TISS finally gets a full-time VC after 2 years | India News
MUMBAI: The Centre has finally appointed a full-time vice-chancellor for Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) after nearly two years of interim leadership. Badri Narayan Tiwari, a social historian with interests in culture and marginality, will helm the institute as its first official appointee since the Centre brought TISS under its administrative fold. His five-year appointment comes 22 months after Prof Manoj Tiwari, director of IIM-Mumbai, was made acting TISS VC in Sept 2023.New TISS VC was earlier with JNU, GB Pant Social Science Institute TISS, long nurtured under the stewardship of the Tata Trusts, is now subject to central oversight, following the 2023 directive bringing all institutions with over 50% govt funding under the Centre’s jurisdiction.Badri Narayan Tiwari, until recently director of Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Prayagraj, established a Kumbh study centre and an ethnographic museum. His earlier stint at Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he was part of the Centre for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion, sharpened his engagement with themes of social justice and subaltern narratives.His scholarly compass- spanning democracy, popular culture, Dalit assertion, and anthropological history – experts said, aligns closely with the ethos TISS has long embodied. But the institute’s foundations were quietly strengthened during the interim stewardship of Prof Manoj Tiwari. In his dual role as director of IIM-Mumbai and acting vice-chancellor, Prof Tiwari ensured that the long-pending Memorandum of Agreement was formally drafted, placing the institute on firmer administrative ground. He also initiated a sweeping accreditation drive across departments, a move that helped elevate the institute’s national ranking.Perhaps more tangibly, he is credited with unlocking and disbursing Rs 14 crore in arrears, some of which were pending for years-an intervention that restored both morale and momentum. It was under his watch that TISS admissions were aligned with the CUET, marking a shift towards uniformity in the higher education landscape.
