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ParliamentCommittees

Finance panel takes up statistics ministry's evidence on ISI Bill

The standing committee led by Bhartruhari Mahtab is examining a bill that would replace the 1959 law governing the Indian Statistical Institute and turn the Kolkata institute into a body corporate.

From the editorial desk · New DelhiPublished
Finance committee chair Bhartruhari Mahtab and Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata (file photos)
Finance committee chair Bhartruhari Mahtab and Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata (file photos)Photos: St. sisamar / Wikimedia Commons; Ravi Dwivedi / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 and CC BY-SA 4.0

Key points

  1. The Standing Committee on Finance was scheduled to hear the Ministry of Statistics on the Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026, on Thursday.
  2. The bill would repeal the Indian Statistical Institute Act, 1959.
  3. A Board of Governors whose chair is nominated by the President would become the institute's main policy body.

Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance was scheduled on Thursday to hear officials of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on the Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026, the government’s plan to rewrite the law that governs one of India’s best-known research institutes.

The bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on 3 August and then sent to the committee, would repeal the Indian Statistical Institute Act, 1959, which declared the Kolkata institute an institution of national importance. The government says the old law says too little about governance, administration, finance and accountability.

Under the bill, the institute would become a body corporate with the President of India as its Visitor. A Board of Governors, chaired by an eminent person from academia, industry, education, public policy or statistical sciences, would be the main policy-making body and would answer to the Centre. An Academic Council headed by the director would run teaching and research matters.

The committee, chaired by Bhartruhari Mahtab, first heard the ministry on 9 September and invited views from experts and organisations earlier this month.

Mahtab has argued that the institute must move into newer fields such as data and artificial intelligence. “The basic issue is how to improve the statistical data and it is not statistics, mathematics and economics alone,” he said in September. He has also said that the institute, which is fully funded by the Centre, would not lose its independence. “The autonomous character of the society will continue,” he said.

The committee will give its report on the bill to Parliament once it has finished hearing the ministry and outside experts.