What is the new Indian Statistical Institute Bill drawing criticism? | Explained
The story so far The government has tabled a new Bill in Parliament, called the Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026, which will replace its approximately
The story so far The government has tabled a new Bill in Parliament, called the Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026, which will replace its approximately 67-year-old predecessor that had been enacted in 1959. While seemingly innocuous, several of the provisions of the Bill have become contentious, with several faculty members of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) as well as Members of Parliament protesting it. What is the Indian Statistical Institute? In the 1920s, India’s greatest statistician P.C. Mahalanobis set up the Statistical Laboratory in the Presidency College in Kolkata. On December 17, 1931, he founded the Indian Statistical Institute as a “learned society” housed in the Statistical Laboratory. The Institute was registered on April 28, 1932, as a non-profit distributing learned society under the Societies Registration Act of 1860 and is now registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act of 1961 amended in 1964. The ISI quickly became India’s premier statistical organisation, spearheading statistical research and data collection, and training generation after generation of statisticians. It was declared an Institution of Importance through the Indian Statistical Institute Act, 1959. What does the new Bill seek to change? At the most basic, the new Bill seeks to bring ISI’s governance structure at par with that of other Institutions of Importance, such as the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). According to the government, in the IITs and IIMs, compact empowered bodies such as the Board of Governors and executives such as Directors take decisions impacting both the day-to-day functioning as well as the long-term policies of the organisations. However, ISI continues to follow the governance model of a society, in which significant control is exercised by a large General Body of members of the society, which currently numbers more than 1,000 members. A key outcome of this structure is that any amendment to the regulations can only be carried out with the approval of the General Body. That is, only those changes that are approved by three-fourths of the members voting can be adopted. The government’s contention is that, since the regulations are prescriptive, even small reforms require the approval of the General Body.
“In the past fifty years, no significant changes have been introduced in Society instruments towards reforming the Institute,” the government said in a note when it first mooted the new Bill. “Thus, the existing society-based governance model has limited potential for institutional reform and growth.” Therefore, the new Bill is aimed at incorporating ISI into a statutory body corporate, strengthening its legal status and providing a “more robust and contemporary governance framework”. All the assets, liabilities, employees, and ongoing academic programmes of the existing society will be expressly preserved and transferred to the new statutory Institute while ensuring continuity of service conditions and previous protections, the government said. What will the new governance model be? The new Bill provides for the creation of a compact Board of Governors that will serve as the principal policy-making executive body of the ISI and will be accountable to the Central Government. It also provides for the creation of an Academic Council as the principal academic body of the Institute. Also read: The work of Indian Statistical Institute The Board of Governors will consist of 11 members. The Board will be headed by a Chairperson, who is supposed to be an eminent person “in the field of academia, industry, education, public policy, Statistical Sciences and allied sciences, or other fields” and will be nominated by the Visitor (the President of India) on the recommendation of the Central Government. Apart from the Chairperson, the government would nominate a central government official not below the level of Joint Secretary to the Government of India. The central government’s representation would further include another joint secretary or additional secretary. The Board would also include four eminent persons in the field of statistical sciences and allied fields, to be nominated by the Chairperson, four representatives of the Institute who will include two members of the Academic Council to be nominated by the Board. The Registrar of ISI would also serve as the Secretary of the Board. In total, the central government would have a direct hand in appointing three members of the Board, including the Chairperson.
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