Indian Statistical Institute

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Indian Statistical Institute
ISI Logo
Logo of the Indian Statistical Institute
Motto भिन्नेष्वैक्यस्य दर्शणम्॥ (Seeing unity in diversity)
Established 17 December 1931
Type Public university
Director Bimal Kumar Roy
Academic staff 255
Admin. staff 1000
Students 375
Undergraduates 110
Postgraduates 225
Doctoral students 40
Location Baranagar, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Campus urban
Nickname ISI
Website isical.ac.in
map of the Delhi campus

Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) is a public research institute and university in Kolkata's northern outskirt of Baranagar, India founded by Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in 1931. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions focused on Statistics, and its early reputation led it to being adopted as a model for the first US institute of statistics set up at the Research Triangle, North Carolina by Gertrude Mary Cox.[1] Its main activities are research and teaching of Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science and other natural and social sciences. Originally affiliated with the University of Calcutta, the institute was declared an Institute of National Importance in 1959.

The main campus and headquarters is located in Baranagar, in suburban Kolkata. The campuses at Kolkata, Delhi and Bangalore focus on teaching, and the institute has offices in seven other locations like Hyderabad, India engaging in consultancy in statistical process control and operations research. The Director is Professor Bimal Kumar Roy and the Dean of Studies is Professor Bhabani Prasad Sinha.

ISI's main areas of expertise are the fields of statistics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative economics, operations research and information science and is one of the few research oriented Indian schools at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

Contents

[edit] History

The Statistical Laboratory in Presidency College, Kolkata was set up by Mahalanobis in the Physics Department of the college in 1920s. Many colleagues of Mahalanobis took an interest in statistics and the group grew in the Statistical Laboratory. A meeting was called on 17 December 1931 with Pramatha Nath Banerji (Minto Professor of Economics), Nikhil Ranjan Sen (Khaira Professor of Applied Mathematics) and Sir R. N. Mukherji. This meeting led to the establishment of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), which was formally registered on 28 April 1932 as a non-profit distributing learned society under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860.[2][3] Later, the institute was registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act XXVI of 1961 amended in 1964.[4] The ISI was relocated to a property owned by Professor Mahalanobis, named "Amrapali", in Baranagar, North Kolkata.

In 1931, Mahalanobis was the only person working for ISI, and he managed it with an annual expenditure of Rs. 250. It gradually grew with the pioneering work of a group of his colleagues including S. S. Bose, J. M. Sengupta, R. C. Bose, S. N. Roy, K. R. Nair, R. R. Bahadur, G. Kallianpur and D. B. Lahiri. The institute gained major assistance through Pitamber Pant, who was a secretary to the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Pant was trained in statistics at the institute and took a keen interest in it.[2]

In 1933, the journal Sankhya was founded along the lines of Karl Pearson's Biometrika.[2] It is published four times annually.

The institute started a training section in 1938. Many of the early workers left the ISI for careers in the USA and with the government of India. By the 1940s, the Indian Statistical Institute was internationally known and was taken as a model when the first institute of statistics was set up in the United States by Gertrude Cox — perhaps the only time an institute in a developing country was used as a model in a developed country.[1]

J. B. S. Haldane joined the ISI as a research professor from August 1957 and stayed on until February 1961. He resigned from ISI due to frustrations with the administration and disagreements with Mahalanobis' administrative policies. He was also very concerned with the frequent travels and absence of the director and wrote "The journeyings of our Director define a novel random vector." Haldane helped the ISI grow in biometrics.[5]

In 1959 the ISI was declared as an institute of national importance and a deemed university.[2] Until then, it was associated with the University of Calcutta. ISI started centres in New Delhi and Bangalore and units in Chennai and Hyderabad. In 2008, ISI Chennai was upgraded from unit to centre.[6]

ISI Kolkata has a campus consisting of six addresses at 201 through 206 Barrackpore Trunk Road, Baranagar. These include a house, which was an erstwhile office of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) of India and, before that, a movie studio in the 1920s and 1930s.

[edit] Objectives

The major objectives of the Indian Statistical Institute are:[7]

  • The study and teaching of statistics, statistical theory, and statistical methods and their use in practical applications and research. The Institute has a special focus on problems of national development and social welfare.
  • Study in the fields of natural and social sciences, with an emphasis on the development of statistics in these fields.
  • To devise methods and perform collection of information for projects and planning in the fields of management and production.

[edit] Programs of study

Traditionally, ISI offers fewer programs (and admits fewer students) than most other degree granting academic institutions. The following are the degree programs currently offered by ISI.

