Creating a base for development

Updated on: Monday, August 03, 2009

What’s the link between ethnographic women’s studies and macro-econometric modelling? Sounds like a joke? It’s not. The answer is Development Studies, a subject in which interest is soaring as numerous opportunities rapidly open up infrastructure development, NGO-related work, media and public policy.

Last week, Education Plus reported on the new M.A in Inclusive Development Studies introduced by the Ethiraj College for Women, Chennai, this year. This week, we consider other courses on offer in this field, as well as popular themes in development and the opportunities that are up for grabs by aspiring development practitioners.

In India, a macroeconomic theme that will remain a policy priority for years to come is infrastructure development. It has witnessed an unprecedented boom since 2003 and even received a shot in the arm in this year’s Union budget. The opportunities for students of development studies, development economics and related disciplines are immense, according to K. Rajivan, a World Bank development economist, based in India.

Dr. Rajivan explains that “managerial positions at international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank usually require a Ph.D. or a master’s degree from abroad. However, given the investment boom in areas such as infrastructure finance, urban development, and small and medium enterprises, a range of new jobs is becoming available. These projects, often run with IFI participation as public-private partnerships, are based on public leverage and deployment of private capital on a large scale. They require people qualified in areas such as public finance, cost-benefit analysis, environmental, regulatory and competition economics, contract law and also ‘soft skills’ like negotiation and stakeholder consultations.”
New vistas

Another macro area in which new vistas have opened to development studies graduates is public policy. “Many of our graduates are manning key positions in major public policy institutions such as the RBI and the Planning Commission,” says Professor Narayanan Nair of the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) at Thiruvananthapuram.

In the wake of the global recession and financial crisis, it is widely expected that regulatory functions and economic planning will be prioritised. Consequently, institutions such as the RBI and Planning Commission will be on the lookout for qualified candidates.

For those who delve deeply into the subject to the doctoral level, it becomes possible to straddle multiple roles within the broad ambit of development. For example, Prof. Nair points out that graduates of CDS such as Tirthankar Roy, C.R. Rammanohar Reddy, Narendra Pani and Ashoka Mody work alternatively in academia, media, IFIs and policymaking.
Development journalism

Journalism can be a rewarding line of work for those with strong writing skills. P. Sainath, an award-winning journalist covering issues relating to rural poverty, argues that “development is ultimately about people and their rights, how these are articulated and conflicts resolved.” He teaches a course on ‘covering deprivation’ at the Asian College of Journalism, and cautions that an excessive focus on “managing development ” or on “technical knowledge” detracts from the more people-centric and politics-centric understanding of development, say in terms of caste issues and land distribution in a particular Indian village.

As these examples suggest, development studies education and career paths can be widely varied. There is a choice to be made between quantitative and qualitative skills, between research and practical experience and from among the bewilderingly large number of sub-disciplines under the umbrella of development studies.

Charting a course that most closely matches your strongest abilities and interests is the most important step you could take as you contemplate entering this exciting area.

Creating a base for development

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