Imphal, June 21: The Centre for Manipur Studies (CMS) at Manipur University was awarded a point scale of 4.5 out of 5 by the University Grants Commission Area Study Centre during it latest mid-term evaluation.
According to information furnished by the director of CMS, Professor MC Arunkumar, the UGC in its letter dated June 8, 2017, has conveyed to the registrar of MU that the overall performance of the centre was rated as very good (4.5/5) by an expert committee constituted by the commission.
The criteria of grading were (i) promotion of holistic understanding of the area with its cultural, social, economic and strategic specificities (ii) promotion of alternative paradigm of area studies from the perspectives of post-colonial societies (iii) contribution towards Indian perspectives of the region and issues (iv) providing critical inputs to the policy makers, particularly in India’s economic, strategic and political interests (v) bringing knowledge of regions of the world to the core of intellectual disciplines and (vi) conducting research to promote inter-regional comparative perspective.
UGC, in addition to accrediting the centre of doing a good job, initiated an offer that it may extend the area study beyond Manipur, which Prof Arunkumar said is in consonance with the proposals made by CMS for expanding the domain of research to the whole of north-east India.
The commission also gave its approval for commensurate additional research grant to the centre and continuation of the activities at the same level under ASP.
In this regard, vice-chancellor of MU, Professor Adya Prasad Pande expressed his happiness and satisfaction at the CMS achieving the feat and appreciated the director, faculty members and staff for their hard work for its realization.