  • Bachelor of Statistics (Honours)
  • Bachelor of Mathematics (Honours)
  • Master of Statistics
  • Master of Mathematics
  • Master of Science in Quantitative Economics
  • Master of Science in Library and Information Science
  • Master of Technology in Computer Science
  • Master of Technology in Quality, Reliability and Operations Research
  • Doctor of Philosophy

[edit] Achievements

Among alumni of ISI, there are many who excelled in the field of economics, statistics, mathematics or probability. Notable ones among them include C. R. Rao, S. R. S. Varadhan, R. C. Bose, D. Basu, K. R. Parthasarathy, Jayanta Kumar Ghosh, G. Jogesh Babu, T. Parthasarathy, Thriyambakam Krishnan, G. N. Kallianpur, Rajeev Karandikar, Ravindra Khattree, Palash Kumar, J. S. Rao, Kesar Singh, Ranajit Chakraborty, Probal Chaudhuri, Arup Bose, Sundaram Thangavelu, Subhashis Ghosal, Nilanjan Chatterjee, Sudipto Banerjee, Sourav Chatterjee, Jean Drèze and Sucharit Sarkar. N. Vijayaditya, former Director General, National Informatics Centre and Controller of Certifying Authorities, Government of India, took a Masters degree in Statistics from Indian Statistical Institute.

Even being new, the Computer and Communication Sciences department of Indian Statistical Institute affiliates many eminent scientists like Sankar K. Pal, Malay K. Kundu, Bidyut B. Chaudhuri, Nikhil R. Pal, Bhabani P. Sinha, Bhargab B. Bhattacharya, C. A. Murthy and Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay. ISI is regarded as one of the top most centers for research in Computer Science in India and attracts some of the best students in the country.

The institute has led research in anthropology and palaeontology. A species of dinosaur, the Isisaurus, was named after the institute. It was originally named Baropa-sauras Tagori in honor of the poet Rabindranath Tagore.

[edit] The Kolkata campus

Main Building, Kolkata
New Academic Building, Kolkata

The Kolkata campus offers bachelors level degree in Statistics (B. Stat) and masters degree in Statistics, Computer Science, Quality Reliability and Operations Research and Quantitative Economics. Major divisions and units are:

  • Statistics and Mathematics Unit (SMU)
  • Physics and Applied Mathematics Unit (PAMU)
  • Advanced Computation and MicroElectronics Unit (ACMU)
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit (CVPRU)
  • Machine Intelligence Unit (MIU)
  • Electronics and Communication Sciences Unit (ECSU)
  • Applied Statistics Unit (ASU)

The Kolkata campus houses the International Statistical Education Centre (ISEC), which opened in 1950. This Centre provides training in statistics to sponsored students mainly from the Middle East, South and South East Asia, the Far East and the Commonwealth Countries of Africa. The Centre also offers various short-term courses in statistics and related subjects.

The Central Library of ISI is located at Kolkata with branches at the other facilities. The library has over 200,000 volumes of books and journals with a special emphasis on the field of statistics and related studies. The main branch also has a collection of official reports, reprints, maps, and microfilms. The library receives over a thousand new technical and scientific journals every year. The Library has databases on CD-ROM and is working on further digitization of the collection. The library has a separate collection of works on the topics of mathematics and statistics called the Eastern Regional Centre of NBHM collection, funded by grants from the National Board for Higher Mathematics.

[edit] Images of the Delhi campus

  • Main road inside the Institute

  • Gardens near the main entrance

  • Gardens line one of the roads

  • Delhi Campus

  • Main office building

  • Administration block

  • Parking area seen at night

  • Night view of the campus

  • Guest House

  • Canteen

  • Hostel

  • Library

[edit] Images of the Bangalore campus

  • Main building

  • Main building

  • Main hostel

  • Guest House

  • Auditorium

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Ghosh, JK (1994). "Mahalanobis and the Art and Science of Statistics: The Early Days". Indian Journal of History of Science 29 (1): 89–98.  The quotation appears on p.90.
  2. ^ a b c d Rao, C. R. (1973) Prasantha Chandra Mahalanobis. 1893-1972. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 19:454-492
  3. ^ Rudra, A. (1996), Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis: A Biography. Oxford University Press.
  4. ^ History of ISI
  5. ^ Dronamraju, Krishna R. (1987). "On Some Aspects of the Life and Work of John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, F.R.S., in India". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 41 (2): 211–237. doi:10.1098/rsnr.1987.0006. PMID 11622022. 
  6. ^ "Pranab Mukherjee inaugurates Chennai centre of Indian Statistical Institute". The Hindu. 2008-07-27. http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/27/stories/2008072758580800.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-01. 
  7. ^ Objectives of ISI

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Indian Statistical Institute

[edit] Campus links

[edit] Other links

Universities in West Bengal
Aliah University · Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur · Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya · University of Burdwan · University of Calcutta · University of Gour Banga · Indian Institute of Management Calcutta · Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata · Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur · Indian Statistical Institute · Jadavpur University · University of Kalyani · National Institute of Technology, Durgapur · Netaji Subhas Open University · University of North Bengal · Presidency College, Kolkata · Rabindra Bharati University · Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University · Senate of Serampore College (University) · Sidho Kanho Birsha University · Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya · Vidyasagar University · Visva-Bharati University · West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences · West Bengal University of Health Sciences · West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences · West Bengal State University · West Bengal University of Technology
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