From the Director’s Desk am delighted to present the Annual Report of the &Communications were planned. One may recall that Indian Statistical Institute for the year 2018-19. This on June 29, 2017, the then Hon’ble President of India, I Institute that started its journey in December 1931 in Shri Pranab Mukherjee, had inaugurated the 125th Birth Kolkata has today grown into a unique institution of higher Anniversary Celebrations of Mahalanobis. learning spread over several cities of India. The Institute, founded by the visionary PC Mahalanobis, continues It is always a delight to inform that once again the its glorious tradition of disseminating knowledge in Institute faculty members have been recognized both Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative nationally and internationally with a large number of Economics and related subjects. The year 2018-19 saw honors and awards. I mention some of these here. In the formation of the new Council of the Institute. I am 2018, Arunava Sen was conferred the TWAS-Siwei Cheng delighted to welcome Shri Bibek Debroy as the President Prize in Economics and Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay of the Institute. It is also a privilege that Professor was conferred the TWAS Prize Engineering Sciences in Goverdhan Mehta continues to guide the Institute as the Trieste, Italy. Arup Bose was selected as J.C. Bose Fellow Chairman of the Council. for 2019-2023 after having completed one term of this fellowship from 2014 to 2018. Nikhil Ranjan Pal was The Institute conducted its 53rd Convocation in January appointed President, IEEE Computational Intelligence 2019. The Institute was happy to have Lord Meghnad Society. Sushmita Mitra became Fellow of the Indian Jagdishchandra Desai, Padma Bhushan, Emeritus National Science Academy and received the Flex Award Professor, London School of Economics, as the Chief given by the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Guest. During the year, the Institute observed the closing Excellence Fellowship for 2019-2020. Pradipta Maji was ceremony of the 125th Birth Anniversary Celebrations of elected Fellow of the National Academy of Science. P.C. Mahalanobis in Kolkata and the different Centres. Parthanil Roy received the Swarna Jayanti Fellowship, The year-long celebrations were marked by a series of 2017-2018. He wasappointed as the Bernoulli Society academic activities, culminating with the closing ceremony Youth Representative for 2017-2020. Amartya K. Dutta that was graced by the Hon’ble Vice-President of India, was awarded the Satish C. Bhatnagar Award for Best Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu and Shri D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Publication in the field ofHistory of Mathematics. Malay the then Hon’ble Minister of Statistics & Programme Bhattacharyya was awarded INAE Young Engineer Implementation on June 29, 2018. A commemorative Award in Computer Science and also selected as INAE coin, a photo album and a music album were released by Young Associate for 2018. Abhik Ghosh has won IEEE- the Hon’ble Vice-President of India. Google launched a GRSS Regional Leader Award in 2019. A more detailed Google doodle to commemorate the day. Google Arts and list is provided in the report. A large number of faculty Culture paid tribute to the visionary leader by organizing members continue taking up editorial assignments in the an online exhibition of his life and works (https:// respective fields. The Institute faculty published more artsandculture.google.com/entity/prasanta-chandra- than 730 papers and received more than 5200 citations mahalanobis/m01_b18?categoryid=historical-figure). in 2018. The Institute is proud of their achievements and Special issues of journals Sankhya and Cryptography wishes them further success in the future. An academic institution I s incomplete without a vibrant Di Trieste, Italy, Technical University of Košice, Slovakia, set of visitors bringing with them fresh inputs and ideas. Basque Centre for Applied Mathematics (BCAM), Spain, Preface We were privileged to welcome a large number of eminent University of the Aegean, Greece, London School of visitors from around the world in various disciplines to Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of This Annual Report gives you a glimpse into the research and teaching activities of the Indian Statistical the Institute. These are mentioned in the Annual Report. Campinas, Brazil, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Institute during April 2018 to March 2019 in a completely new and revised format. Apart from the general During this period several conferences and workshops University of Porto, Portugal, Cancer Research Malaysia, layout, the note worthy changes include addition of new content, which comprise activities that have were organized by the various units of the Institute. Some Dauphine Université Paris, Geological Survey of India, always been an integral part of ISI, like placement for students, national & international activities etc. of these were the International Conference on Probability Airports Authority of India, National Highway Authority of In addition to teaching, research activities and publications, MoUs facilitating exchange of faculty/ held in January 2018, the International Conference on India, Ministry of Mines, Tata Consultancy Services, Credit India Biodiversity Meetorganized by the Agriculture – Suisse, R S Software India Limited, Cognizant Technology students, industry-academia/ government-academia interactions and the employability and productivity & Ecological Research Unit during February 14-16, Solutions India Pvt. Ltd., Price water house Coopers, TATA of graduates have also been highlighted in this report. 2019, 4th International Workshop on Pattern Analysis Steel and many more. Apart from these, the Institute is These inclusions would not have been possible without the active help and cooperation extended by our and Applications organized by the Computer Vision & working very closely with the Government of India and faculty and staff members whose timely contribution of additional source information greatly helped us Pattern Recognition Unit, Kolkata during February 26- various state governments for solving problems of social 28, 2019 and the International Conference on Future of importance and for improvement of services being offered improvise this issue. We are also grateful to everyone whose tireless efforts went into the editing and Libraries organized by the Library and Reprography & by the government, in addition to conducting a large formulation of a proper lay-out for the materials at hand. A special word of thanks to Monali Paladhi, Deputy Photography Division, in collaboration with IIM, Bangalore, number of training programs for government officials. Librarian and Debabrata Karmakar, Public Relations Unit who helped us in accessing and organizing content held at Bangalore Centre during January 26-28, 2019. On for this issue. The members of the editorial board have put in a lot of effort to make this volume a source of December 18th, 2018, the Foundation Day of the Institute Construction activities are going on in the different information about the multi-faceted activities of this institute. We sincerely regret any errors or omissions was celebrated with a lecture by Professor Parthasarathi campuses of the Institute. The academic and administrative that might have crept in despite our best efforts. Chakraborti, Director, Indian Institute of Engineering buildings of the campus of ISI North East in Tezpur and the Science and Technology, Shibpur. campus of the RC Bose Centre for Cryptology and Security are nearing completion. New construction in Bangalore The regular academic degree programs of the Institute campus and repair works in the Kolkata campus are The Editorial Board are going strong as usual. The post graduate diploma in ongoing. A Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Anjana Dewanji --- Chairperson statistical methods and applications conducted in the Learning was set up in ISI Kolkata to cater to the growing North-East Centre of the Institute in Tezpur was opened demand in this area. The Institute needs significant Amita Majumder --- Member up for students from across the country, with half of the additional funding for further expansion and improvement Bimal Kumar Roy --- Member seats being reserved for those domiciled in the North East. of the existing infrastructure in its multiple campuses. C.R.E. Raja --- Member This course is also planned to be initiated in the Chennai The Institute also needs the support of the government Centre of the Instiute. The two-year Post Graduate Diploma to enhance the number of faculty posts, especially in the D. Sampangi Raman --- Member in Business Analytics course, conducted jointly with new centers in Tezpur and Chennai, to enable initiation of J.N. Pandey --- Member the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and Indian substantial academic programs there. While the Institute Manipushpak Mitra --- Member Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, although comparatively needs to overcome several constraints to maintain the new continued to be rated very high internationally. The high standards it has set for itself, it is blessed with MD Zafar Anis --- Member Statistical Training Diploma offered by the International full cooperation from the administrative ministry. I am Nityananda Sarkar --- Member Statistical Education Centre, serving officials and students thankful to the Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Preeti Parashar --- Member from different countries, is running successfully with the Programme