The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Calcutta, council has appointed another officiating director after a search-and-selection committee failed to select a full-term director, despite initiating the process in May 2025.

After the tenure of officiating director Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay expired on December 31, 2025, the chairman of the council appointed Ayanaendranath Basu, the senior-most professor at ISI, as the next officiating director.

Basu will hold office for three months or until the next director assumes charge, “whichever is earlier”.

Koppillil Radhakrishnan, the chairman of the ISI council — the institute’s highest decision-making body on administrative matters — invoked “an emergency” to appoint Basu. This provision allows the council to select an officiating director from among the professors for up to six months.

At ISI, the council oversees all administrative decisions, while the academic council is the top authority on academic affairs.

A contentious new structure being proposed by the Centre seeks to bypass the councils and vest overarching powers in a board of governors, comprising members nominated by the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

One stated objective of the change is to reduce red tape and speed up decision-making. However, ISI teachers are opposed to the move.

In a mass petition sent to the ministry in December, the teachers and researchers wrote: “According to the bill, the director will be subjected to periodical reviews. All this will essentially turn the director into a nominee of the central government and will be in complete contravention to the notion of autonomy.”

Some teachers also alleged that the ISI council was not allowed to choose the search-and-selection committee, which was imposed by the ministry.

Partha P. Majumder, a former ISI teacher and former National Chair of Science, told Metro: “Under the existing ISI Act and long-standing practice, the director’s appointment has involved broader institutional participation and statutory bodies, ensuring legitimacy, transparency, and insulation from individual discretion.”

A professor said that a full-term director could help ISI “take an institutional stand on the bill that seeks to undermine the institute’s autonomy.”

He added: “Activities like the appointment of teachers or the convocation are also suspended in the absence of a full-term director.”

Metro sent an email to the chairman of the ISI council, Radhakrishnan, seeking a response about the delay in the director’s appointment and allegations that the council’s approval was not sought while inducting expert members in the director selection process. This newspaper has yet to receive a response.