New Delhi, Sept. 28 -- The Union government has unveiled a new draft bill that aims to bring sweeping changes to the iconic Indian Statistical Institute, a 94-year-old centre that helped design some of India's earliest data-driven economic policies during the planning era, including the national sample surveys.

The Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation uploaded the draft "The Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2025" on Friday, seeking public consultations on a spate of structural changes and a new executive authority.

The ISI was founded in 1931 by PC Mahalanobis, a pioneer statistician and member of the erstwhile planning commission. His "Mahalanobis model", a statistical framework, was pretty much the bedrock of In...