The central government introduced the Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026 in the Lok Sabha on Monday, nearly a year after releasing a draft for public comment. The proposal has drawn criticism from the Kolkata-based institute, which claims the changes would reduce its independence. Last year, students, faculty and staff held a protest march on the Kolkata campus against the draft, urging the government to consult more before advancing reforms.
Founded in 1931 by statistician P.C. Mahalanobis, the institute began as a statistical laboratory at Presidency College. It was later registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act of 1860 and the West Bengal Societies Registration Act of 1961. In 1959 it was designated an Institute of National Importance, allowing it to grant degrees and receive central government funding and audits. Unlike the IITs and IIMs, it has continued operating as a society.
The institute maintains its headquarters in Kolkata and operates additional centres in Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Tezpur. It provides courses in mathematics and statistics along with several research divisions. Its highest decision-making body is a 33-member council led by an elected chairman and including six central government representatives from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the Ministry of Finance and the Reserve Bank of India. The council appoints the director, who oversees academic and administrative functions.
The new bill seeks to repeal and replace the 1959 Act while retaining the institute’s status as an Institution of National Importance. It would convert the society into an autonomous body corporate. The legislation broadens the definition of statistical sciences to cover theoretical and applied statistics, mathematics, economics, data science, computer science and other quantitative fields. Under the bill, the President would serve as visitor, while a Board of Governors headed by an expert from academia, industry, public policy or statistical sciences would handle administrative and policy decisions. An Academic Council led by the director would manage academic matters.
The bill states that the 1959 Act no longer meets the needs of India’s expanding data-driven economy and aims to build capacity for evidence-based decisions using advanced technologies. It argues that the reforms will help train data scientists and statisticians, address talent shortages in technology and finance, and enable stronger collaboration with industry in areas such as fintech, agriculture, healthcare and logistics.
