Written by BK Sahni · Reviewed by the Editorial Team · Last updated: 12 September 2026

What is the IGNOU MAANY project, and which code applies to you?

The IGNOU MAANY project is the supervised research component of MAANY, the restructured Master of Arts (Anthropology) taught by the Discipline of Anthropology in the School of Social Sciences at Indira Gandhi National Open University. It is delivered through two distinct course codes rather than one. The MAANY Programme Guide names them as the Project Report (MANE 106) and the Dissertation (MANP 101). MANP 101 carries 8 credits and 100 marks, has only a project component, and carries no assignment and no term-end examination, so the entire result rests on the report itself. Each of the two codes has its own synopsis approval mailbox, and each finished report is submitted separately for evaluation. Learners still registered under the older MAAN programme follow a different set of codes and should not apply MAANY instructions to their work.

That split is the single thing most learners get wrong. A MAANY learner is not doing “the anthropology project” as one piece of work. Two codes means two approvals, two reports, two submissions and, as the fee section below explains, potentially two separate evaluation fees.

Step one, before anything else

MAAN or MAANY: how to tell which anthropology programme you are in

Indira Gandhi National Open University currently runs two Master of Arts (Anthropology) code families side by side, and search results mix them freely. Getting this wrong costs a session, because a synopsis prepared against the wrong course code will not be approved against the right one.

Three checks settle it in a few minutes.

1. Read the programme code on your own record. Your admission record, ID card and re-registration record print a programme code. MAANY and MAAN are different programmes, not two spellings of one.
2. Look at the course codes you are actually registered for. The MAANY course table runs on the MAN series, with MAN-101 Introducing Anthropology through MAN-110 Epidemiology and Public Health on the University programme page, plus MANE electives and MANP 101. The older MAAN programme runs on MANI-001, MANI-003 and MANP-001.
3. Check the header on your assignment booklet. IGNOU prints the programme code at the top of each booklet. The MAN-105 booklet issued for the January 2026 session is headed with programme code MAANY. The MANI-001 booklet is headed MAAN. This is the fastest single check, because the booklet is already on your desk.

If those checks point to MAAN rather than MAANY, the codes and the routing on this page do not apply to you, and the guide to the older MAAN project codes covers MANI-001, MANI-003 and MANP-001 instead.

One caution worth carrying forward. The live MAANY programme page on ignou.ac.in lists the MAN-101 to MAN-110 theory courses but does not list the project courses at all, and most of its credit fields render empty. A page that omits your project course is not evidence that the project course does not exist. The Programme Guide is the document that describes it.

The two codes

MANE-106 and MANP-101: what each course is, and where its synopsis goes

These are not two names for the same submission. The MAANY Programme Guide describes them separately, gives them separate approval routes, and treats their reports as separate items for evaluation.

Where does the MAANY synopsis actually go for approval?

The MAANY synopsis goes to a course-specific mailbox, not to a generic project address. The Programme Guide directs the MANE 106 synopsis to mane106@ignou.ac.in and the MANP 101 synopsis to manp101@ignou.ac.in, and instructs learners to begin the study only once approval has come back. That routing is unusual: IGNOU’s general project submission guidance, which covers every programme with a project component, tells learners to forward a proposal to their Regional Centre or to the concerned School of Studies. Anthropology has been given named course mailboxes instead. For a MAANY learner the practical meaning is direct. Send each synopsis to the mailbox that matches its course code, keep the reply, and attach a copy of that approval to the finished report, because the University requires the approval to travel with the submission.

Who can supervise MAANY project work?

The Programme Guide states that learners need to choose a mentor, supervisor or guide, and that the details of project and mentor selection are set out in the respective manuals rather than in the Programme Guide itself. It does not publish a qualification threshold on that page. Anything circulating online about a fixed minimum degree or a fixed number of years of teaching experience for a MAANY guide should be treated as unverified until it is found in the course manual or confirmed by your Regional Centre. Ask for the manual for your specific code, MANE 106 or MANP 101, rather than a general anthropology handout.

The part almost nobody covers

Where the official documents disagree, and which line to follow

Three genuine conflicts sit in the published material for this programme. Naming them is more useful than pretending the paperwork is tidy.

Is there a viva voce for the MAANY dissertation?

The MAANY Programme Guide states plainly that there is no viva voce examination for the dissertation. The University’s general online project submission guidance, which is written for every programme that has a project component, says the opposite in general terms: that the viva voce of the project report will be conducted under certain guidelines by the concerned faculties under the Regional Centre, and that students should contact their Regional Centre. Both documents are official. They are not written at the same level. One is programme-specific and names MAANY; the other is a blanket instruction for all programmes and cannot know which ones exempt the viva. The programme-specific line is the one that describes your course. Confirm it with your Regional Centre before the submission window, and do not build your planning around a viva that competitor pages assert and the MAANY guide denies.

