Mumbai, May 11 (PTI) The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) on Monday said it is forming ‘Global Social Science Association’ (GSSA) to serve as an international academic platform for exchanging ideas and conducting collaborative multidisciplinary research.
The GSSA will be formed in partnership with approximately 25 participating universities from both from India and overseas during the 3-day Global Colloquium on ‘Building Bridges in Social Sciences’ that began here during the day, TISS Vice Chancellor Prof Badri Narayan Tiwari said at the inaugural function.
The Association will promote partnerships among universities and institutions associated with TISS on issues concerning the Global South, including poverty, health, human development, migration, peace, geopolitics, and diplomacy. It will also encourage dialogue among scholars and practitioners across regions and knowledge systems.
While the Secretariat will initially be hosted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, it will function on a rotating model to ensure broader global participation and shared institutional ownership.
Tiwari said TISS is uniquely positioned to build intellectual bridges between the Global North and the Global South through meaningful collaborations grounded in India’s social realities and developmental experiences.
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who inaugurated the colloquium, said TISS can play the crucial role of social sciences in addressing contemporary global challenges such as Artificial Intelligence, climate change, inequality, migration, and social conflict by ensuring that development remains ethical, inclusive, and human-centric.
“Human capability is advancing faster than social understanding, which underlines the urgent need for social sciences to provide deeper ethical and societal perspectives in an age of rapid technological transformation,” Pradhan said.
Higher Education secretary Vineet Joshi, also present on the occasion, said the government envisions a knowledge-centred society where social science research contributes directly to sustainable development, inclusive governance, social justice, and community resilience.
Interdisciplinary, action-oriented, and community-engaged research plays an important role in addressing global challenges such as inequality, migration, climate change, conflict, and rapid urbanisation, he said.
Key Education Ministry initiatives like SPARC, GYAN, and VAJRA are aimed at strengthening international academic collaboration, capacity building, and evidence-based policymaking, Joshi added. PTI SM BNM
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