The Centre for Social Studies (CSS) is an autonomous social science research institute financially supported by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India (GoI) as well as Department of Education, Government of Gujarat (GoG). Founded as the Centre for Regional Development Studies by late Prof. I.P. Desai in 1969, it is located on the campus of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University (VNSGU), Surat.