Lokniti-CSDS (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies), in collaboration with Jain University, Bengaluru, organised the Summer Workshop on ‘Analyzing Quantitative Data on Indian Politics’ from 11th July 2014 to 21st July 2016  at the global campus of Jain University. This was the tenth Summer School in the series of workshops that began with the first workshop held in 2006 at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Summer School, participants from the previous summer schools (returnees) were invited to present their work. Among those who presented their work at this year’s summer school were Surabhi Singh (Jawahrlal Nehru University), Lavanya Suresh (Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore), Shailendra Kharat (Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune), Madan Lal (Punjab University), Rahul Verma (University of California, Berkeley), Jyoti Mishra (Lokniti, CSDS) and Shashwat Dhar (Lokniti, CSDS). Each presentation was followed by a question-answer session in which the arguments put forth by the presenters were subject to critical scrutiny by the participants and resource persons present.

The twenty five participants who attended this year’s workshop were selected from a pool of about hundred applicants. The participants belonged to some of the premier research institutions and leading universities of the country namely Delhi School of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, University of Hyderabad, Punjab University (Chandigarh), and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai).

Some of the leading scholars working on empirical methods in Political Science have been involved in designing this summer school. In the Summer School there was a special emphasis on making sense of quantitative data on Indian politics. It brings together a group of political scientists with the aim of providing them an opportunity to improve their skills in quantitative analysis. The selected participants were given a set of readings before they came to attend the workshop. The participants had to attend lectures and practical data analysis sessions. The two week, residential workshop aimed at training young social science researchers in quantitative methods, focusing not merely on statistical techniques but also on formulating interesting research questions. Data from the 2014 National Election Study (NES) Pre-poll was used as the basis for the study.

The resource persons for the workshop included Pradeep Chhibber (University of California, Berkeley), Irfan Nooruddin (Georgetown University, Washington), Siddharth Swaminathan (Azim Premji University, Bengaluru), Sandeep Shastri (Jain University), Sanjay Kumar (CSDS), Suhas Palshikar (Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune), Divya Vaid (Jawaharlal Nehru University), Reetika Sayal (Jain University, Bengaluru), Jyoti Mishra (Lokniti, CSDS) and Shashwat Dhar (Lokniti, CSDS).

Every participant made a presentation at the end of the workshop, by choosing an appropriate research question and using quantitative techniques to answer it. Lokniti plans to hold an Advance Workshop for those who submit quality papers flowing from the workshop held at Bengaluru. It is hoped that most of these presentations will develop into full length papers which could be published in leading research journals.