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Shimla institute to have Director soon

Staff Correspondent

SHIMLA: The Indian Institute of Advanced Study here will soon have a new full-time Director, according to its Chairman, B. C. Mungerkar. The post of Director has been lying vacant for months since Bhuvan Chandel stepped down.

Although the Chairman at a press conference claimed that the work at the Institute had not suffered in the absence of a Director, he also emphasised the need for a full-time Director. When reminded about missing academic activities like the National Radhakrishanan Memorial Lecture, non-intake of research fellows and absence of regular seminars, he said all these activities would be revived soon after the appointment of the Director latest by December.

He claimed that after protracted interaction with the Union Government, which wanted to induct more official nominees into the Institute, the procedures for selection and functioning had been kept intact. The country's foremost research institute now has full autonomy, he maintained.

The Governing Council of IIAS has constituted a three-member search committee for the new Director and it has already received the curriculum vitae of at least 15-16 people and the required short-listing work is going on, said the Chairman.

Asked about lack of action by the governing body over alleged financial and administrative irregularities by the previous Director, the Chairman said all that was in the knowledge of the Government and the apex body and some action was in the offing.

Dr. Mungerkar said the research, as directed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also, "is going to be faster and inclusive and growth-oriented". There would be seminars on issues like poverty, employment generation, human development, marginalised sections of society, regional imbalances and uneven growth and development.

The Dr. Radhakrishanan Memorial Lecture will be delivered on December 29 by Goverdhan Mehta, Director of NAAC. "The intake of fellows into the Institute will now be raised to 50 from the present 35 and the works of researchers would be reviewed after every six months," Dr. Mungerkar said.

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Shimla institute to have Director soon

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