Convocation Ceremony of the 77th Term of the International Statistical Education Centre (ISEC) at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) held
The Convocation Ceremony of the 77th Term of the International Statistical Education Centre (ISEC) at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) was held on 28th May 2026 at NAB-1 (Ground Floor), A.N. Kolmogorov Bhawan, from 3:30 p.m. onwards, to confer Diplomas upon the international trainees.
On the occasion, Prof. Bimal Kumar Roy, Padma Shri awardee, former Chairperson of the National Statistical Commission (NSC), and former Director of ISI, delivered the Convocation Address. The ceremony was inaugurated and presided over by Prof. S. P. Mukherjee, Chairman of the Board of Directors, ISEC.
Prof. Amartya Kumar Dutta, Director of the Institute, delivered the Welcome Address and presented the Diplomas to the recipients. Prof. Ayanendranath Basu, Acting Member-Secretary of ISEC, released the Annual Review during the programme, while Prof. Sandip Mitra, Assistant Member-Secretary of ISEC, proposed the Vote of Thanks.
In this occasion, Prof. Bimal Kumar Roy deliberated on the privacy of acquired data. He added data is powerful for execution of Government policies in diffirent areas like agriculture, health, education etc. Privacy should be protected when publishing data. Prof. Roy also remembered Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis for his contribution known as Mahalanobis D-Square, which is widely used for different mathematical and scientific measurement. Prof. S. P. Mukherjee, illustrated the contribution of Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis on planning for nation development and establishment of ISEC. Prof. Amartya Kumar Dutta congratulated the graduating students. He also urged the trainees to keep moving forward for the development of Statistics.
On this occasion eighteen (18) trainees (6 female and 12 male) from 11 countries were awarded with the 10 month Diploma on Statistical Theory and Applications. The trainees are from Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. At present the course is offered by the International Statistical Education Centre (ISEC) in collaboration with the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. The Centre provides regular and special courses in theoretical and applied statistics at various levels to the selected participants from countries in the Middle-East, the South and the South-East Asia, the Far East and from the Commonwealth Countries in Africa. Most of the candidates are officials from national statistical offices and other government departments or from financial and other business organizations of the above countries. Till date, approximately 1746 trainees from 86 countries have attended the course and received this Diploma.
