Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) engages in the research, teaching, and application of statistics to the natural sciences and social sciences. Founded by Professor P.C. Mahalanobis in Kolkata in 1931, while statistics was a relatively new scientific field, the institute gained the status of an Institution of National Importance by an act of the Indian Parliament in 1959.

Mahalanobis established the ISI in a small room in the Presidency College on 17 December 1931, with a budget of Rs. 250 and a single part-time human "computer". The ISI later moved to its current Baranagar location, a property owned by Professor Mahalanobis called "Amrapali" (a name given by the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore). Currently, the ISI in Kolkata is located in six addresses: 201 to 206 Barrackpore Trunk Road, including one which used to house the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO). (The NSSO was in a building known as the Studio because of its origin as a silent movie studio in the 1920s and 1930s.) The ISI expanded to locations in New Delhi and Bangalore, and now has a total annual expenditure of over Rs. 15,000,000, 250 faculty members, and over 1,000 supporting staff.

The Present Director is Prof. Sankar Kumar Pal. The present dean is prof. Bimal Roy.

• Statistics-Mathematics Division, Indian Statistical Institute