The primary objective of the coursework is to lay the intellectual foundations for rigorous research by equipping the scholars with all the relevant knowledge on enquiry systems, research philosophy, approaches and methods, and the latest developments, including anticipated ones, in the broad interdisciplinary fields of Development Studies and Public Policy. During the first period of two phases, the research scholars are required to complete a prescribed set of 4 courses of 4 credits each, including Doctoral Seminar Papers. In the second phase of the coursework, they are required to complete another set of 4 Doctoral Seminar courses of 4 credits each. In this phase, they can choose courses of their specialization from the list of courses offered by the School of Social Sciences, Business School, Law School, ICFAITech, and School of Architecture. The scholars will also be able to design their own course syllabus with the guidance of faculty members nominated by the Vice-Chancellor in consultation with senior faculty members of the institute. Such research scholar-designed courses are a unique feature of this customizable doctoral research program.

Research scholars with adequate prior knowledge and preparation in any of the listed courses (8 courses) can provide compelling evidence of the same via a specifically conducted written and/or oral examination and claim a waiver of the relevant course(s).

Note: Each course consists of 33 classroom sessions of 75 minutes duration. Sessions will be conducted on Saturdays and Sundays.

Each research scholar is required to take up a Summer Research Project individually at the end of the two phases of coursework. The research project will be in the scholar’s area of interest and will be undertaken under the guidance of a faculty mentor.

Research scholars who successfully complete the coursework and get a ‘satisfactory grade’ in the Summer Research Project are eligible to take the PhD qualifying examination/comprehensive viva voce.

Upon successful completion of the PhD qualifying exam, a Doctoral Advisory Committee (DAC) with four faculty members will be constituted to guide the research scholar through the entire process of commencing, working on, and completing the doctoral thesis.

The research scholar is expected to give at least one progress seminar every semester until he/she submits the thesis.

The thesis proposal, if approved by the DAC, will be forwarded to the PhD Proposal Screening Committee for review before the scholar presents and successfully defends it. Thereafter, the scholar is supported to work on, complete, and submit the doctoral thesis for critical evaluation by anonymous and accomplished external evaluators.

After successfully defending the thesis proposal and before submitting the thesis, the scholars are required to give a ‘Thesis Data Seminar’, which will focus exclusively on sampling design and data collection and relevant data analysis methods, including computational and experimental procedures as may be applicable.

The scholar is expected to complete the PhD thesis and submit it for evaluation at the end of the fourth year after first registration into the program. He/She should defend the thesis in an open viva voce that will include the PhD thesis supervisor, DAC members, external thesis evaluators, senior professors, faculty members, and research scholars from the respective School and from other Schools/departments, or even other institutions.

The coursework sessions will involve a judicious mix of teaching-learning-evaluation methods, including lectures by the class teachers and invited experts, critical discussions of articles and Cases, presentation of papers by the scholars, and other selected methods. Evaluation will be continuous and will include written assignments, term papers, case study presentations, and end-term examinations. Participants (individually or jointly) will develop Cases with guidance from the globally top-ranked IBS Case Research Centre.

In each course, senior academicians, senior civil servants, and senior public policy experts will be invited to deliver lectures and share their knowledge with the research scholars.

Well-qualified and accomplished faculty members with academic and industry experience.

Abundant access to physical and online research resources – Library, national and international journals, databases, research reports, software packages for research support, Faculty Seminars, and lectures/webinars by eminent academicians and leaders from industry and government.

Access to IBS Case Research Centre (World’s No 2 in Case Research) and associate with other centers such as the Center for Women Development, Center for Digital Transformation, Center for Banking and Finance, Center for Environment Law and Forest Laws, and other centers coordinated by constituent units of the university.

Active relationships with research institutions, Professional Associations and bodies, and accomplished researchers.