“Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) is an advanced research institute established and fully funded by the Reserve Bank of India for carrying out research on development issues from a multi-disciplinary point of view.

IGIDR was registered as an autonomous society on November 14, 1986 and as a public trust in January 1987. On December 28, 1987 the campus was inaugurated by Late. Shri Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India.

Subsequently, the Institute was recognized as a Deemed University under Section 3 of the UGC Act.

Starting as a purely research institution, it rapidly developed into a full-fledged teaching cum research organisation when it launched a Ph.D. program in the field of development studies in 1990. The objective of the Ph.D. programme is to produce researchers with diverse disciplinary backgrounds who can address issues of economics, energy and environment policies. In 1995, the institute initiated the M. Phil programme. The M.Sc. programme commenced in 2003 to introduce students to the world of research at an earlier stage.
At present the Institute has about 188 employees and students, that include about 26 full time faculty members, 22 non-academic staff and about 140 M.Sc./M.Phil/Ph.D students.