Kolkata: The Council of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), which met on Monday, has in-principle agreed to the proposal from the Bengal govt to function as the Lead Knowledge Institute (LKI) under Viksit Bharat @2047 programme.The process will be taken forward soon, sources close to the development, said.On Monday, in an email to each of the faculty members of the ISI Kolkata, a council member said the institute has received a proposal for “onboarding” the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata as Lead Knowledge Institution (LKI) under the State Support Mission (SSM) of NITI Aayog.The state’s department of planning and statistics has invited the Kolkata unit for “onboarding.” The email also mentioned the proposed association would provide an opportunity for ISI to contribute its longstanding academic and technical expertise towards addressing important developmental and policy challenges in the state.“This is a welcome change after the Centre pushed the ISI Bill in the Parliament and faculty members continued to oppose that.This is also a recognition that ISI, Kolkata is one of the key institutes in the country which can provide technical and analytical inputs for the preparation of the State Vision 2047,” said a faculty member.As an LKI, the ISI Kolkata might provide multidisciplinary knowledge, research-based advisory support and technical guidance for NITI Aayog-related initiatives in Bengal. ISI Kolkata will identify key sectors and formulation of sector-specific strategies, advise the govt on monitoring and evaluation, data analytics and evidence-based decision-making.It will also support improvement in the quality, validation, integration and utilization of data, besides facilitating collaboration among academic and research institutions, think tanks and other knowledge partners.
