The 25th Annual Conference of the Indian Association of Social Science Institutions (IASSI) is scheduled during 26-28 October 2026 at Nalanda University, Bihar, India. Professor Ram Singh, Director of the Delhi School of Economics, is the Conference President. Dr. Ashok Dhavala, Associate Professor, School of Ecology and Environment Studies, Department of Economics, Nalanda University, is the Organising Secretary.
Researchers, practitioners, and social scientists are invited to submit both conceptual and empirical papers addressing a variety of topics and sub-themes aligned with the conference themes.
Alongside paper presentations in technical sessions, as in previous years, the event will also feature the Tarlok Singh Memorial Lecture to be delivered by a distinguished scholar and public figure, along with multiple thematic panels.
Contributions are welcome from other regions and countries besides India, and from all Social Science disciplines. Papers written with an interdisciplinary approach are particularly welcome. Papers can be submitted online on: https://conference.iassi.org/submission-of-papers. Authors of the selected papers will be invited to present their papers in the Thematic Technical Sessions during the Conference.
Panel Proposal
During the conference, a number of panels are organised including a pre-conference event. Proposals for panels are invited from scholars and institutions.
Each panel proposal should contain the following:
- Title of the panel and a description of the panel’s theme
- Titles, authors and abstracts (within 500 words) of the papers to be presented
- Names, affiliations and short biographies (100-150 words) of the proposed presenters and discussants/commentators
- Name and contact information of the panel organiser
Note: A panel session will comprise of 4 – 5 paper presentations. The organizers / coordinators of each Panel Session are expected to be in charge of the Panel Discussion, including raising resources for speakers’ travel and other expenditure.
The proposals may be emailed to conference.isle@gmail.com by 15 February 2022.
Best Paper Awards and Fellowship
The ISLE provides 1award and 1 fellowship to young scholars below 40 years of age.
Surjit Singh Fellowship
Prof. Surjit Singh was the Honorary Secretary of the Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE) since 2009 and continued to hold the post till his sudden demise in December 2013. His association with the Society goes back to the early 1990s. Under his able leadership, Prof. Surjit Singh successfully organized the ISLE conference of 2004 at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), Jaipur. His contribution and commitment to the ISLE is cherished widely by members of the Society through these years. His sudden demise was a huge loss to the ISLE and the community of economists and social scientists at large. His wife and daughter gave an endowment fund in his memory for supporting the promotion of research in the field of labour economics.
Since 2015, the Society has been giving one Fellowship to a young labour economist below the age of 40 years for undertaking research in the field of labour and employment studies. The research paper should be related to one of the identified themes for the ISLE conference of the year. It should be an original work and not be based on the applicant’s earlier works; including PhD thesis of the applicant. An Expert Committee would scrutinize the applications and select the candidate for awarding the Fellowship. The awardee is expected to prepare an empirical paper in about 10,000 words (including tables and appendices) and present at the ISLE Conference during that year. The revised paper/monograph would be submitted by the awardee after two months of the ISLE Conference. Apart from a certificate, the award would include an amount of Rs 40,000.
Interested scholars may please share their proposal along with a cover letter to ISLE Secretary at conference.isle@gmail.com
Best Paper Award
The Ruddar Datt Memorial Award and L. K. Deshpande Labour Economist Awards (each carrying an award of Rs.10,000) will be awarded to the authors of the best papers at the Conference. Only authors who are below 40 years of age will be considered for these awards. The papers on any of the Conference themes to be considered for the award should be presented by the paper writers themselves. Contributors who wish to be considered for these awards are requested to furnish proof of their age along with their paper.
Interested scholars may please follow the link conference.isleijle.org for their paper submission or write to us as at conference.isle@gmail.com