Hyderabad :
A final year student of MA Political Science at the University of Hyderabad (UoH), Garima Goel has been selected as the Baillie Gifford prize fellow for the year 2016-17.
The fellowship is given to only one person in the world and she would be studying MRes in Contemporary India at King’s College, London.
“With the whole digitisation, there is a lot of data that is available as open source and it is kind of exciting. All I want to do is research on Indian politics and be close to the policies. I just don’t want to keep on writing and be of no use. Publishing papers is not my main aim, creating an impact with my work is what I am looking forward to and I intend to explore understudied topics within mainstream political science in India through a career in research and teaching,” Goel said.
When asked what made her took up research work, she said, “Last year, I was among the three students selected from UoH to do a study on transcultural studies at Heidelberg University, Germany. It is there, my interest for research started and now all I want to do is to carry out research work.”
Goel enjoys uncovering and answering questions related to Indian politics using open data and maps, which are increasingly available to researchers today. During her time at King’s, she will work on ‘None of the Above’ (NOTA) voting patterns in India’s elections under the supervision of Dr Louise Tillin.
“Politicians do not care much about NOTA as it has no impact on results. However, through my earlier research, I found out that there has been a significant rise in the use of NOTA and as many assume there is a specific pattern and not just ignorance the reason for usage of NOTA. Also, there is no co-relation between NOTA and turnout,” Goel, who has earlier studied NOTA during the Bihar elections, said.
The fellowship, worth up to 30,000 pounds, provides full financial support to one student at King’s India Institute for research-track Masters programme that imparts advanced training to develop a thesis under expert supervision.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Express News Service / May 06th, 2016