The Higher Education Review

Being a unique education establishment, the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) is devoted to research, teaching and application of statistics, natural sciences and social sciences. Founded by Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis in Kolkata in 1931, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) was set up with an objective to promote the study and dissemination of knowledge of statistics, to develop statistical theory and methods, and their use in research and practical applications generally, with special reference to problems of national development and social welfare.

After nearly two decades, the institute has gained the status of an Institution of National Importance by an act of the Indian Parliament. Apart from its presence in the City of Joy, ISI has a presence in India's capital NewDelhi, City of Gardens Bengaluru, The Detroit of India Chennai and The Blood City Tezpur. Moreover, the institute has outlying offices in Giridih, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Mumbai and Pune. Though the teaching activities take place mainly in Kolkata, Delhi and Bengaluru, Chennai, Tezpur, Giridih and Hyderabad, the offices located in the other cities are primarily involved in projects/consultancy in Statistical Quality Control and Operations Research.

ISI caters to the needs of undergraduate programs in B. Stat (Hons), B. Math (Hons) and postgraduate degree programs in M. Stat, M. Math, MS (Quantitative Economics, Library and Information Science, Quality Management Science), M. Tech (Computer Science, Cryptology and Security, Quality, Reliability and Operations Research). The statistical institute also delivers diploma courses - Post-Graduate Diploma in Statistical Methods and Analytics (PGDSMA), Post Graduate Diploma in Business Analytics (PGDBA). For the PGDBA program, ISI has associated with IIM Calcutta and IIT Kharagpur. "Statistics is a key tool for studying business analytics. It helps to visualize business problems, validation of models and assumptions, data validation, explanatory and predictive models," clarifies Professor Goutam Mukherjee, Dean of Studies, Indian Statistical Institute. Since ISI emphasizes on developing the applied statistical skills, ISI organizes internship/training programs for industries, the students from other institutions, teachers and government officials.

ISI has created a peerless

research environment for bright and motivated students at Kolkata, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Giridih and Hyderabad campuses with research programs in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Economics, Quality, Reliability and Operations Research, Physics and Applied Mathematics, Geology, Biological Anthropology, Human GeneticsAgriculture and Ecology, Library and Information Science and Sociology. In addition, the institute has excellent research and training centres - Centre for Soft Computing Research, International Statistical Education Centre, R.C. Bose Centre for Cryptology and Security, Data Centre for System Medicine Bio cluster, Centre for Research on the Economics of Climate, Food, Energy and Environment and Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are achieving astounding landmarks in recent times. ISI has a dedicated group of researchers working in ML, AI and data science which have tremendous impact on today's world.

"ISI organizes internship/training programs for industries, the students from other institutions, teachers and government officials"

ISI nurtured famous personalities like C. R. Rao, R. C. Bose, S.R.S. Varadhan, D. Basu, J. K. Ghosh to name a few. The Institute, from its formative period till present times, received as guests eminent scientists, some of whom were Nobel Laureates. Besides Ronald A. Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane and Walter A. Shewhart, the luminaries included Frederic and Irene Curie, Neils Bohr, A.N. Kolmogorov, P.M.S. Blackett, J.D. Bernal, Joan Robinson, Genichi Taguchi and George Akerlof, 2001 Nobel prize winner in economics and a visiting professor of ISI during 1967-68. In recent times, the visit of Amartya K. Sen, Robert Aumann, Lotfi A. Zadeh, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Sir James A. Mirrlees, Eric Maskin, Eiichi Negishi, Ada Yonath, David Jonathan Gross and S.R.S. Varadhan, 2007 Abel Prize winner for his contributions to probability theory and an alumnus of the institute, may be specially mentioned.

By maintaining a unique position to train the Indian industrial workforce in the field of Statistical Quality Control (SQC) and re-skilling quite a number of statisticians in the same field, ISI is the first institute to install, design, and use formal training programs in computer science in India. Some of the recent contributions that ISI made in the field of currency management, determining the extinction risk of wildlife, accurate assessment of consumer confidence, development and encryption methodologies, assessing the risk from counterfeit currencies, improvement of the defense

production systems, understanding level of cleanliness of towns and cities, development of national coal index have caught global attention. In the research front, a few notable and recent examples of high impact work include providing a solution to the celebrated Zariski Cancellation Problem that remained unsolved for seventy years.

"The discovery of a 240 million-year-old Archosauromorph with two large horns (within the top 10 important species discovered in 2017 according to the PLOS One journal) is another instance where ISI exhibited their excellence. The other several notable contributions that ISI has made are in the field of Pattern Recognition, Computational Intelligence, and Bioinformatics. ISI also received special recognition from the Government of India when they approved the establishment of R.C. Bose Centre for Cryptology and Security as a separate center of excellence of ISI for research in the field of cybersecurity. Many researchers of ISI got notable recognitions came in the form of Bhatnagar Prize, Young Scientist Awards and Fellowships from national academies, Infosys Prize, and a number of other national and international awards," states Prof. Mukherjee.

While ISI gives prime importance to research activities, it has also been able to offer top-level placement to its students. ISI's placement cell acts as a liaison with the corporate firms engaged in research and development in statistics, analytics, finance, insurance and quality management. The faculties have developed a chain of networks with prominent universities located all around the world. Through this network, ISI has been able to initiate collaborative research in various fields. Now, ISI is actively engaged in problems of data overload and other transformational activities to eliminate poverty-hunger and aspires to contribute to the ecosystem with flagship academic programs.

Professor Goutam Mukherjee, Dean of Studies
Prof. Mukherjee completed B.Sc. (H) in Mathematics from Hooghly Mohsin College and pursued M.Sc. in Pure Mathematics from Burdwan University. He later completed Ph.D. from Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata in Equivariant Cohomology with local coefficients. Prof. Mukherjee received a gold medal for distinguished performance in M.Sc. Examination and becoming first. He also received the P.N. Banerjee Gold Medal for securing highest marks in the M.Sc. Examination in Mathematics and N.C. Banerjee Gold Medal for getting the first rank in three-year degree course honor's examination in Mathematics.