The Anthropological Survey of India (ASI) is carrying out several programmes on development and sustainability of different tribes and communities in the country, its director Vinay Kumar Srivastava said today.
"Our projects are taking place in different parts of the country. We are doing everything to have a total understanding of the community in the respective regions of the country," Srivastava said on the sidelines of the 73rd foundation day of the premier institute.
The objectives of the ASI, principally an academic and research institution, is to generate anthropological knowledge about the people of the country and keep updating so that its expertise is profitably employed for the tasks of nation building, development and integration, he said in his address at the programme to mark the day.
Referring to the synergistic relationship between the anthropology departments of different universities and the ASI, he said the former suffer from an acute shortage of grants for macro-level research.
"Furthermore they (university deartments) are largely viewed as teaching and not research institutions despite the emphasis given on research publications for promoting the teaching faculty to higher grade," he said.
Stating that the ASI is often criticised for being a theoretical body, he said, "We are not mindlessly churning out truckloads of information."
"Our commitment is towards generating vast amounts of analysed data," he said adding, the ASI is dedicated to study the bio-cultural profile of Indian population and in 73 years since was founded the institute has covered all facets of Indian population.
Delivering his keynote address at the foundation, eminment anthropologist D K Bhattacharya said that all aspects of anthropology is extremely relevant to tackle issues that the fast changing country is facing every day.
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