WELCOME TO Economic Research Unit
About the Unit:
The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) at Kolkata made a significant contribution to economic planning in India during the 1950's. Studies on planning were inaugurated at ISI, Kolkata in 1954 by India's first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. A Draft Plan frame for the Second Five Year Plan of India was prepared on the basis of these studies and submitted to the Prime Minister in March 1955 by Professor P. C. Mahalanobis, the founder of ISI. The Planning Division in Kolkata was formed at that time.
In 1968, the Planning Division was reorganized into two separate units: the National Income Research Unit (NIRU) and the Economic Research Unit (ERU). Around the mid-80's, NIRU was merged with ERU. The latter has been shouldering the bulk of the teaching responsibility in Applied and Theoretical Economics and Econometrics in the degree and other courses of ISI and ISEC (International Statistical Education Centre). It also conducts a full-fledged programme of research leading to the PhD degree.
Academic Programme:
Master of Science in Quantitative Economic or MS(QE):
In the mid-90's, ERU, along with the Planning Unit at ISI, Delhi Centre took the initiative of launching a two-year Master of Science course in Quantitative Economics or MS(QE). This course is offered simultaneously at Kolkata and Delhi and has the distinction of being one of the few Master's level courses in India that concentrate entirely on training students in the application of advanced quantitative & mathematical techniques to economic problems. The course has turned out to be most popular amongst students. The industry as well as academic institutions in India and abroad have absorbed graduating students from this course.
It is widely considered to be among the very best of its kind in India. This program stands out for its small class size, a very high degree of personalized student-faculty interaction, and the technical rigor of the training it imparts. On successful completion of the programme, a student will be able to pursue an academic career in Economics or take up responsible positions in various private and public sector organisations. It is offered simultaneously at Kolkata and Delhi. One can download the course syllabus from https://www.isical.ac.in/content/postgraduate.
Stipends, Fellowships and Allowances :
All non-sponsored students and research fellows admitted to various degree programmes and the domicile students of the Postgraduate Diploma in Statistical Methods and Analytics programme receive stipends, fellowships and book/contingency grants as given below. Non-sponsored candidates are not required to pay any tuition fee for any of the programmes. Stipends are granted in the first instance for one semester only. They are renewed every semester if the progress of the student is found satisfactory. Stipend/ Fellowship granted to a student may be reduced or completely withdrawn if the academic progress, attendance in class, or character and conduct of the student are not found satisfactory. Details of the rules pertaining to this are available in the appropriate Students’ Brochure. At the end of each semester, prizes are also awarded for outstanding performance in examinations. Every MS(QE) student receives monthly stipends of 8000 INR and yearly contingency grant of 8000 INR.
Placement:
MS(QE) students interested in pursuing a career in the corporate sector can look forward to a thriving campus placement program at ERU. Our corporate placement record is consistently 100%, and the average salary package offered to graduates of our MSQE program has been well over Rs 25 lakh per annum in recent years. Companies that have absorbed students from our MSQE program in the recent past include JPMorgan Chase & Co, American Express, Deutsche Bank, Capital One, PWC, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Atlassian, U-GRO Capital, Wells Fargo, Standard Chartered, EY, Bank of America, Barclays Bank, HDFC Bank, IIFL Finance, ICICI, TATA AIG, Citi Bank.
Higher Studies:
The global academic reputation of our MSQE program is evidenced by the fact that, in the recent past, graduating MSQE students from ERU have been offered fully funded doctoral placement by leading universities around the world such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Rochester, Virginia, U. of Wisconsin Madison, U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, U. of Texas Austin, U. of British Columbia, Warwick, Mannheim, Bonn, Carlos III, Pompeu Fabra, and the National University of Singapore.
Eligibility: Bachelor’s degree of three or more years’ duration, in any discipline such as Economics, Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Chemistry, BTech with any stream.
Admission Procedures: Written admission tests comprise multiple-choice and short answer type questions from Economics, Mathematics and Statistics at the undergraduate level followed by an interview (interview is only for the selected candidates from the written tests). Syllabus and last year questions are available at https://www.isical.ac.in/~admission/
Facilities: No registration fees and monthly stipends of 8000 INR with yearly book grant for every qualified student.
About the PhD Programme:
ERU has a long tradition in high quality research in quantitative economics, mainly in economic theory, econometric methods and applications, and public policy. This is evidenced by the publication lists of its faculty members in well established international as well as national journals It has also been undertaking project work financed both by the ISI as well as external funding bodies, such as the Reserve Bank of India, the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, the International Labour Organization and the World Bank.
Weekly Seminar:
The unit regularly organizes the weekly seminar on Wednesdays from 4pm to 5pm. Speakers from different global institutes and organizations across the world visit and present their research work at the unit.
Research:
The major activities of the Economic Research Unit is to undertake research in various fields of Economics and Econometrics, with a view to develop economic theory and methods, and their use in real practice with special reference to problems of planning of national development and social welfare. It's activities also involve in promoting the study and teaching of econometrics for mutual benefits of the society and this subject.
Scientists of the ERU are involved in research works in various areas of theoretical and applied economics and econometrics. These include the following broad areas like - Agricultural Economics; Industrial Organization; Game Theory - Cooperative and Non-cooperative; Welfare Economics; International Trade; Mechanism Design Problems; Political Economy; Economic Growth Theory; Macroeconomics; Microeconomics; Econometrics; Time Series Analysis; Financial Econometrics; Environmental Economics; Quality of life; Studies on Standard of living and poverty; Demand analysis; Women studies; Health economics; Index Number; Industrial economics; Economics of education; Public finance Globalization.
Furthermore, ERU organizes various internally and externally funded projects (includes social surveys) for the enhancement of the social development.
Contacts:
Head, ERU : Dr. Anuj Bhowmik,
Email - anujbhowmik09@gmail.com / headeru@isical.ac.in
Professor-In-Charge, SSD : Professor Niladri Sekhar Dash
Email - picssdisi@gmail.com
Address: Economic Research Unit, 6th floor, Library Building, 203 B.T. Road, Kolkata 700108
