1. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme:

There are two main reasons behind studying the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. One, how much employment is the scheme providing to the people mainly in rural areas? Second, have the changes in the MGNREGS undermined the original purpose of the scheme? With these objectives in mind, direct interviews of persons, who had worked under MGNREGS, were conducted in the five districts of Gadchiroli, Pune, Dhule, Beed and Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. The research project reviews a number of challenges that could not be overcome by the scheme along with its shortcomings. It also investigates the usefulness of the scheme to people who migrated to their hometown during the Covid-19 lockdown. The fieldwork of the research project has been completed and the work of report writing is underway.

2. Study of Rural Political Economy in Maharashtra:

This research project studies the changing economy and politics after 1990. The study investigates the changes in the ownership of agricultural land and the changing position of the elite. Under the guidance of Dr. Jayant Lele and Dr. Nitin Birmal, field work was completed in 16 villages across 8 districts. Report writing is underway.

3. Project: ‘Understanding Marxist thought from a new perspective’:

Amidst the debates surrounding the impact of globalization and reverse globalization; crises of capitalism; and increasing inequality at the global, national and local levels; the relevance of Marxism as an analytical tool to understand the present in order to shape the future in a better, more egalitarian way has been felt more than ever. Therefore, the Unique Foundation has undertaken this project, with the aim of making Marxist thought accessible to the common Marathi readers through publication of a series of books. The series focuses on delineating the advent of modernity; emergence of Marxism; revolutionary thinking of young Marx; Marxist thought regarding dialectics, history and class struggle, ideology, culture, the state, democracy and social revolution etc. The project is being carried out by well-known scholar Com. Datta Desai and the first volume in the series namely, ‘Adhunikateche Aagman: Europekendri Itihasacha Jagtik Vichar’ has been published ( ). The other books in the series are in the pipeline.

4. Constituency Data Bank:

Under this project, data regarding 288 Assembly Constituencies in Maharashtra is being compiled, along with their peculiarities, social composition, key issues, state of development/backwardness etc. As an important component of this project, the information about caste of prominent candidates in all the Assembly Constituencies since 1962 elections is being compiled.

5. Socio-Political and Economic profile of districts in Maharashtra:

The political process in Maharashtra has fundamentally transformed since the adoption of the policy of liberalization at the national level in the early 1990s. The state witnessed the demise of one-party dominance and emergence of multi-party competition. In order to fathom these complex processes, it is necessary to understand politics at the district level, because state politics is primarily shaped at the taluka-district level. The party competition intensified even at the local level after the 1990s. In order to unearth the complex socio-economic processes underlaying these changes, it becomes pertinent to analyze the political process, leadership, social and political organizations, political economy, cooperatives, social movements etc. at the district level. The ‘District-Profile Project’ undertaken by the Unique Foundation is aimed at collecting such relevant data of all the districts in the state and analyze it, in order to understand the regional and state level political process in Maharashtra. So far, we have completed such a study of Latur district and published it in the form of a book, namely,> “Latur JIlhyachi Rajkiy Prakriya: Samajik, Rajkiy v Arthik Vatchal’’. The Foundation has undertaken a project of 'Cultural Critique', with the view of empowering the common masses. The project seeks to understand what is cultural critiqur and why it is necessary to undertake it in the contemporary circumstances. It introduces the theorisation of cultural studies, contexualizes it in the Indian scenario, analyzes cultural politics, while also presenting some pertinent examples of cultural critique. The project is being carried out by an aminent scholar in the field of Cultural Studies – Prof. Madhuri Dixit, (Pemraj Sarada College, Ahemednagar).