HQ relocation debate in Bill flares up at ISI 60th convocation
Times of India | 18 February 2026
Kolkata: Amid controversies over the possible relocation of the Indian Statistical Institute headquarters from Kolkata, following the proposals in the ISI Bill, 2025, the director (officiating) of the institute, Ayanendranath Basu, on Tuesday said centres in other places, such as Delhi and Bengaluru, were yet to achieve the "critical strength to function as independent centres".
"A centre needs a critical strength to be an independent one. I think our centres are yet to achieve that strength. Even the larger centres need support from the headquarters sometimes to run the courses successfully. They will need some upgrade to become viable and independent centres," said Basu during his speech at the 60th convocation of ISI on Tuesday.
While the Bill is silent on the Kolkata centre as the headquarters, faculty members and students protested against possible efforts to shift it out of Kolkata. Basu mentioned "multi-locational existence" of the institute. "We may have to think about the centres' independence or autonomy in future. But there is a need for a continuous plan to develop these centres before that," Basu added.
As the degrees were awarded during the convocation, a section of students wore badges to protest against the proposed Bill. As they advanced towards the stage, a faculty member stopped them and asked them to remove the badges before getting on the stage. "We wanted to protest against the Bill that plans to snatch away autonomy from the Kolkata centre and shift the headquarters out of here. The Bill is also trying to destroy the democratic structure of the institute, which pushed the institute to be a centre of excellence," said Avijeet Ghosh, a PhD awardee.
Though forced to take off the badges while stepping onto the convocation stage, the students put them back after coming down from the dais. "Our faculty members, too, staged a protest on the streets against the Bill. We believe the students of ISI have equal responsibility to protect the sanctity of the institute," said Ghosh.
Basu later said the proposed structure of the board of governors was a big departure from the current structure of the institute. "We have always paid a lot of preference to opinions from within the institute. This proposal makes the governing structure more like those at the IITs and IIMs. The current debate is on what could the best model be," he said.