NEW DELHI: Sanjeev Sanyal, member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, on Friday backed the Centre’s proposed overhaul of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) Bill on grounds that the premier institution relies on taxpayer funding but its governance rests with a 1,200-member society with little public oversight.
However, Opposition members, including Congress MP P Chidambaram and Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sougata Roy strongly opposed the overhaul at the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, sources said.
Introduced in the Lok Sabha during the Monsoon session, the bill was sent to the standing committee after objections from the Opposition and the academic community, alleging it would undermine the ISI’s autonomy.
In his submission, according to sources, Sanyal told the panel only five of the institute’s 33 council members are from the government, adding that the institute is audited by an approved auditor and had no direct oversight by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
“Two review committees have pointed out that a Council with 33 members is too large. The second review committee (1983) proposed 12 and the fourth review committee (2021) proposed 19. Both asked for a majority of external members in order to avoid conflict of interest and ensure independent oversight.
Peer bodies like IITs have around nine members while IIMs and IISERs have 11 members. A worrying sign is the recent drop in NIRF ranking,” sources quoted him as saying. Sanyal said leaving decisions on reform to a management elected by serving faculty or to the society’s general body risked a conflict of interest.
Roy said repealing the ISI Act, 1959 and converting the institute into a statutory body corporate would concentrate power in the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Chidambaram and Roy also objected to replacement of the 33-member Council, which includes elected representatives of teaching and non-teaching staff, with an 11-member Board of Governors (BoG). Former NITI Aayog vice-chairperson Suman Bery told the panel the bill gives the proposed BoG excessive powers, which could make it harder for the ISI to attract and retain a top director. He said this could affect efforts to bring talent back to India from overseas.
What is the ISI bill about?
The Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026, seeks to replace the ISI Act of 1959 and convert the Kolkata-based institute, founded in 1931, from a registered society into a body corporate, with the President as Visitor. The bill was brought to the LS in the Monsoon session
