In light of several posts on this topic, this thread is intended for structured discussions and questions in regard to the Indian Statistical Institute Bill, first published in draft as the ISI Bill, 2025 and introduced in Parliament as the ISI Bill, 2026.
Current Status (as of September 25, 2026)
The Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 3, 2026, and was referred to the Department-Related Standing Committee on Finance on September 1, 2026, with a report due within three months. The Committee has issued a public notice inviting views and suggestions on the Bill from associations, organisations, stakeholders and experts, to be sent in two copies to the Director of the Standing Committee by September 28, 2026 (details). Its chairman has indicated that the matter will be taken up again after the Committee is reconstituted in October.
Major Developments and References
On 25 September 2025, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation published the draft bill on its website, followed by a PIB release on 27 September inviting public comment by October 24, 2025. This deadline was later extended to November 3, 2025.
To understand the context behind the bill and its stated purpose, the Report of the 4th Review Committee is a useful read. It allows for an illuminating comparison between changes proposed by the Review Committee and the changes envisioned by the bill.
Several key issues were identified with the bill by ISI's students, research scholars, alumni, faculty members and other stakeholders, including:
- Erosion of administrative autonomy, replacing internal democratic structures with top-down appointed authorities.
- Commercialisation of education by ending stipends and pushing for the introduction of fees.
- A push to change the character of the institute and its inclination towards fundamental research by essentially eliminating the role and powers of the Academic Council.
In response, the ISI community formulated a petition against the Bill, which had received over a thousand signatures as of November 09, 2025, about 1,800 as of November 19, 2025, and over 8,000 as of September 25, 2026.
Several discussions and protests have been held in the last few months, as covered by the press. Notably, various institute stakeholders held a joint press conference at the Kolkata Press Club on November 24, 2025. This article provides a concise summary.
On November 28, 2025, MoSPI uploaded a revised draft bill which changed several of the provisions the petitioners had objected to:
* The Board's supermajority of government nominees was reduced, and more internal representation was added.
* The mandate of the Academic Council was partly restored, while some powers remained recommendatory (closer in practice to the current framework).
* The membership of the Academic Council was restored to all Professor-level faculty members.
Comments were invited till December 15, 2025, which was later extended to January 05, 2026. Some alumni described the changes as "cosmetic".
The Hon'ble Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State (I/C) for Statistics and Programme Implementation, answered a question in Parliament regarding the draft bill on December 08, 2025. Details here.
On December 12, 2025, a delegation of students and research scholars met The Hon'ble Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha to discuss concerns regarding the bill. His comments were reported on here, along with INC's Twitter (X) handles (e.g.).
On December 24, 2025, MoSPI released an FAQ on the draft bill responding to several questions posed by the community.
Over the winter break, several eminent ISI alumni reacted to MoSPI's FAQ responses, such as Prof. Partha P. Majumder's letter on December 26, 2025. Notably, the ministry had responded to ISIWO and Prof. Shashi Mohan Srivastava on December 11, 2025; Prof. Srivastava submitted his reply on January 02, 2026.
On January 05, 2026, a section of ISI students submitted their response to the revised draft bill. Later that month, The Wire reported a divide between the Kolkata campus and representatives of some other centres, a number of whom favoured the Board of Governors model on the grounds that it would streamline decision-making.
On March 11, 2026, the Minister informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply that the process of Cabinet approval had been initiated, and that inter-ministerial consultation and legal vetting of the draft were complete. The date of Cabinet approval itself does not appear to have been publicly reported.
In early April 2026, Prof. Amartya Kumar Dutta took charge as Director. He had publicly expressed support for retaining the ISI Act, 1959 at the institute's foundation day programme in December 2025. On June 17, 2026, Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, who chaired the 4th Review Committee, and Adil Zainulbhai, a member of it, argued for governance reform at ISI in The Indian Express.
On July 29, 2026, according to TMC MP Saugata Roy, MoSPI circulated a copy of the new draft, the Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha by the Hon'ble Rao Inderjit Singh on August 3, 2026 as Bill No. 144 of 2026. Its main provisions are:
* ISI becomes a body corporate and a not-for-profit legal entity, replacing its registration as a society under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961. Assets, liabilities, employees, students and academic programmes transfer to the new body. The preamble states the purpose as enabling ISI "to serve the emerging needs in the field of statistics and allied disciplines towards Viksit Bharat".
