Unlike faculty in more conventional universities, we have the distinction of operating within a premier technological institute and spending time with every student who comes to IIT Delhi. It is in this respect that we feel particularly well-equipped to contribute to a science, arts and ethics dialogue across cultural boundaries.

Original contributions to research and to ongoing debates in ethics, cultural anthropology, critical theory, cognition, ideology, development policy, organizational behavior and economic activity, environmental and gender studies, the history of science and technology, the philosophy of culture, and indeed to the nature of theory itself are crucial within a Department like ours.

Teaching methods in HUSS emphasize the discursive mode and interpersonal contact between faculty and students both at the UG and PG levels. The ‘Communication Skills’ course is only one such example of our efforts to foster social and intellectual self-confidence in our students.

Our overall objective over the next few years is to strengthen the uniquely interdisciplinary nature of the Department. As we know, the IITs were always meant to impart training not merely in the fundamentals of science and technology but also in innovative thinking. This is likely to be of utmost importance in a rapidly changing world where the nature of knowledge has been transformed almost beyond recognition. It is here that the HSS can contribute to the profile of students at IIT Delhi. It can and must respond with vigour to the challenges posed by the global dilemmas of the new millennium.