ISI bill draft changes ‘cosmetic’, Centre-appointed board still overarching: Faculty
Telegraph | 30 November 2025
A revised draft of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) bill, 2025, uploaded late on Friday by the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation, makes only “cosmetic changes”, several ISI professors alleged on Saturday.
The ministry’s new draft proposes that teachers may be included in the academic council — a provision missing in September’s draft.
The academic council is currently the institute’s highest decision-making body on academic affairs. The revised bill also proposes that two members of the academic council be nominated to the board of governors, which the ministry intends to introduce as the overarching authority in ISI’s administrative structure.
Faculty members said these changes do little to address concerns about the erosion of autonomy. “The board of governors, which will have nominated members of the ministry, will be the overarching body and the academic council will be subservient to the board,” alleged ISI professor Debrup Chakraborty. The existing ISI structure has no such board.
Another professor, Arijit Bishnu, said: “The revised bill states it will replace the ISI Act, 1959, introduced by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.”
The ministry uploaded the updated bill on the same day ISI teachers and students formed a human chain along BT Road outside the institute’s Baranagar campus. The demonstrators reiterated their demand to withdraw the September draft, which they say threatens the autonomy guaranteed by the ISI Act, 1959.
The new draft of The Indian Statistical Institute, Bill, 2025 states: “The ministry has prepared a draft… bill to elevate its institutional status by converting it from a registered society to a statutory body corporate.” It invites public comments and suggestions by December 15, adding that earlier feedback has been examined and “further revisions” made.
ISI, Calcutta, deputy director Dipti Prasad Mukherjee confirmed that the revised draft had been uploaded and that comments would be accepted until December 15.
Under the revised proposal, the academic council — apart from the director, centre directors and heads of divisions and centres — will include all full-time professors and “such number of other full-time faculty as may be determined by the board”.
Faculty members said that this structure would still give the proposed board of governors excessive control.
An ISI professor said: “The revised bill offers no fundamental relief except accommodating teachers in the academic council and nominating two members to the board. But the board will even determine that representation. If this is not a cosmetic change, what is?”
The revised bill stated that “the board of governors shall be the principal policy-making executive body of the institute”. Both the September24 and November 28 drafts say: “Once enacted, the bill shall replace the Indian Statistical Institute Act,1959.”
“They are hell bent on replacing the Act, which is the cornerstone of the institute’s autonomy,” said professor Bishnu, one of the 60 ISI professors who joined Friday’s protest.
“The bill wants to crush the society structure under the government of West Bengal and turn it into a body corporate so bureaucratic control can be established. They are trying to break the legacy of Prashanta Chandra Mahalanobis, who founded the institute and instilled the spirit of autonomy,” headed.
Under Mahalanobis’s leadership, ISI, Calcutta, played a pioneering role in shaping India’s planning and policy.
Partha Majumder, a former ISI professor who addressed the gathering on Friday, said: “Once the institute is turned into a body corporate, we fear the fee waiver scheme that allows students from disadvantaged families to study at ISI will be junked.”