A pioneering study by 31 social scientists, across nine research institutes, on the status of social science in India revealed progress as the country ranked 13th in research output among the 26 most productive countries. But it also revealed weakness in respect of research capacity, quantity, quality, and funding. In research output, India was ahead of China and Brazil in 1995, but China took over in 2007. In quality, although ahead of China, India remained short of Brazil. It revealed that the improvements through the national policy are imperative if the social sciences are to play their emancipatory role in knowledge creation and enlightenment.
