscal position of the Centre/State with the expenditure on social sectors, behaviour of financial institutions during liquidity crunch, etc., are pertinent from the point of view of studies on the social sector.

The Centre has undertaken a number of studies on sectors/themes besides education and health.  

Some of these are as follows:

  • District Human Development 
  • Problems of Unorganized Sector and Economic Reforms
  • Pros and Cons of 24 X 7 Water Supply Schemes 
  • Resettlement and Rehabilitation in Developmental Projects
  • Role of Banks in Economic Development 
  • Socio-Economic Development of North and South Karnataka
  • Technological Diffusion in the Farm Sector
  • Evaluation of Indira Awaas Yojana
  • Economic Effects of Multinationals
  • Trade Strategies and Employment
  • Panchayati Raj System
  • Federal Financial Relations
  • Socio-Economic and Environmental Assessment of Reforms in the Power Sector  
  • Analysis of the Budgets
  • Employment Affirmation Programme
  • Common Property Resources
  • Indological Studies  
  • Gender Studies  
  • Housing and infrastructure
  • Rural Development  
  • Sustainable Agricultural Development 
  • Environment-economy linkages, etc.
  • Medical Pluralism 
  • Ethnographic studies
  • Women Empowerment
  • Preservation of Indian Knowledge System

The above list is only indicative of the direction in which the research initiatives of the Centre have been focused and will remain so in the years to come. This ambitious vision would be translated into action research, subject to the availability of various resources. Wherever possible and needed the studies have highlighted the historical perspectives about the selected issues based upon the literature available in classical and regional languages. 

While the Centre may not restrict its research initiatives to only specific regions, the Report of the Nanjundappa Committee on Redressal of Regional Disparities in Karnataka has visualized the need for an independent research organization for monitoring and evaluating the process of development in North Karnataka, a less developed region of the state. CMDR has taken upon itself to serve as an active think-tank in north Karnataka for this purpose and it would continue to play this role in the years to come.