The Centre has zeroed in on 13 names to fill the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) Council, which has been vacant since 2015, official sources said.
The names on the new Council will include Delhi University professor Rakesh Sinha — a well-known face in the media and biographer of first the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Sarsanghchalak K.B. Hedgewar, and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professors Ashwini Mahapatra and Amita Singh.
Another member of the Council will be Pune University professor Shantishree Pandit, who studied at Madras University and JNU, and earning her doctorate on the theme 'Parliament and Policy in India: The Nehru Years'.
The names also include Deenbandhu Pandey; management professor P. Kangasabapathi; economics professor Sanjay Satyarthi, who studied economics at JNU; H.S. Bedi; Central University of Bihar Vice-Chancellor H.C.S. Rathore; linguist from the Hyderabad Central University Panchanan Mohanty; K.S. Khobragade, a Dalit woman academic; T.S. Naidu, and Karnataka MLC P.V. Krishna Bhatt.
Recently, the Centre appointed Braj Bihari Kumar as the Chairman of the ICSSR and Virendra Malhotra as its Member-Secretary.
The ICSSR was established in 1969 by the Government of India to promote research in the social sciences in the country. It gives grants to institutions and scholars, and reviews the progress of social science research in the country.
