COMMENTARY

programme in social anthropology from

S Parasuraman (1952–2022) Savitribai Phule Pune University; and
mastered his craft in demography and
Reimagined the Relevance of statistical analysis with a PhD in popula-

Social Sciences tion sciences from the International In-

stitute for Population Sciences, Mumbai.
To describe Parasuraman: he was quin-
tessentially a pragmatist in his paradigmat-
Lakshmi Lingam ic orientation to social sciences research, a
humanist administrator embedded in

S Parasuraman, with his
interdisciplinary educational
background and vast experience
in the development sector,
contributed to institution
building. He will be remembered
for revamping the Tata Institute
of Social Sciences to meet the
challenges of the future.
The views expressed are personal.
Lakshmi Lingam (lakshmil@tiss.edu) is the
dean and professor, School of Media and
Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social
Sciences, Mumbai.
Economic & Political Weekly EPW september 24, 2022
S
Parasuraman (1952–2022), educa-
tionist and a visionary, was ahead
of his times. He helmed the Tata
Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) from
2004 to 2018 (14 years) as the director and
vice chancellor. His untimely departure
on 2 September 2022 has left an enor-
mous void in the lives of people he
touched with his work. The outpourings
of loss on social media of the TISS alumni
reflect this.
Writing about Parasuraman is akin to
writing a slice of the history of TISS dur-
ing the era of globalisation amid rising
aspirations of Dalit and Bahujan stu-
dents and the challenges to higher edu-
cation institutions (HEIs) to strengthen
their curriculum and their relevance in
the new millennium. In this obituary, I
shall attempt to comprehend the man,
his mission, and the accomplishments
of TISS, which demonstrate the scope of
universities as spaces beyond teaching,
conferring degrees, carrying out research
and publishing.
People’s Director
Parasuraman belonged to a humble fam-
ily and hailed from Kovilpatti, a village
in Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu. His
farming background and childhood tra-
vails to acquire an education inspired
him to motivate and support others from
the underprivileged sections of the soci-
ety to access good education, recognising
its power to positively transform social
life and identity. It helped shape him as a
leader and an educationist and informed
his compassionate and engaging leader-
ship style, academic journey and advo-
cacy. He excelled as a teacher, research-
er, and an administrator. He inculcated
a scientific temper with his graduate
degree in science; developed a ground-
ed approach to understand people and
their cultures through a postgraduate
vol lVii no 39
the traditions of Gandhi and Ambedkar,
a committed teacher who believed in the
power of education in the traditions of
Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule, and a devel-
opment practitioner who drew on the
ideas of Paulo Freire and Amartya Sen.
His charisma, sincerity, openness to
ideas, hard work, the spirit of innovation
and an astute awareness of the positive
power of his position placed him in a dif-
ferent league as an institutional leader, to
make higher education accessible and
achievable to several young students from
all backgrounds. He set high standards for
an academic institute led by a commitment
to equity and justice. TISS campuses turned
into vibrant spaces of learning at the in-
tersections of the relations between the
university, state, and civil society. Students
were exposed to the elements of true edu-
cation that emerged from experiential
learning of engaging with the “field,”
building empathy and respect for the other.
Reimagining Futures
Parasuraman rejoined the institute in 2004
after a stint in the international non-
governmental organisation (NGO) sector,
Oxfam, World Commission on Dams, and
ActionAid International, with a mandate
to create a renewed footprint of TISS in
the new millennium. Through a process
of collective reflection and consensus-
building spearheaded by him, the insti-
tute reaffirmed its commitment to the
nation with a vision statement:
to be an institution of excellence in higher
education that continually responds to chang-
ing social realities through the development
and application of knowledge, towards cre-
ating a people-centred, ecologically sustain-
able and just society that promotes and pro-
tects the dignity, equality, social justice and
human rights for all.
At the turn of the new millennium,
when institutions were ushering in pri-
vatisation and turning education into a
25
COMMENTARY
commodity, TISS had reaffirmed the com-
mitment of the institution to inclusive
education, research for people-centric
public policies and community outreach
models. The institute went into an aca-
demic restructuring between 2005 and
2007, and reconfigured four depart-
ments and research units into major
schools and independent centres of ex-
cellence. During Parasuraman’s tenure as
director, TISS received a NAAC accredita-
tion that placed the institute with the
second highest grade among HEIs.
From University to
Multiversity Campuses
Till 2004, the institute had only four
master’s degree programmes and gradu-
ated less than 300 students each year;
carried out commissioned research and
had some vital field action projects. In
addition to the campus in Mumbai and a
rural campus in Tuljapur, which existed
when he became a director, he set up off-
campuses in Guwahati and Hyderabad,
a centre in Patna, Bihar and academic
collaborations with NGOs like the Ban-
yan in Chennai to offer academic pro-
grammes. These campuses were set up
at the behest of the state governments
that had invited TISS to set up education-
al institutions of repute in their states.
The University Grants Commission guide-
lines encouraging universities to set up
off-campuses to help reach more students
have come at the opportune time for Par-
asuraman. TISS was a multi-campus net-
worked varsity with a student strength
of 5,000 and faculty strength of 350
when he stepped down from the direc-
tor’s position in 2018. Each year, about
3,000 graduates find their way into the
industry, government and the social sec-
tors as well grounded human service pro-
fessionals. Many graduates also pursue
higher studies, set up social enterprises
or work at the grassroots.
TISS graduates can be found in the
nook and corners of the country and the
world, working in academic and re-
search institutions, development organi-
sations and with public policy think tanks.
Several new private universities draw
from the large pool of social sciences
and interdisciplinary academic progra-
mmes of TISS.
26
Significant Steps at Diversity student policy and was also lauded as a
and Inclusion best practice by the LGBTQI+ move-
Each year, the institute admits students ments. Parasuraman also believed in
through a competitive national entrance students’ participation in the institute’s
test initiated by Parasuraman. More decision-making processes. During his
than 50% of the students join the insti- tenure, representatives of the students’
tute through reservations, many among union were invited to the academic coun-
whom are first-generation learners. Insti- cil, a practice which was later institution-
tutional mechanisms were put in place alised by TISS.
to provide support—social, psychologi-
cal, and financial—to the students. In Disaster Response beyond
2005–06, when the institute decided Relief Work
to introduce a national-level admission TISS has a long history of responding to
process, Parasuraman introduced a pre- major natural disasters (Bhopal gas
admission orientation and English lan- tragedy, Latur earthquake, Odisha floods,
guage support initiative to prepare tsunami, Gujarat earthquake, Uttarakhand
Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and and Ladakh floods), health emergencies,
Other Backward Classes students for the and communal riots. Parasuraman was
entrance exam. A one-week orientation well versed and committed to disaster-
was organised, and more than 1,200 related response and preparedness.
Dalit and tribal students attended the During his tenure, the Jamsetji Tata
sessions on the campus. This program- School of Disaster Studies was set up, in
me has now been institutionalised as 2006. TISS was at the forefront of relief
part of the TISS admission process. Many and rehabilitation work post the tsuna-
students who benefited from this initia- mi in Tamil Nadu and Andaman and
tive succeeded in getting admission in Nicobar Islands.
TISS, and many have excelled profes-
sionally in educational institutions and Decentralised Planning and
the development sector in India and Young Professionals
abroad. TISS student handbook and stu- In 2007, in collaboration with the United
dent orientation allude to a zero toler- Nations International Children’s Emer-
ance policy towards discrimination and gency Fund (UNICEF), he experimented
violation of dignity of fellow students or with the district fellows programme to
other members of the TISS community train and deploy young professionals to
on the basis of caste, religion, region, work with panchayats on several develop-
disability, gender, sexual orientation and ment subjects. To strengthen water, sani-
race. This was considered as an inclusive tation and hygiene (WASH), a curriculum
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Registrar
september 24, 2022 vol lVii no 39 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

