PRESIDENT OF THE INSTITUTE, CHAIRMAN AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL AS ON MARCH 31, 2011 President: Prof. M.G.K. Menon, FRS 1. Chairman: Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Hon’ble Finance Minister, Government of India. 2. Director: Prof. Bimal K. Roy. Representatives of Government of India 3. Dr. S.K. Das, DG, CSO, Government of India, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, New Delhi. 4. Dr. K.L. Prasad, Adviser, Government of India, Ministry of Finance, New Delhi. 5. Dr. Rajiv Sharma, Scientist ‘G’ & Adviser, (International Cooperation), Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, New Delhi. 6. Shri Deepak K. Mohanty, Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai. 7. Shri Anant Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary (HE), Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education. Representative of ICSSR 8. Dr. Ranjit Sinha, Member Secretary, Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi. Representatives of INSA 9. Prof. V.D. Sharma, FNA, Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. 10. Prof. B.L.S. Prakasa Rao, FNA, Dr. Homi J Bhabha Chair Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad. 11. Prof. T.P. Singh, FNA, DBT Distinguished Biotechnologist, Department of Biophysics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. 12. Prof. Somnath Dasgupta, FNA, Director, National Centre of Experimental Mineralogy & Petrology, University of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. Representative of the Planning Commission 13. Shri B.D. Virdi, Adviser, Perspective Planning Division of Planning Commission, New Delhi. Representative of the University Grants Commission 14. Prof. S. Mahendra Dev, Director, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai. Scientists co-opted by the Council 15. Prof. Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Adviser, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, New Delhi. 16. Prof. R. Balasubramanian, Director, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai. Elected representatives of members of the Institute not employed in the Institute 17. Prof. D. Dutta Majumder, FNA, Emeritus Professor, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. 18. Shri Ajay Kumar Ghosh, Kolkata. 19. Prof. Siddani Bhaskara Rao, Director, C.R. Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Hyderabad Elected representatives of the employees of the Institute 20. Shri Somnath Ray, Representative of the Scientific Workers. 21. Shri Probir Chattoraj, Representative of the Non-Scientific Workers. Officers of the Institute 22. Prof. Goutam Mukherjee, Professor-in-Charge, Theoretical Statistics and Mathematics Division. 23. Prof. Subhamoy Maitra, Professor-in-Charge, Applied Statistics Division. 24. Prof. Madhura Swaminathan, Professor-in-Charge, Social Sciences Division. 25. Prof. Sisir Roy, Professor-in-Charge, Physics and Earth Sciences Division. 26. Prof. Bidyut Roy, Professor-in-Charge, Biological Sciences Division. 27. Prof. Subhas Chandra Nandy, Professor-in-Charge, Computer and Communication Sciences Division. 28. Shri Amitava Bandyopadhyay, Head, SQC & OR Division. 29. Prof. R.B. Bapat, Head, Delhi Centre. 30. Prof. T.S.S.R.K. Rao, Head, Bangalore Centre. 31. Dr. D. Sampangi Raman, Officiating Head, Chennai Centre. 32. Prof. Bhabani Prasad Sinha, Dean of Studies. Non-Member Secretary Shri S.K. Iyer, Chief Executive (Administration & Finance). INDIAN STATISTICAL INSTITUTE Annual Report April 2010 – March 2011 203 Barrackpore Trunk Road Kolkata – 700 108 (http://www.isical.ac.in) i Director’s Report It is my proud privilege to present the Annual Report of the Institute for the year 2010-2011 which happens to be the first one after I assumed the charge of the Director of the Institute. Like earlier occasions, the Institute is proud for its very talented faculty members who have earned honours and awards during the period. A partial list of these is as follows:- Professor Bidyut B. Chowdhuri of Computer Vision & Pattern Recognition Unit has received the prestigious J.C. Bose Fellowship Award from the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India. Professor Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay of Machine Intelligence Unit has received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Science. Professor Bandyopadhyay has also been elected Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad. Professor Nikhil R. Pal of Electronics & Communication Sciences Unit has been elected Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. Professor Ashis SenGupta of Applied Statistics Unit has been elected Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad. Professor SenGupta has also been elected as President of the Mathematical Sciences Sections of the Indian Science Congress Association for 2011-2012. Dr. Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay of Planning Unit, Delhi Centre has received Sir Ratan Tata Senior Fellowship from the Institute of Economic Growth. Dr. Supratik Pal of Physics & Applied Mathematics Unit has received Alexander Von Humboldt Fellowship from Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. The Institute celebrated the 1st World Statistics Day on 20 October, 2010 in ISI, Kolkata. Professor Stephen M. Stigler, Ernest DeWitt Burton, Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago delivered the speech on this occasion. To fulfil the objectives of the Institute, an Industry-Academia-Government Meet followed by an interactive session was held in the Institute on 12 September, 2010. Many heads of the leading institutions/organisations of the country participated in the session. Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Chairman, ISI Council and Hon’ble Finance Minister, Government of India chaired the session. Dr. V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister and Secretary DR&DS, Govt. of India, New Delhi; Dr. Debesh K. Das, Minister in Charge, Information Technology, Govt. of West Bengal; Prof. R. Balasubramanian, Director, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai; Prof. C.S. Seshadri, Director, Chennai Mathematical Institute, Chennai; Admiral A.K. Bahl, Director General, WESEE (Indian Navy), New Delhi; Mr. Peeyush Ranjan, Head, R&D, Google India, Bangalore; Mr. Srinath Batni, Director and Head, Infosys Technologies Ltd., Bangalore; Mr. Arun Mishra, Principal Executive Officer, Tata Steel Ltd., Jamshedpur; Dr. Gautam Samanta, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., Hyderabad; Dr. Manish Gupta, Director, IBM Research-India/South Asia, New Delhi; Dr. Pradip K. Dutta, Corporate Vice President & Managing Director, Synopsys (India) Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore; Mr. Eugen Welte, CEO, Airbus Engineering Center India, Bangalore; Dr. Jaijit Bhattacharya, Director, Hewlett Packard India, Gurgaon; Mr. Alo Ghosh, President, Techna; Mr. George Thomas, Chief General Manager, Tata Motors Ltd.; Mr. S.A. Bhogle, Country Manager, Teoco; Dr. P.K. Saxena, Director, SAG, DRDO, Govt. of India; Captain Anand, Indian Navy, New Delhi were present and deliberated on this occasion. The Institute organised the panel discussion on “Expectation of Future Leaders as a part of the “Integration 2011” programme on 15th January, 2011. Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Chairman, ISI Council and Hon’ble Finance Minister, Government of India chaired the panel discussion and Shri Harsha Bhogle, eminent sports commentator compared the programme among the speakers of the panel discussion, Shri Arun Shourie, Shri Sourav Ganguly, Shri Anupam Kher and Smt. Rita Bhimani were present. An International Congress on “Productivity, Quality, Reliability, Optimisation and Modelling (ICPQROM 2011)” was organised by the SQC & OR Unit, Delhi in collaboration with Quality Council of India and DRDO during 07-08 February, 2011. Dr. Monmohan Singh, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India inaugurated the International Congress in the presence of Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Hon’ble Finance ii Director’s Report Minister, Government of India and Chairman, ISI Council on 7th February, 2011 held at DRDO Bhawan, New Delhi. The 45th Convocation of the Institute was held on 4th February, 2011 at Amrakunja of the Institute. Professor Sastry G. Pantula, Director, Mathematical Sciences Division, National Science Foundation, USA was present as the Chief Guest and delivered the Convocation Address. Professor M.G.K. Menon, FRS, President of the Institute and Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Chairman, ISI Council and Hon’ble Finance Minister, Government of India were also present on this occasion. The International Statistical Education Centre, run by the Institute under the auspices of Government of India, celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in befitting manner during the period. In this connection, two International Conferences were held in Kolkata and Delhi during 04 – 05 February, 2011 and 11-12 February, 2011 respectively. Professor M.G.K. Menon, President, Indian Statistical Institute inaugurated the conference while Professor S.K. Das, Director General, Central Statistical Organisation, Ministry of Statistics & P.I., Government of India and Professor Sastry G. Pantula, Director, Mathematical Sciences Division, National Science Foundation, USA were present as the Chief Guest and Guest of Honour respectively at the Diamond Jubilee Celebration of ISEC at Kolkata. Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Government of India delivered the key note address on this occasion. Dr. M.S. Gill, Hon’ble Union Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation inaugurated the ISEC Diamond Jubilee Conference on “Statistics, Economic Development and Public Administration” on 11th February, 2011 at the Vasuki Auditorium, Lok Kala Manch, New Delhi. Dr. Pronab