Review Committee Report
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Item Indian Statistical Institute 4th review committee report, 2021(Govt of India, 2021) India. Ministry of Statistics and Programme ImplementationThe 4th Review Committee of ISI was set up through a Gazette Notification dated 28 January 2020 and its subsequent amendments. The first meeting of the Review Committee was fixed on 23 March 2020, but had to be postponed by government orders, which were issued in the wake of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was followed by the devastating second wave, from which the nation is still slowly recovering. Thus, in spite of the best intentions of the 4th ISI Review Committee, all the meetings had to be held virtually. Despite all the constraints, the members of the 4th Review Committee spent maximum time and effort to gather an understanding of the institute, its legacy, work culture, glorious past, and its current state in terms of quality of research, relevance and impact, strengths and weaknesses, and future potential. Based on the evidence gathered during the review period using several methods and its analysis, the 4th Review Committee is presenting its detailed report along with a set of recommendations, which if implemented in the spirit in which they were conceived, will have far-reaching and positive ramifications for the institute. The Review Committee strongly feels that it is possible to Reimagine, Reinvent and Reposition the Indian Statistical Institute, as a frontline globally recognized institute. The Review Committee was impressed with the rich history of the Institute - the towering stalwarts who provided a strong foundation to the Institute, the outstanding researchers who went on to make pioneering contributions in Statistics and a number of allied areas globally, the forward-looking teaching programs which ISI initiated, the first computer in India that was brought to the ISI and numerous other such achievements. Even in the present times, the Institute has a formidable lineup of some excellent researchers working in the Institute, who have brought numerous laurels to the Institute. While appreciating the immense past contributions of ISI, the Review Committee came to the conclusion that over the past few decades, ISI has gradually lost the sheer brilliance and deep engagement with the external world that was its USP in the 60s and 70s. While the Institute continues to produce several outstanding students each year, it appears to have failed to keep pace with the changing times and has not scaled its effort to a level, where not only will it remain relevant, but also remain competitive. Presently, the Institute has individual level brilliance, but limited collective excellence and contribution. Thus, the Institute has very low presence in mega-scale national and international initiatives and projects. The Review Committee, through interactions with multiple stakeholders, concluded that ISI continues to have a perception of uniqueness relying more on past successes than current initiatives, suffers from a lethargy to generate resources leading to an almost full reliance on government funds, and produces only a limited number of students; thus distancing itself from the changes happening in the external world. The Review Committee, while recognizing the high potential of ISI, is convinced that the Institute urgently needs to make sincere attempts at course correction and digital transformation of almost every aspect of its functioning, in order to remain relevant and rise to the preeminent top position despite the stiff competition from the newly emerged and emerging top institutions in the country. It should scale substantially by building innovative teaching, training and application programs in Statistics, Machine Learning, Data Sciences and other contemporary areas, hugely ramp up student strength, and conduct truly original research activities in the frontier areas. ISI has to channelize a part of its effort towards proactively and aggressively reaching out to the government and the industry, in order to provide effective and high-quality solutions to their problems. In this way, not only will the scientists benefit by doing real-life translational research but also the visibility of the Institute will be enhanced significantly. Moreover, through such initiatives, ISI should strive to become much more financially independent. The Review Committee believes that the ISI can rise to its true potential and effect a turnaround, if it can bring in certain fundamental changes, some of which are not just incremental, but truly radical in its structure, systems and processes backed up by much higher aspirational levels, from top leadership, down to every worker. The Review Committee was alarmed to observe that the ISI is severely constrained in terms of faculty numbers, funding, infrastructure and other resources necessary to create a vibrant education, research and innovation ecosystem. It was also deeply concerned to note that accountability amongst the workers of the Institute, including the scientific workers, is low, work norms are scant, non-performance goes unpunished, and proposals on any fundamental reforms (including some suggested by the previous review committees) have so far proved difficult to implement. The Review Committee noted that despite many challenges, there are pockets of excellence in the Institute that are world class, and ISI can rise to its potential, which is huge. The Review Committee realizes that many challenges that are holding the Institute back from attaining its true potential are internal, and could and should have been addressed by the internal leadership. That this did not happen points to some fundamental flaws in the system. The Review Committee took a deep dive into the institutional entities, inter-relationships and mechanisms and concluded that ISI has dated governance structure that needs urgent overhaul and modernization. The Council of the Institute is bulky, with an unusually large proportion of it comprising Institute employees, almost all of whom, barring the Director and the Centre Heads, are elected. The Heads of the Scientific Divisions are elected, the representatives of the scientific and non-scientific workers to the Council are elected, the General Body members, who will be members of the council are elected, and even the Dean of Studies is elected. Elections test one’s popularity, which does not necessarily translate into a measure of merit and excellence in terms of capability and academic accomplishment, the cornerstones of all great institutions. An institution as great as the ISI can ill-afford to waste time in conducting institute wide elections every two years, and all the paraphernalia that is associated with electioneering, including the almost regular lobbying that frequent elections usually bring in their wake. Keeping these in mind, the Review Committee has made a number of recommendations that are targeted towards addressing the fundamental issues in the governance and administrative structure of the Institute. Besides these, some of the recommendations aim to rationalize the structure and focus of the scientific divisions, and distribution of scientific personnel across divisions, in order to make the scientific activities more aligned to the grand overarching objectives of the Institute. Related recommendations about creation, continuation and discontinuation of focused Centres/Units/Cells have been made to enhance productivity and to encourage inter- and cross-disciplinary research. Any academic institution advances mainly on the strength of its faculty, scientific staff, and students and scholars. Several of the recommendations of the Review Committee aim to increase accountability of the scientific members, set tangible targets of teaching, research supervision, fund generation, etc., provide a broad mechanism of feedback, link performance (in terms of research, teaching/training, administration and revenue generation) to future career prospects/institutional support, and strengthen and create a deep connect with the alumni, who are a valuable resource for any organization. The scientific staff of an academic institute can perform to their full potential and also outshine themselves only if they receive outstanding support from the administration. Several recommendations of the Review Committee are targeted towards rationalization of administrative staff, creation of structures for smooth conduct of research projects and engagement with the external world including the industry, efficient management of finances, adoption of digital technology and the like. Infrastructure including buildings, laboratories and computing systems need to be modernized urgently. The Institute has to significantly expand its outreach activities with a target to become a natural go-to destination for students, industry and the government. Significant effort and resources need to be spent on brand building that has tremendous real-life value in attracting the best talents and the best projects to the Institute. Finally, the Review Committee argues for greater autonomy to the Institute on its internal administrative matters, recruitments and the rules/procedures of recruitment, and handling the internal revenue that it generates, as long as they are within the broad guidelines of the Government of India. In terms of attracting outstanding talent to the Institute, particularly on short-term basis, the Institute should be given a special consideration to fix the remuneration and facilities at internationally competitive values. The Council, consisting of eminent and responsible persons as well as representatives of the government, should be empowered to take such decisions, without the need to thereafter seek government approval once again, as long as the total financial burden remains within reasonable limits of the sanctioned budget. The Review Committee recognizes that it is the power of ideas together with the power of execution that matters. Therefore, the recommendations have been broken down into categories in terms of ease of implementation as well as urgency into short, medium and long term. The Review Committee strongly feels that as ISI reaches its centenary year in 2031, it should aim to create a new ISI@100, transitioning from the current good to the very best, to an extent that it makes an international impact and becomes one of the foremost institutes globally.Item Indian Statistical Institute review committee report, 2002(Govt of India, 2002) India. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation