Since the dawn of civilization, man always had the immense urge to educate himself and discover the secrets of the world, fulfilling his/her never-ending appetite to learn/grasp everything. With years, the craving to discover and invent heightened and formal institutions were set up across the world. India, being the land of divinity formal education has been followed since ancient times, as we are home to one of the oldest universities in the world. Consequently, with advancements and changing times, the education system evolved exponentially, treating academics and higher learning as one of the most important aspects in terms of nation-building.
Post-independence, India as a nation had to grow and witness a lot of issues concerning the social and economic dimensions of society. Thereby, this resulted in an immense demand for educated professionals, who could lead a youth dominant nation, providing viable solutions for decision-makers for the betterment of human life. One such institution, which has been a flagbearer for being an exemplary hotspot of training and research in Economics – Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics has indeed built its strong credentials in empirical and analytical research, since its inception in the year 1930.
Established by the Servants of India Society, GIPE carries forward the legacy of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, with a view to promote education and develop capabilities among Indians for effective governance of the nation. Registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950, considering its immense contribution to society, the institute based out of Pune has been awarded the state of Deemed to be University, in the year 1993.
In pursuit of creating bright well-read minds of tomorrow
Offering an ideal environment for budding researchers and young teaching professionals, eminent academicians are the real backbone of GIPE, in turn, helping everyone present on campus to reach their highest potential in terms of research and knowledge gain. A famous institute which has giving many well-known economists, demographers, policymakers to society, statures are built on the campus of Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics, preaching leadership and societal responsibilities in every lesson taught at the institute.
Striving towards providing education in all fields of economics with a prime focus of contributing its might to enhance the social welfare of the country, GIPE stands out in terms of the quality of education being imparted. Following a through and through research-based pedagogy and curriculum, many of the courses are designed in such a way that the students understand not only the academic concepts but also apply the things they learnt in their day-to-day lives. Furthermore, staying well in sync with the changing market trends and demands, courses have been updated accordingly, introducing every modern concept emerging across the globe.
“Being one among the few unique places where subjects like data analytics, foreign language study, remote sensing for agriculture and so on, are taught as compulsory papers, rather than just electives, we as an educational hub take pride in being different”, stated – Prof Rajas Parchure. During a brief opportunity, we got to talk to Prof Parchure, the Officiating Director of GIPE, and thereby, we tried our best to pose as budding educational aspirants, asking him all the relevant questions pertaining to current trends and demands. Subsequently, with the whole conversation done, we got an inside view of the whole operating ethos present at GIPE, and how the institute is credited with pioneering contributions by way of surveys, research studies, informed debates, in turn, shaping quality public-discourse on major socio-economic issues and initiatives.
Prof Parchure added to his earlier statement, by saying – “Every course taught at GIPE is revised every year after considering the feedback of all the stakeholders such as fellow faculty members, students, alumni, and potential employers”, talking to us about how important is staying up to date on the campus of GIPE, not only excelling on a regional level but also showing immense prowess at the national level as well.
Upholding the legacy
Being one of the oldest educational institutions of the pre-independence era, GIPE boasts of very high-qualified faculty members, who act as GURUS, rather than just faculty members. Taking all the students along in every academic activity organized on campus, teachers motivate students to become expert researchers and writers. Preaching a complete out of the box thinking, from micro-level to macro-level, all the economic problems of the nation get addressed on campus, becoming more of an India-centric institution of higher learning.
With the state-of-the-art infrastructure at every students’ disposal, every individual who is a part of GIPE immensely benefits from the lectures, seminars & conferences organized for them. Not only inside the classroom, but students are also pushed towards excelling as all-rounders. Going beyond textbook knowledge, teachers at GIPE introduce students with prominent databases like that of Thomson Reuter, Bloomberg and many more, which clearly help them get real-time analysis of the capital markets.
All thanks to the impressive ICT-enabled learning infrastructure being implemented at GIPE, students never felt the hurdles of the pandemic and continued in the direction of effortless quality learning. Also, all of the teaching methodologies being implemented on campus helped the students to have a total grasp on the subject and apply their subject knowledge effectively. Lastly, giving a complete learning push to every student who is a part of GIPE, the impressive industry-academia relationships existing on the campus helped every student, get the right amount of industry -exposure they deserve. These strong associations also facilitate internship and placement opportunities across many governments/private organizations, thus, giving back to society trained individuals who can effortlessly change the whole policy-making procedures, guiding India and its citizens to become a part of something bigger and better.
Prof Rajas Parchure,Officiating Director
A Reserve Bank of India Professor of Finance and Officiating Director of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, Prof Parchure has 33 years of experience in research and teaching at the postgraduate level. Prior to joining Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics, Pune, as RBI Chair Professor in 2007, he served as Professor at National Insurance Academy, Pune, where he was instrumental in the formulation of weather insurance programme in India. As Officiating Director Prof. Parchure has successfully upheld the legacy of Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics, Pune by strengthening research activities and by introducing new academic programmes in specialized and emerging areas of social and economic sciences.
