A partial history of the Indian Statistical Institute (Q2813328)

The history (and persons involved) of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) are described, mainly concerning the years 1930--1980. The author pays attention in this respect, to the influences due to scientists like P. C. Mahalanobis (1893--1972), R. A. Fisher, R. C. Bose, S. N. Roy, S. S. Shrikhande, E. T. Parker (note here the connections of combinatorics and algebra and coding theory: BCH-codes). Connections of the work at the ISI with that of mathematicians outside India are mentioned here. Especially, V. S. Varadarajan, R. Ranga Rao, K. R. Parthasarathy, who play a rôle in modern probability theory at the ISI, are discussed. The visit of J. B. S. Haldane to the ISI in 1956--1961 did establish the interactions of statistics and, as the author says, ``user sciences''. Even the excavation of an almost complete skeleton of a dinosaur can be brought back to the ideas of the geological unit of the ISI (in 1961)!NEWLINENEWLINE Thus, as it has been turned out in the sixties of the last century, the influence of the ISI has been enormous, certainly not alone at statistics and probability.NEWLINENEWLINE As a reviewer, I can add that the history of the ISI over the years 1930--1980 has been exhibited in a very clear and fruitful way.