Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalnobis established the Indian Statistical Institute(ISI) as a learned society, on 17th December, 1931 intialily at the Baker Laboratory of Presidency College ,Calcutta and later shifted to the present premises at Baranagar in Kolkata during 1950’s, to promote research in the theory and applications of statistics as a new scientific discipline in India. Mahalanobis with his assosicates and successors, rentlessly nurtured with care and patience this sapling which has now grown into an imposing banayan tree, very much like the one which is the Institute emblem, a haven for bright and talented academics working in a number of disciplines.The institute gained the status of an Institution of National Importance by an Act of the Indian Parliament in 1959.Over the decades, the institute has grown steadily and at present, ISI has its headquarter in Baranagar, a suburb of Kolkata, West Bengal. It has five subsidiary centres focused in academic at Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Tezpur, Giridih and a network of Statistical Quality Control and Operation Research Unit at Baroda, Mumbai, Pune, Coimbatore, Chennai and Hyderabad.