The Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) has been awarded a grant of 1 million Canadian dollars from International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a funding agency from Canada.
The grant is a part of Think Tank Initiative launched by the agency. The initiative was created to strengthen the ability of prominent knowledge institutions to play an active role in national and international policy debates. The Canadian agency had received as many as 300 applications internationally under this initiative.
"IRMA is the only institute in Gujarat to get this grant," the institute said in a statement. A total of nine institutes in India have received the grant from IDRC.
"This grant marks a major endorsement of the institute's expansion in its research activities, especially in the areas of local self governance and development management. IRMA's faculty strength has gone up rapidly in recent years, and the institute's capacity to participate in national debates has improved dramatically," the institute added.
It may be mentioned here that while the grant comes directly from the IDRC, the entire initiative is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, UK Department for International Development (DFID), and the Netherlands Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS).