Bill to provide statutory framework to Indian Statistical Institute referred to House panel

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A Bill seeking to widen the remit of the Indian Statistical Institute and align its legal framework with evolving needs was on Tuesday (September 1, 2026) referred to a parliamentary committee for threadbare examination.

The Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026, was referred to the Department-Related Standing Committee on Finance by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The committee has been asked to submit its report "within three months", a Lok Sabha bulletin said.

Amid protests by its faculty, the Opposition had demanded that the Bill be referred to a standing committee.

The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 2 during the Monsoon Session. It seeks the institute's incorporation as a 'body corporate' to strengthen its governance, promote academic excellence and research and allow it to serve the emerging needs in the field of statistics and allied fields.

The Bill says the President will be the Visitor of the institute and provisions for a Board of Governors that will be its principal policy executive body. The board will be headed by the chairperson, who will be an eminent person from the field of academia, industry, education, public policy, and statistical sciences. It will be accountable to the Central government, the Bill notes.

The institute will have an Academic Council, which will act as its principal academic body and will be headed by the institute's director. All full-time professors and full-time faculty will be members of the Academic Council.

The Indian Statistical Institute Act, 1959, declared the institute to be an institution of national importance and empowered it to grant degrees and diplomas in statistics. The Act was amended in 1995 to empower the Institute to grant degrees and diplomas in statistics, mathematics, quantitative economics, computer science and such other subjects related to statistics as may be determined by it from time to time.

The 1959 Act, according to the Bill, has limited provisions in respect of the governance, administration, finance, accountability and functioning of the Institute and is not adequate to enable it to respond to the requirements of an evolving academic and research environment.

Therefore, it says, the government decided to repeal the Indian Statistical Institute Act, 1959, to bring out comprehensive legislation providing for the incorporation of the Indian Statistical Institute, an institution of national importance, to excel as a globally recognised centre in Statistical Sciences and allied fields.

The legal reform will enable an ecosystem to train a new generation of high-quality data scientists and statisticians, bridging the massive talent gap currently facing India's tech and financial sectors, the Bill says.

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