The first Governing Body of the Centre consisted of Senior Professors and Heads of Departments of Sociology of the collaborating universities, the Director of the Centre for Social Research, Trivandrum and three faculty members from the Kerala University Dept. of Sociology. Hence throughout it existence, it has had an academic and research orientation besides organizing and executing programmes for the welfare of senior citizens. The commanding position of the Members of the Governing Body in their respective universities enabled the centre to have excellent academic base from the very beginning. The Heads were able to bring within the sphere of influence of the Centre, the faculty members, research scholars and students of their departments which in turn gave their teaching and research (including M.Phil and Ph.D programmes) a gerontological perspective. Indeed this resulted in having a number of M.Phil. and Ph.D. theses of these depts. with aging as their topic. This was also reflected in the themes or sub themes of the seminars and conferences they organized. It will not be an exaggeration to say that the membership of the Heads of Departments of the five South Indian Universities in key decision making roles in CGS has enabled gerontology to have sound and solid academic roots in South India.