The Institute's approach to research studies and dialogues is multi-disciplinary. The inter-disciplinary perspective of the Institute is reflected through pluralistic approaches both in substantive and methodological dimensions of enquiry in diverse development issues. The conceptual and theoretical debate is inbuilt in different types of researches, which are being undertaken at the Institute. The output of the studies undertaken by the Institute's faculty have policy implications at immediate operative level as well as for long term formulation of implementational strategies.

THRUST AREAS
The Institute has been pursuing research studies and organising dialogues, training and interactions in five main areas, viz., Economic Policies and Strategies; Natural Resource Management and Environment; NGO and PR Centre; Social Policies: Institutions, Governance and Civil Society; and Women and Gender Studies.

Economic Policies and Strategies
Economic Policies and Strategies has been another important thrust area identified by the Institute for research and dialogues. Apart from economic studies, our activities in this area include policy dialogues, trainings and advocacy. Our past and continuing studies and dialogues in this area include sectoral studies covering agriculture, livestock, non-farm sector and urban informal sector; rural finance and credit; and poverty and unemployment. Agricultural sector has been the most intensively studied economic sector by the IDSJ researchers. The issues probed are agricultural policies, food security, farm inputs particularly fertilizer and irrigation, capital formation, marketing, and liberalization of agriculture. The researchers have also undertaken studies focussing on rice, food security and agricultural marketing systems in southeast and south Asia. The livestock sector studies at the Institute have covered economics of sheep and goat rearing, marketing of wool, goat, goat products and other live animals; inter-sectoral linkages, livestock services and dairy processing. Keeping in view the emerging importance of rural non-farm sector, the researchers at IDSJ have analyzed employment pattern in khadi and handicrafts and rural industry, and the system of credit delivery to this sector. Urban informal sector was studied with a focus on labour market, child labour, employment and income. The issue of poverty and management of poverty alleviation programmers (PAP) and livelihood adaptation has been the central focus of a number of studies and dialogues.

Apart from these, the Institute in recent years concentrated on policies and programs pertaining to different sectors of the economy which include subsidies in agriculture, spatial integration of agricultural markets, institutional finance and rural credit, financial sector reforms, evaluation of Indira Avas Yojana and Million Well Scheme, micro credit in Rajasthan, economic performance of Rajasthan, studies related to DPIP, terms of trade for agricultural sector at the state level, equity driven trade and marketing policy strategies for Indian agriculture, rural industrialization, panchayat samiti wise development status index, food security, coping mechanisms in drought conditions, tourism and structural transformation of Rajasthan economy.

Our dialogues in the area of economic policies and strategies have covered such issues as agricultural policies during the nineties; drought mitigation and food stocks; agricultural marketing reforms; employment guarantee; and future of agriculture in Asia. The Institute has been conducting training programmes for development administrators, functionaries and analysts at national and international levels. For example, a series of training programmes on agricultural policy analysis and planning were conducted for development administrators of Asia and Africa. A similar series of international training programmes on macro policies for poverty alleviation was subsequently launched. The Institute has also organized trainings on environmental economics, research methods, input-output analysis and poverty analysis at national and state levels.

Natural Resource Management and Environment
In a state, with over 60 percent of its area under desert environment and the bulk of its remaining area with less than 60 cm of annual precipitation, water is the most scarce resource and critical to the survival and livelihood of the people of Rajasthan and several other parts of India. This has, therefore, been one of the thrust areas for intensive study. Based on a series of studies, the Institute is attempting to influence the water use policy for water scarce regions. The studies, which have been built as a series, pertain to the demand for water, supply of water and allocative mechanism, both institutional and market. In each of these sub-sets, relevant studies have been undertaken with a view to eventually influencing the water use policy, strategies and attitudes towards water. On supply side, our studies and dialogues have covered rainfall patterns, ground water and surface water sources. As regards demand side issues, our studies have covered demand for drinking water, irrigation, other uses, water markets and pricing of water. These apart, water laws, water pollution, local water management options, water balance modeling, economic evaluation of water projects and bench marking of irrigation projects have been covered by our studies and dialogues. The role of communities in water conservation and issues relating to ownership and control of water received added emphasis.

The other resource selected by the Institute for intensive study is livestock, which is critical for the people of Rajasthan. Within livestock, the Institute initially accorded priority to the small animals, viz., sheep and goat, as these are important components of the farming systems in various regions. The goat and sheep breeders do not often fetch remunerative prices due to their weak forward linkages with the market and processing industry. The Institute has probed the linkages and identified areas of interventions at various levels for improving the incomes of goat and sheep breeders. Government functionaries and voluntary organizations are trying the identified interventions in selected areas. In recent years, we have extended our studies on dairying, impact of commercialization of livestock services on poor, and to cover role of local institutions in improving the productivity of grazing lands.

The Institute has been looking at social forestry and bio-diversity. Using intensive anthropological fieldwork methods, a study, focussing on the Luni River, is examining relationship between bio-diversity and land-use. The findings seem to question some of the basic assumptions of development priorities in the region. These apart, our dialogues and studies include issues relating to environment and development; environmental economics, watershed management, and degradation of lands. Land reforms and land use patterns have also received the attention of researchers at the Institute.

With a view to monitoring the status of natural resources, the Institute has established a laboratory to interpret the images available from satellite remote sensing. Based on these, the resource use plans for sustainable development of selected areas in both irrigated and dry land regions are being worked out. Remote sensing technology has also been used in our studies on 20 irrigation projects and identification of performance indicators for Rajasthan Water Resource Consolidation Project.