Hard copy to Maidan Garhi, or a single PDF upload?

The MAANY Programme Guide says the Project Report and Dissertation should be submitted to the Registrar, Student Evaluation Division, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi 110068, for evaluation. The same passage then adds a condition that resolves the confusion: where the University provides a link to upload project and dissertation reports, learners should upload only on that link, and in that case there is no need to submit a hard copy. In current practice IGNOU opens a session-specific online project submission portal for each term-end examination, so the upload route is normally the live one. It is still conditional rather than permanent. Extension notices have in some sessions referred to both hard copy and soft copy, wherever applicable. Check what the portal for your session says before you print and bind anything.

MANP 101 or MANP 001?

The Programme Guide itself is not fully consistent here. In describing the dissertation it names MANP 101 and routes the synopsis to manp101@ignou.ac.in, but in the sentence about submitting to the Student Evaluation Division it prints the dissertation as MANP 001, which is the older MAAN code. This looks like a legacy code carried over during the restructure rather than a second course. For a MAANY learner the operating rule is simple: use the code that appears on your own registration record and on your term-end examination form, and write that exact code on the first page of your PDF. Do not correct your own paperwork to match a printed inconsistency.

Money

What the MAANY project costs, and when that fee is paid

The project evaluation fee is compulsory and is charged per course, not per learner. IGNOU introduced it for learners admitted from the January 2023 admission cycle onwards, under Student Evaluation Division notification F.No.IG/SED/Practicals/Projects/2023/12295 dated 7 March 2023, on two slabs.

Three points decide whether that money does its job.

• The fee is paid to the University along with the term-end examination form, not to a guide and not at the time of submission. It is a learner-to-University evaluation charge.
• Because the slab is set per course, a learner submitting both MANE 106 and MANP 101 pays twice, and possibly at two different slabs. Check the credit value printed against MANE 106 on your own programme guide before assuming which slab applies.
• If the required fee was not paid along with the term-end examination form, the project report cannot be considered for evaluation. The receipt is submitted with the report, whether the report goes by hard copy or through the portal.

Semester four also carries a compulsory practical course examined for 100 marks at a centre, which sits outside the two project codes and is charged under the practical examination fee slabs. Budget for it separately.

Before you press upload

What must be inside the single PDF

IGNOU’s online project submission guidance is specific about the file, and most rejections trace back to it rather than to the research. The report is scanned into one PDF file for one subject or course, so that the Regional Centre or Student Evaluation Division can download it as a single file.

1. First page particulars, in full. Title of the project report or dissertation, learner name, programme code, enrolment number exactly as printed on the ID card and not the control or registration number, Regional Centre code, the course code of the attached project, mobile number and email address.
2. The approved proposal proforma in original, along with the synopsis.
3. Bio-data of the project guide.
4. The originality certificate, signed by both the learner and the project guide, with the date filled in.
5. A copy of the respective approval, which the MAANY Programme Guide requires to be attached with the project and dissertation.
6. The project evaluation fee receipt.
7. Clean scans. Pages well lit and not dim, not blurred, in the correct sequence, with the orientation consistent throughout rather than switching between portrait and landscape.

Failure points

Why MAANY project work comes back, and what to fix first

These are the recurring, avoidable causes, ordered by how early they can be caught.

• Working from MAAN instructions. The most common single error. MANI-001 and MANP-001 guidance describes a different programme structure and different approval routing.
• One synopsis for two codes. MANE 106 and MANP 101 are approved separately, through separate mailboxes. An approval for one is not an approval for the other.
• Sending the synopsis to the project upload portal. It is rejected there by design.
• Title drift. The title on the finished report has to match the title that was approved. A revised title needs the approval reworked, not a quiet edit at binding stage.
• The approval copy left out of the PDF. The approval is required to travel with the report.
• Originality certificate signed by only one party. Both the learner and the guide sign it, and the date is filled in.
• Fee not paid at term-end examination form stage. This cannot be corrected later at the submission window.
• Enrolment number replaced by the control or registration number on the first page, which is specifically called out in the University’s own instructions.

For a wider view of how IGNOU handles synopsis approval, report structure and submission across programmes, the IGNOU project guide on this site sets out the common procedure that sits underneath every course code.

Questions learners ask

MAANY project FAQ

Disclosure: ignouproject.shop is an independent study-help publication. It is not the official IGNOU website, is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Indira Gandhi National Open University, and does not issue approvals, marks or results. Official information always comes from ignou.ac.in and from your Regional Centre.