The Servants of India Society, a registered body founded by the nationalist leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale, are the trustees of the institute.

In the early years, the research activities were financed through assistance from various ministries and public funding agencies including the government of Maharashtra and private foundations like the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.

During the early fifties, the Rockefeller Foundation made a substantial grant, spread over years, for the conduct of a research programme in rural demography.

The Union Ministry of Health also gave grants for conducting some specific demographic studies in 1954–57; and in 1964, the ministry decided to strengthen and expand the research work on population by financing on a continuing basis a Population Research Centre as an integral part of the institute.

However, the applied and empirical research into Indian economic problems and policy evaluations indirectly encompass the political dimensions as well.

The curricular content of the ongoing MSc Economics programme offers a blend of core and applied optional courses.

The PhD programme, started right from the inception of the institute, still continues with a highly selective intake and hence a limited output.

In addition, the programme provides for full length courses on Project Appraisal & Finance, Structural Products, M&A, and Investment Banking among others.

In addition to being a quantitative introduction to the discipline, the programme covers finance, management, accounting and sociology.

The institute publishes a quarterly journal of economics in English, Artha Vijnana, the first publication of which was made in March 1959.

Rao, K N Raj, V M Dandekar, I G Patel, Andre Beteille, Manmohan Singh, Amresh Bagchi, Jagdish Bhagwati, C Rangarajan and A P J Abdul Kalam.

The girls’ hostel was designed by the famous architect and urban planner Christopher Charles Benninger during 1996–1998.

On the Fergusson Hill behind the institute lies the spot where Gokhale took the vows of the Servants of India Society – poverty, obedience, and service to nation – and administered them to three others.

The library possesses quite a large number of rare books published before the advent of twentieth century and which may not be available elsewhere.