was developed and UNICEF introduced
WASH fellows in several districts of India.
This formed the basis for introducing
young professionals duly trained in
extremist-prone districts in India. The
well-known Prime Minister’s Rural Deve-
lopment Fellowship programme laun-
ched by the Ministry of Rural Develop-
ment, Government of India (GoI), in 2012
was steered by him, and 160 fellows were
trained and mentored to work in left-
wing extremism-prone districts of the
country. The contributions of this initia-
tive were captured in a two-part volume
titled Making Development Happen:
Transformational Change in Rural India.
TISS without Borders
At the invitation of the Tata Trusts and
the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Develop-
ment Council, TISS carried out participa-
tory, decentralised planning work in the
hill district and offered guidance to the
leadership in Ladakh for several years.
Parasuraman was also one of the key
movers along with the International
Centre for Integrated Mountain Develop-
ment, Nepal, to create the Himalayan
University Consortium in 2007 for the
development of the greater Himalayan
region, covering the large, vulnerable,
and fragile ecosystems in Afghanistan,
Pakistan, India, Nepal, China, Bhutan,
Bangladesh, and Myanmar—a geogra-
phical span of 3,500 km, containing close
to 150 million people. This consortium
attempted to build a curriculum focus-
ing on mountain ecosystems within the
growing threat of climate change. In
2015, at the invitation of the state gov-
ernment of Nagaland, TISS and Naga-
land Gandhi Ashram set up the Mahat-
ma Gandhi Academy for Human Devel-
opment at Chuchuyimlang village of
Mokokchung district in Nagaland to of-
fer academic programmes on sustaina-
ble development and livelihoods. TISS
also extended support in education, so-
cial work and health administration to
Afghanistan and Myanmar.
Faculty of TISS was actively involved
in all these initiatives, and many devel-
opment practitioners were drafted into
these initiatives. The idea of lateral entry
to development practitioners and policy-
makers to spend designated time at the
Economic & Political Weekly EPW september 24, 2022
COMMENTARY
institute, teach, reflect and write was pro- community participation in reviewing
vided with the “Practitioner-in-Residence” the Urban Renewal Mission; building
programme that he had created. cadres to work on WASH for the Swachh
Bharat Abhiyan, Mahatma Gandhi
Skill Development Innovations National Rural Employment Guarantee
A School of Vocational Education with Act, 2005 (building social audit curricu-
initial grants from the All India Council lum to monitor the scheme), National
for Technical Education, New Delhi and Food Security Act, 2013 (right to food);
the Tata Trusts was set up in 2011 to de- the Scheduled Tribes and Other Tradi-
velop and offer various vocational edu- tional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of
cation programmes to out-of-school youth. Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (tribal commu-
Parasuraman conceived a flagship skill nities right over the forests), the Right
development programme titled the Na- to Fair Compensation and Transparency
tional University Students’ Skill Devel- in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and
opment (NUSSD), which was launched in Resettlement Act, 2013; towards universal
2013 in five states and in more than 220 old age pension; and mental health issues
colleges. The programme provided op- within the National Health Policy, 2017,
portunities to undergraduate and post- to name a few. These interventions had
graduate students coming from under- elements of participatory processes, com-
privileged backgrounds to acquire em- munity monitoring, social audit, account-
ployable skills while pursuing their col- ability and transparency of institutions.
lege education. This is a programme un- The national and global recognition
paralleled in the country, for no other accorded to TISS owes a great deal to the
university has such a far-reaching inno- yeoman contributions that Parasuraman
vation for college students. made as a director for 14 years. His story is
a case study in organisational change
Public Policy Advocacy management and leadership. Universi-
Apart from the academic innovations ties in India need vice chancellors like
within the institute, Parasuraman, had him to build institutions for inclusive
amply contributed through public policy teaching and learning and to contribute
work that had informed significant flag- to the making of a vibrant democracy
ship programmes of the GoI, like building like India.
EPWRF India Time Series
Expansion of Banking Statistics Module
(State-wise Data)
The Economic and Political Weekly Research Foundation (EPWRF) has added state-
wise data to the existing Banking Statistics module of its online India Time Series
(ITS) database.
State-wise and region-wise (north, north-east, east, central, west and south) time series
data are provided for deposits, credit (sanction and utilisation), credit-deposit (CD)
ratio, and number of bank offices and employees.
Data on bank credit are given for a wide range of sectors and sub-sectors (occupation)
such as agriculture, industry, transport operators, professional services, personal loans
(housing, vehicle, education, etc), trade and finance. These state-wise data are also
presented by bank group and by population group (rural, semi-urban, urban and
metropolitan).
The data series are available from December 1972; half-yearly basis till June 1989
and annual basis thereafter. These data have been sourced from the Reserve Bank of
India’s publication, Basic Statistical Returns of Scheduled Commercial Banks in India.
Including the Banking Statistics module, the EPWRF ITS has 27 modules covering
a range of macroeconomic and financial data on the Indian economy. For more details,
visit www.epwrfits.in or e-mail to: its@epwrf.in
vol lVii no 39 27