Future Vision
The institute intends to become the Regional Centre of Excellence in the Himalayan region and serve as think tank to government, cooperatives and non-governmental institutions for policy-making, planning and programme formulation related to the development of Himalayan region.
- It will generate and synthesize the knowledge required to effectively utilize the Himalayan resources and deal with the problems of the region.
- The research and extension activities carried out will influence the decisions and actions by providing the concepts, strategies, solutions, options and lessons from experience.
- The institute will pay special attention to the issues relating to marginalized, disadvantaged and deprived sections of the society. The development planners will get assistance in the process of planning by way of perennial flow of information available at one place.
- Policy makers and researchers will get authentic and processed information and knowledge about Himalayas .
- Awareness and capacity building will result in the enhancement of quality of life of Himalayan people.
- The Institute will complement the development roles of state, regional and national agencies active in the development of Himalayan region and will also cooperate actively with these agencies in order to influence policies, programmes and projects at state and national level.
The Institute sees an important role for itself in the overall national scenario bringing to the focus the significance of hitherto scattered or unexplored areas relating to men and materials of Himalayan region.
It will provide inputs for systematic planning and implementation and also evolve strategies for an all-round development of state. In this context, it will look forward to reorient its existing approach of conceptualizing and undertaking research activities so that the results of the research could reach the common men. In this endeavor it proposes to collaborate with different government and non-governmental organization for undertaking collaborative research activities.
It proposes to provide professional services, research advice and technical know-how to various government departments. In future, it will undertake action-oriented research activities by following its integrated approach so as to increase outreach in the Himachal Himalaya.
This approach will give rise to a holistic view which will favor interdisciplinary problem analysis, design, implementation, and monitoring of socio-economic, cultural as well as scientific aspects of all the problems.
Institute will contribute by:
- Developing Skills and enhancing the quality of life of people
- Emerging as a focal point for national and international exhibitions on Himalayan art and architecture, folklore and rare manus thereby generating a repository of such artifacts
- Enhancing regional cooperation with neighboring countries
- Opening new avenues for recreation including high altitude sports, and adventure tourism resulting in enhanced economic development.
Institute has carried out research on different aspects such as agriculture, horticulture, forestry, health issues, socio-cultural aspects and environmental aspects and will continue to pursue the same in near future.
The research during the second phase will contribute in providing expertise pertaining to Himalayan region. The research will enhance the promotion of relationship between policy and action and the methodologies for integrating environmental conservation and development. It will establish reconciliation between different aspects of problems and opportunities. In future it will:
- Emerge as a Resource Centre on Himalayan region
- Try to fill the research gaps identified during first phase.
- Generate primary data by undertaking need based location specific studies
- Undertake Inclusive studies focusing on
- Climate change and coping strategies evolved by the people based on local knowledge systems
- Collaborative studies with various departments
- Concerns of environmentalists
- Documentation conservation and preservation of mountain diversity (bio-physical and socio-economic resources)
- Herbal wealth
- Non-conventional energy sources and development of alternative sources of energy
- Scientific mapping of natural resources of the region using remote sensing tools
- Contemporary issues of concern
- This will help in:
- Bringing out a series of documents on Wealth of Himachal Pradesh.
- Preparing an encyclopedia on Himalayan region
- Extending the experiment in other Himalayan states.
In future also it proposes to make sincere efforts to expand its activities and establish linkages with local, national and international centers of excellence. For this purpose it has envisaged some broader thematic areas with certain research and academic activities
