UMISARC - Centre for South Asian Studies

UMISARC - Centre for South Asian Studies

Pondicherry University has been actively promoting studies on South Asia and neighbouring regions especially since 2005, when the University Grants Commission (UGC) sanctioned Southern Asia Studies Programme (SASP) under its Area Studies Programme to the university on the initiative of the then Dean of the School of International Studies and then Head of the Department of Political Science, Prof N K Jha. However, studies and research in the field got a boost since the joining of the present Vice Chancellor, Prof J A K Tareen, who launched Post Graduate Programme (M.A) in South Asian Studies for the first time in the country during the XI plan. An International Journal of South Asian Studies was also launched during this period. Since 2008, the South Asia Foundation (SAF) has been supporting 16 Madanjeet Singh Group Scholarships to students (two from each SAARC country) to study this course. The teaching of and research in this field got another major boost with the signing of an MoU between Pondicherry University and the SAF on June 20, 2009 for establishment of the Madanjeet Singh Institute of South Asia Regional Cooperation (MISARC). The Institute began functional with the appointment of its first Director with the concurrence of the SAF. Subsequently, the UNESCO has agreed to sponsor the Institute and thus now it has become truly an international Institute, known as UMISARC.

UMISARC - Centre for South Asian Studies
Pondicherry University, Pondicherry
Bharat Ratna Dr. B.R.Ambedkar Administrative Building,
R.V.Nagar, Kalapet,
Puducherry – 605014