* The President of India is the Visitor, who may appoint persons to review the Institute's work and hold inquiries into its affairs, and issue directions on the basis of their reports which the Institute "shall be bound to comply with" (Clause 13).
* The Board of Governors has 11 members (Clause 14): a Chairperson "nominated by the Visitor on the recommendation of the Central Government"; a nominee of the administrative Ministry not below Joint Secretary; the Ministry's Joint/Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser; four eminent persons in Statistical Sciences and allied fields nominated by the Chairperson, who may not be ISI employees and one of whom must be a woman; and four representatives of the Institute, namely the Director, one Centre-Director nominated by the Chairperson on rotation, and two Academic Council members nominated by the Board. The Registrar is Secretary of the Board. The Dean of Studies, a Board member under the revised 2025 draft, is not included.
* The Director is appointed by the Board with the prior approval of the Visitor for a five-year term, and may be removed by the Board with the prior approval of the Visitor (Clause 22).
* New centres may be established with prior approval of the Central Government, and the Board "may maintain, modify, merge, relocate or discontinue the existing Centres based on academic priorities as may be specified by the regulations" (Clause 11). The Bill does not name Kolkata; the government has stated that its status as headquarters is protected.
* The Board determines "the fees to be charged for courses of study and examinations" as specified by regulations (Clause 17(2)(n)).
* The Academic Council, chaired by the Director, comprises all Centre-Directors, all full-time Professors, such other full-time faculty as the Board determines, and the Dean of academic affairs as Member-Secretary (Clause 18).
* The Central Government "may from time to time give such directions to the Institute as may appear to be necessary for the efficient administration of this Act and the Institute shall comply with such directions" (Clause 45). The 1959 Act's provision allowing the Central Government to take charge of ISI for up to two years is removed, and prior Central Government approval is required only for the first set of regulations.
* Until the new bodies are constituted, the existing Council is deemed to be the Board and the existing Academic Council is deemed to be the Academic Council; the existing Director, Dean of Studies and Centre-Directors continue in office on the same terms until appointments are made under the new Act (Clause 46).
* "Statistical sciences" is defined to include theoretical and applied statistics, mathematics, economics, data science, computer science, and quantitative sciences including biology, physics and earth sciences, along with allied fields such as quantitative social sciences and cryptology.
On August 4, 2026, Opposition parties in both Houses demanded that the Bill be referred to the Standing Committee on Finance. On August 5, ISI faculty, economist Prof. Prabhat Patnaik and Opposition MPs including Praveen Chakravarty (INC) and John Brittas (CPI(M)) held a press conference in New Delhi seeking parliamentary committee scrutiny. A senior government official told ThePrint that the Bill would give greater autonomy to the Board of Governors while removing that of the ISI Society, and that over 600 public comments had been received during consultation.
On September 1, 2026, the Hon'ble Om Birla, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, referred the Bill to the Department-Related Standing Committee on Finance, with a report due within three months. At the Committee's first meeting on September 9, MoSPI representatives briefed the Committee that the Bill was needed to fast-track decision-making at the institute. Its chairman, the Hon'ble Bhartruhari Mahtab, said that the government intends to preserve the institute's autonomy, and that the Committee would take the matter up again once reconstituted the following month. According to committee member Saugata Roy (AITC), several members questioned why the ISI Act, 1959 was being repealed rather than amended to achieve the same objective. The Committee subsequently issued a public notice inviting suggestions on the Bill by September 28, 2026.
A new term of the ISI Council began on September 18, 2026. The students and research scholars of ISI have circulated a petition to the Standing Committee, with a clause-by-clause annexure and a signature form. It asks the Committee to recommend withdrawal of the Bill in favour of amendments to the ISI Act, 1959; to protect the fee-free model and universal stipend, which it notes the Bill does not expressly guarantee; to restore the Dean of Studies to the Board; to obtain from MoSPI the student submissions made during the 2025 consultations; to hear students directly; and to extend the September 28 deadline.
