Developing Countries Research Centre dcrc was set up by the University of Delhi on 20 April 1993 under the Board of Interdisciplinary Programme through Ordinance No. XV-A. With this step, the formal structure which came into being brought together teachers and researchers from various Departments and Colleges of the University of Delhi, who are engaged in studying problems of the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America in a comparative perspective. In 2004 the status of dcrc was upgraded to that of a constituent of the Faculty of Social Sciences vide Ordinance XX (9)

The dcrc was formally inaugurated by Professor G. Ram Reddy , Chairperson, UGC, on 5 August 1994 . It was supported by the UGC during the initial years

Efforts to develop a postcolonial perspective on academic programmes in Delhi University had been initiated at least ten years before the inaugural of the dcrc . The introduction of postgraduate courses such as the Politics of Developing Countries, Political Thought in the Third World, and the Political Economy of Development generated considerable interest among students and teachers of different departments.

The Centre has organized major national and international seminars and conferences on themes of significant interest, sometimes in collaboration with prestigious institutions such as the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library , AKUT Group of Uppsala University (Sweden), Max Mueller Bhavan, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies , Aligarh Muslim University, International History Congress, V.V.Giri National Labour Institute, Central Social Welfare Board, Women's Studies and Development Centre, Planning Commission, Institute for Human Development, DESTIN of the London School of Economics and Political Science, DFID, Japan Foundation, Vidyajyoti College of theology and the constituent colleges of Delhi University.

Activities such as the fortnightly Comparative Theory Seminar which has been held regularly since 1988 and the annual Grassroots Politics Colloquium since 1990 have proved to be important avenues for serious interdisciplinary discussions around issues of import. The Annual Human Rights Day programme since 1996 and the lectures instituted in the names of Oliver Tambo and Pablo Neruda since 1995 have proved to be intellectually rewarding. Other major programmes are oriented around the themes of poverty alleviation, women and labour studies, film as social science text, classics' reading, development, conflict, cities, gender and migration in Asia, social healing, and rights, representation and the poor

Through its programmes the dcrc aims to generate a body of knowledge which engages with the issues that confront the postcolonial world. Scholars in Political Science, Economics, Sociology, History, Geography, Education, Philosophy, Psychology and Literature have been involved in this effort. The objective of the centre is to critically address important political and intellectual issues that emerge from the study of the postcolonial world and integrate these insights into teaching at the undergraduate, postgraduate, and research levels in the vast educational network of Delhi University and beyond.