The Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) is a research institute based in Chennai. It is a joint undertaking of the Governments of India and Tamil Nadu for conducting research on development problems in Tamil Nadu and the rest of India.

MIDS was established by Malcolm Adiseshiah and his wife Elizabeth Adiseshiah in January 1971. Malcolm Adiseshiah served as its first Director. In March 1977, MIDS was reconstituted as a National Research Institute under the sponsorship of Government of India through the Indian Council of Social Science Research and the Government of Tamil Nadu. The Adiseshiah's donated the land, buildings, furniture, equipment and made cash endowments to the newly constituted institute. Malcolm Adiseshiah resigned as MIDS' Director in 1978 and became the Chairman and Honorary fellow. Professor C.T. Kurien became the next Director of MIDS. In 1985, the Reserve Bank of India established a Chair for applied research in regional economics, which has since been converted to a fully autonomous unit in 2002. Know more…