SIRD regards the following as ‘thrust areas' for building of the capacity of the people's elected representatives of the rural Local Bodies and the officials of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department

SIRD's thrust areas;

• Panchayat Raj
• Local governance
• Centrally sponsored schemes
• State funded schemes
• Rural Poverty reduction
• Micro enterprises
• Managerial skills
• Rural infrastructure development
• Panchayat finances
• Micro credit & SHGs
• Human development
• Research activities
• Publications
• Information dissemination
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Training skills & methodologies
• Livelihood enhancement
• Transparency in Administration
• Accountability
• Right to Information Act-2005
• Social Audit
• Creation of community assets
• NREGA-2005 & NREGS-TN
• Women empowerment
• Rural Marketing
• Social mobilization
• Water and Sanitation
• Rural Engineering
• HIV/AIDS awareness
• Participatory Rural Appraisal
• Watershed Management
• Rural Technologies
• Accounts and Audit
• Information Technology
• Disaster Management
• Panchayat Mahila Sakthi Abiyan
• Backward Region Grants Fund
• Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Yojana