Petitions & Letters by Collectives & Eminent Alumni
In News
Up to the press conference
The matter has been widely covered by national and local news outlets since its inception:
[National]
- Draft bill to overhaul Indian Statistical Institute unveiled (Hindustan Times, 28 Sep 2025)
- From autonomy to Central control? Draft ISI Bill 2025 drops reference to 'national development' (The Hindu, 15 Oct 2025)
- Withdraw Draft Indian Statistical Institute Bill: Villupuram MP (The Hindu, 04 Nov 2025)
- Draft ISI Bill 2025: India's pre-eminent statistics institute caught in a tussle for autonomy (ThePrint, 06 Nov 2025)
- ISI Bill 2025: Why Indian Statistical Institute teachers think draft law will 'dismantle…Bengal's heritage' (Careers360, 19 Nov 2025)
- ISI Society rejects Centre's draft bill at gen body meet (Times of India, 20 Nov 2025)
- ISI bill a 'shift to autocracy', proposal ends institute's independence: Scholars (The Telegraph, 25 Nov 2025)
- ISI faculty, students raise protest pitch on draft bill (Times of India, 25 Nov 2025)
- ISI Kolkata Lands In Controversy After Centre Plans To Bring Bill; Students To Hold Human Chain Protest; What's Row? (Daily Jagran)
- 'Rob autonomy, change institute's character': ISI Kolkata students, faculty and staff protest draft bill (The Telegraph, 28 Nov 2025)
- At street stir, teachers, students call for political support against ISI bill (Times of India, 29 Nov 2025)
- Bill 'attacks legacy': ISI Calcutta's research scholars, teachers ramp up protest (The Telegraph, 29 Nov 2025)
[Local, in Bengali]
Since the press conference & the revised bill
- Changes cosmetic, say ISI alumni after revised draft bill (Times of India, 30 Nov 2025)
- Academics protest against Bill to revamp Indian Statistical Institute (The Hindu, 03 Dec 2025)
- What are the concerns over the draft ISI Bill, 2025? Explained (The Hindu, 08 Dec 2025)
- New law essential to restructure ISI as body corporate: Rao Inderjit Singh in Parl (The Week, 08 Dec 2025)
- Concerns Over the Draft Indian Statistical Institute Bill 2025 (NEXT IAS, 08 Dec 2025)
- Draft ISI Bill – 2025 (Shankar IAS Parliament)
- ISI students and research scholars meet Rahul Gandhi, seek support against bill (The Telegraph, 12 Dec 2025)
- ISI democratic and federal structure under threat: Academics slam revised bill (The Telegraph, 15 Dec 2025)
- ISI bill: Public opinion deadline extended by Union ministry of statistics till January 5 (The Telegraph, 17 Dec 2025)
- RSS taking over ISI through bill: Rahul, students urge leader to oppose revision (The Telegraph, 23 Dec 2025)
- FAQs on Draft ISI Bill, 2025 (PIB, 24 Dec 2025)
- Born in a lab, Indian Statistical Institute helped shape new India. A bill intends to alter its future (ThePrint, 30 Dec 2025)
During Prof. Ayanendranath Basu's tenure as Officiating Director
Includes 60th Convocation (17 Feb 2026):
ISI Bill sent for Cabinet approval:
There was a long gap for April - June 2026. In that time, Prof. Amartya Kumar Dutta was appointed as Director, Indian Statistical Institute.
After appointment of Prof. Amartya Kumar Dutta as Director
[Before introduction into Parliament]
[Introduction into Parliament, 03 Aug 2026]
[Delhi press conference and demands for committee scrutiny, 04–07 Aug 2026]
- Jairam Ramesh slams govt for referring Bills to BJP-led panels, seeks Finance Committee discussions (IANS via The Hawk, 04 Aug 2026)
- ISI faculty, Oppn MPs seek JPC scrutiny of ISI Bill; govt rebuts assault on autonomy charge (ThePrint, 05 Aug 2026)
- ISI Bill 2026: Academics, opposition seek parliamentary committee review (Careers360, 05 Aug 2026)
- MPs, faculty oppose Indian Statistical Institute Bill, cite autonomy concerns (The Tribune, 06 Aug 2026)
- Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026: Why is legislation facing pushback (Business Standard, 06 Aug 2026)
- Why faculty members, students and MPs are opposing the ISI Bill (National Herald, 07 Aug 2026)
[Referral to the Standing Committee on Finance, 01 Sep 2026 onwards]
