Despite having a robust institutional architecture of local democracy in the Indian Constitution and various statutes, the picture on the ground is far from desirable. While there is a state of apathy to fully implement the constitutional promise, the civil society has also stayed away from supporting the local democratic governance structures. In recent times, however, significant civil society interventions have shown the potential of local democracy, which now needs academic support in terms of education, documentation, research and wider dissemination of the good practices. The Centre aims to do these.