Events & Personalities
TISS funding cut
The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has decided to release funds to the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and seven other deemed universities after effecting a five percent cut in the grant, reported The Economic Times (ET) on June 3, 2015. The government intends to ultimately cut this funding by half. These institutions are financially dependent on the government and were facing a financial "nightmare” when the HRD ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC) stopped all grants while working on a new policy framework regarding their funding, ET had revealed on May 29.
TISS was set up by the Tatas nearly 80 years ago and is widely recognized as a pioneer in the area of social science education with 4,600 students on the rolls. TISS director S. Parasuraman had told ET: "We urgently need the money — some Rs 65-70 crore (US $ 11 million) comes to us in grants from UGC… our existence depends on this funding. While funds for 2014-15 were released to us last year, now we are facing a nightmare. Salaries, pension, maintenance of hostels, water and electricity bills are all dependent on funding… We are ready to follow all government rules, but stopping the grants while new rules have yet to come into effect is like choking you to death. For social sciences, there is especially a need for financial support. We are only requesting the government to quickly release the funds.”
At its advent in 1936 the institute was called the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work. It was renamed Tata Institute of Social Sciences in 1944 and declared a deemed university in 1964 under section 3 of the UGC Act. With its main campus in Deonar, Bombay, TISS has other campuses in Guwahati, Hyderabad and Tuljapur in the Osmanabad district of Maharashtra. The Institute has received government funding since the late 1940s, mentions ET and, as per UGC, full funding was initiated from 1971.
TISS was set up by the Tatas nearly 80 years ago and is widely recognized as a pioneer in the area of social science education with 4,600 students on the rolls. TISS director S. Parasuraman had told ET: "We urgently need the money — some Rs 65-70 crore (US $ 11 million) comes to us in grants from UGC… our existence depends on this funding. While funds for 2014-15 were released to us last year, now we are facing a nightmare. Salaries, pension, maintenance of hostels, water and electricity bills are all dependent on funding… We are ready to follow all government rules, but stopping the grants while new rules have yet to come into effect is like choking you to death. For social sciences, there is especially a need for financial support. We are only requesting the government to quickly release the funds.”
At its advent in 1936 the institute was called the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work. It was renamed Tata Institute of Social Sciences in 1944 and declared a deemed university in 1964 under section 3 of the UGC Act. With its main campus in Deonar, Bombay, TISS has other campuses in Guwahati, Hyderabad and Tuljapur in the Osmanabad district of Maharashtra. The Institute has received government funding since the late 1940s, mentions ET and, as per UGC, full funding was initiated from 1971.
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