The purpose of the Directory is to collate professional details of the social scientists in the country and to disseminate the information for the benefit of various stakeholders who need such information and their services. A centralized information base on the expertise of social scientists is currently not available. Therefore, the stakeholders who need the services of social scientists find it difficult to retrieve such information. It is expected that the proposed Directory will help to bridge this gap. The Directory will be updated periodically.

This Directory will provide an opportunity for social scientists to introduce themselves to stakeholders and to the wider society. It will enable the social scientists to establish links with industry and other organizations that need their services and expertise while helping them to develop collaborations with international organizations enabling to broaden their professional network.

It will be mandatory to register in this Directory for academics and researchers in the area of Social Sciences to receive grants and other benefits from the NSF. The NSF will use the information available in the Directory for selecting suitable social scientists for its various committees, research programmes, conferences, workshops, training programmes and other activities.(KH)