ISI Bill tabled in Parliament amid protests
– Mita Mukherjee
The Centre on Monday introduced the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) Bill 2026 in the Lok Sabha to restructure the administrative framework of the 95-year old institute, amid sloganeering from some Opposition MPs who claimed that the new regulations would curb the autonomy of the institute.
Union minister of state (independent charge) for statistics and programme implementation Rao Inderjit Singh tabled the bill which seeks to enable ISI “to excel as a globally recognised centre in statistical sciences and allied fields and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”.
Meanwhile, ISI’s B.T. Road campus in Kolkata witnessed protests as students, teachers, staff, retired employees and faculty members staged a demonstration in front of the R A Fisher building alleging that the bill was being introduced without proper consultation with them.
They said that the provisions in the bill states that the existing 33-member ISI council will be replaced by a 12-member board of governors most of whom will be nominees of the Centre.
Seven Opposition MPs from the Congress, Trinamool and DMK opposed the bill but the Speaker allowed it after a voice vote on Monday.
Faculty members and staff of the ISI had organised protests over the past several months since the draft of the bill had been circulated.
ISI Kolkata director Amartya Dutta recently wrote to the ministry opposing the bill. He alleged that the bill had been drafted without due consultation with the institute’s statutory bodies.
According to the bill, “The board shall be the final decision-making body of the institute in respect of academic, administrative, personnel, financial and development matters.”
The chairperson of the board will be nominated by the Visitor — the President — on the recommendation of the Centre. There will be other members including a ministry nominee; a joint or additional secretary and the financial adviser of the ministry; four eminent persons in statistical science and allied fields nominated by the chairperson; the ISI director and a centre director as ex-officio members; two members of the academic council nominated by the board; and the registrar, who will serve as the board’s secretary. The bill also states that the performance of the institute will be reviewed and evaluated by the board and submit the report to the Central government along with an action-taken report.
The bill also requires the board’s evaluation and review of the institute’s performance to be submitted to the Central government along with an action-taken report.
The ISI Act, 1959, introduced by then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, declared ISI an institute of national importance.
The bill states that the Act needs to be repealed as its provisions on governance, administration, finance, accountability and functioning are inadequate to meet “the requirement of an evolving academic and research environment”.
“It is, therefore, considered necessary to repeal the said Act and to enact comprehensive legislation… to excel as a globally recognised centre in statistical science and allied fields,” the bill states.
A senior official of ISI Kolkata said the institute on Tuesday started collecting signatures against the bill and send a petition to the ministry and Parliament demanding that the bill in its present form should not be passed.
“We will write to the ministry seeking several amendments. This bill has been drafted without due consultation with the statutory body. We will urge the ministry to draft the final bill only after consulting us,” the official told EducationWorld.
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