[4] After its registration as an autonomous society on 14 November 1986 and as a public trust on 15 January 1987, then Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi inaugurated the campus at Goregaon, Mumbai on 28 December 1987.

[7] The aims and objectives of the institute are to promote and conduct research on developmental issues from a broad inter- disciplinary perspective (economic, technological, social, political and ecological).

[9] The primary objectives of the institute are :[9] Special emphasis will be laid on the following areas: The institute is located on a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site on a hillside in Goregaon (East), 15 minutes by public bus from Mumbai's suburban Goregaon railway station and 20 minutes drive from Mumbai's national and international airports.

The campus, whose architecture is inspired by the art in the Elephanta and Jogeshwari caves, includes office buildings for research and administrative staff, several seminar rooms, a 500-seat auditorium, a library, a computer centre, a cafeteria and a guest house where visiting scholars are accommodated.

Students have an option for a Master's thesis in their 4th semester[10][11] The Ph.D. programme is designed to create academic researchers as well as professionals who are capable of conducting policy analysis, relating to national and global economic and development issues, from a quantitative and inter-disciplinary perspective.

While an interdisciplinary approach is encouraged, the programme lays somewhat larger emphasis on economics to provide an integrated framework within which various development issues can be addressed.

[12] The programme's scholarships enable up to five selected scholars to spend three months at a stretch at IGIDR to work on a research proposal that can be satisfactorily completed during their stay.