The Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK) was set up in 2002 by the Government of West Bengal as an autonomous centre of excellence in social sciences. It is a society with an autonomous governing body with eminent scholars and Government’s nominees. It is fully funded by the Government of West Bengal. IDSK has been recognized by the ICSSR under the new category of “ICSSR Recognized Research Institutes”.

The multidisciplinary MPhil programme in Development Studies was launched by IDSK in 2006 under the auspices of the University of Calcutta. The new governing council constituted in 2018 includes such eminent academics as Hari Sankar Vasudevan as President, Sabyasachi Basu Raychaudhury as Vice-President, Anindya Jyoti Majumdar as Secretary and Abhirup Sarkar, Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Amitava Raychaudhuri and others as its members

Institute has Collaborations with:

• Collaboration with University of Calcutta: The multidisciplinary M.Phil programme in Development Studies offered by IDSK in collaboration with the Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH), University of Calcutta is a degree conferred by the University of Calcutta. The teaching faculty mainly consists of the IDSK faculty and the university faculty.
• Collaboration with Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris: IDSK and Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (MSH), Paris have entered into collaborative relations. IDSK faculty members have held fellowships at the MSH. In the academic year 2007- 08, a collaborative conference, ‘Utopia, Dystopia and Development’ was held between the two institutions.
• Collaboration withMonash Sustainability Institute, Monash University, Australia: IDSK has entered into an active collaboration with Monash Sustainability Institute, Monash University, Australia, in areas of public health and environmental studies with particular reference to climate change. A team from IDSK consisting of Ajit Banerjee, Indrani Chakraborty and Jenia Mukherjee participated in an interactive session on climate change at Monash, in August 2010. A two-day workshop on ‘Managing Community Development in Response to Climate Change in the Ganga Basin’ supported by AusAID was held in Kolkata at the ITC Sonar Bangla on 12 and 13 March 2012.
• Collaboration with Department of Economics, University of Siena, Italy: IDSK has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Economics, University of Siena, covering possible academic exchanges between IDSK and the Department.
• Collaboration with Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS): A Memorandum of Understanding between IDSK and the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS) has been signed in November 2010 for carrying out a project on ‘Migration, scientific diasporas and development: Impact of skilled return migration on development in India’. The duration of the project is two years.
• Collaboration with Roma Tre University: IDSK and Roma Tre University have entered into a collaboration agreement in July 2011 for three years. Under this agreement cooperation will be carried out in exchanging faculty members and researchers, scientific materials and other information, drawing up common study programmes aiming at joint degrees, participating in seminars and academic meetings and holding interdisciplinary and joint research or training programmes promoted by European Commission or by other bodies or foundations.
• Collaboration with Monash University, Australia: The IDSK has entered into active collaboration with Monash University for AAFP in developing a capacity building programme in 2015. Under this agreement collaboration will be made in developing joint research projects/proposals, in exchanging academic materials, organizing cooperative seminars, workshops and developing scientific paper and publishing those in leading journals.
• Indo-Swiss Joint Research Programme in Social Sciences: The IDSK and the University of Geneva are carrying out a collaborative research project on Health Inequalities in India and Switzerland: Measurement and Distribution of Well-being and Vulnerability under Indo-Swiss Joint Research Programme in Social Sciences funded by the ICSSR and the Swiss Government from August 2015. The duration of the project is two years.
• Collaboration with School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, China: The IDSK has entered into active collaboration with the School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, China in January 2016 for four years. This joint collaborative programme will mainly be carried out in respect of China-India Dialogue on Public Administration while reviewing the other possible areas of cooperation in a variety of research and academic projects.

Visits by Eminent Scholars

• Amartya Sen
• Joseph Stiglitz
• James Mirlees
• Gayati Chakraborty
• Tapas Mazumdar
• Arjun Sengupta
• Martha Nussbaum
• Sugata Basu