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Three new Master of Arts (MA) programmes in Development Studies, English, and Economics are being offered by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences is offering the new MA courses with the goal of increasing the intake and pool of candidates who can apply for these programmes. The programmes will begin in the academic year 2023, according to a statement from IIT Madras. The application process for MA programmes will begin in March or April 2023, with classes beginning in July of that year. IIT Madras will accept admission to the two-year MA programmes on the basis of a soon-to-be-announced entrance examination instead of the Humanities and Social Sciences Entrance Examination (HSEE).

"The Institute is expanding the scope of the MA programme by adding Economics to the previously existing streams of Development Studies and English Studies, and by offering all three streams as two-year programmes rather than the present five-year integrated MA programmes," according to the IIT.

Each stream will have 25 seats available for Indian students. International students will be admitted on a supernumerary basis to the programmes.

"By making MA programmes available after graduation from several streams, IIT Madras hopes to attract a more diversified set of individuals," it stated.

"Evidence-based policy assessments, the role of technology in affecting socioeconomic development, data science and governance, and engagement with contemporary concerns such as climate change, sustainability, and urbanisation, among others," the institute added. The MA program's course curriculum will be revamped to include more contemporary disciplines including Innovation Economics, Urban Planning and Development, Health Policy, Environmental Humanities, Climate Economics, Technology and Policy, and Computational Linguistics, among others.

"The restructuring of the MA programme is done with an aim to make the same accessible to more students who have completed their bachelor's degrees from multiple disciplines across humanities, science, commerce, engineering, and so on," said Professor V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, highlighting the major impact of this new initiative. Such humanities and social science exposure are critical for future generations of students to meet and address the various difficulties that the current world presents. Because students will be taught as domain-specific specialists with international readiness and a national focus, this extended selection of MA programmes will open up new possibilities of placement and employability."