Parmeshwar Narayan Haksar (4 September 1913 – 25 November 1998) was an Indian bureaucrat and diplomat, best known for his two-year stint as Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's principal secretary (1971–73). In that role, Haksar was the chief strategist and policy adviser behind his inexperienced prime minister's rise to near-absolute power in the mid-1970s. After this he was appointed deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and then the first-ever chancellor of New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University. An advocate of centralization and socialism, he was a Kashmiri Pandit who became Gandhi's closest confidante in her inner coterie of bureaucrats, the so-called "Kashmiri mafia". Prior to this, Haksar was a diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service, who served as India's ambassador to Austria and Nigeria.

Professor Anadi Ranjan Roy (1920-1990) took M.Sc. Degree in Pure Mathematics in 1942 and in Statistics in 1944, both from Calcutta University. After completing his postgraduate, he joined the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and rose to the position of Professor of Statistics there. During his stay at Calcutta, he had the privilege of being taught by Professor P.C. Mahalanobis, Professor R.C. Bose, and Professor P.K. Bose among others. Subsequently, he proceeded to USA for doctoral degree from Stanford University on a Fulbright Grant where he worked with several stalwarts including Professor Charles Stein, Herman Chernoff, and Meyer Girshick. His teachers and research associates/supervisors were highly impressed by his research work and potentials. In 1959, he joined the Department of Statistics, Lucknow University as Professor and Head and continued to hold the position till his retirement in 1980. He went on diplomatic assignment as Statistical Training Advisor to the South Pacific Commission by Commonwealth Secretariat, London, which again in April 1979 posted him at Colombo, Sri Lanka. He retired from Lucknow University in 1980. Ever since he came to Lucknow in 1959, his love for the city was intense and deep which led to establishment of IASDS at Lucknow in 1985 despite family and other pressers. Sri P.N. Haksar, the renowned diplomat and administrator agreed to be founder President of the Governing Body. In order to give direction and groom the institute through its formative years, Professor Roy chose to be its Honorary Director/ Secretary, a position he held till his untimely demise on May 1, 1990. During his brief stewardship, the institute organized several training programs on Sample Surveys and related issues, for senior government officers of India and Nepal, undertook several projects sponsored by Planning Commission, Central and State Governments as also North Eastern Council, Shillong. Despite his failing health, he worked hard to organize a workshop sponsored by State Land Use Board, U.P. on Perspective Plan for Land Use for Agricultural and Non- Agricultural Purposes but his death left the work unfinished.

Mr. R.K. Srivastava was the Joint Director of IASDS. He was assigned the charges of Officiating Director on sad & sudden demise of Prof. A.R. Roy.

Prof. Arun K. Nigam has over 50 years of wide ranging experience and has contributed significantly in the subject of development statistics, especially in the field of public health, food and agriculture and nutrition. Dr. Nigam completed his masters in Mathematical Statistics from Lucknow University and PhD from Banaras Hindu University. Dr. Nigam was the Professor and Head, Training & Basic Research at the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and in this capacity provided leadership in conducting research in the fields of design of experiments and sample surveys. Dr. Nigam’s interest in the subject of public health nutrition has been evident since mid-90s when he, as the Director of the Institute of Applied Statistics and Development Studies (IASDS), he worked on the workshop sponsored by State Land Use Board, U.P. on Perspective Plan for Land Use for Agricultural and Non- Agricultural Purposes which was left unfinished by the death of Dr. A.R. Roy. He also conducted the state-based women and child nutrition survey for the Department of Women and Child, State Government of Uttar Pradesh (UP). Under Dr. Nigam’s leadership, the findings of 1998 for the first time in India, presented the regional malnutrition scenario in the state of UP and through the regression analysis of raw data highlighted the significance of early age of child, women’s health-nutrition status and access to sanitation as the risk factor associated with under-nutrition in children.

Prof. S.K. Mitra was the eminent Statistician and retired from Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi. He was the Vice President of IASDS Governing Body. He officiated as the President on sad & sudden demise of Sri P.N. Haksar.

Dr. Padam Singh has held many important positions in Government of India. He has been a Member of National Statistical Commission, GOI during 2006-09. He has served as Additional DG ICMR during 1997-2004, and Director National Institute of Medical Statistics during 1987-97. Dr. Padam Singh has started his career as Senior Professor in IASRI in 1977 and worked till 1981 after that in 1981 he joined as Joint Advisor in Planning Commission. He was also associated with EPOS Health (India) as Head - Research & Evaluation.

Prof. Sunil Kumar Pandey was the faculty member of the Department of Statistics, University of Lucknow from February 1978 to June 2018. He also served as Director, (Professor’s grade and pay) Swami Satyanand Institute of Management & Development Research, Lucknow from September 15, 1997 till June 30, 2003 & Professor of Statistics at Lucknow University since September 15, 2001 to 30.06.2018.

Dr. Ravindra Srivastava worked as Director of IASDS from 2010 to 2018. Prior to joining IASDS he retired as Principal Scientist (ICAR-IASRI). He has vast experience of research in Agricultural Statistics and teaching and guidance. During his tenure as Director of IASDS, he handled approximately 30 projects mostly as Principal Investigator. These studies were mostly related to social sciences, nutrition and health, gender related issues and agriculture etc. He has to his credit about 25 research publications besides 2 books including one e-book. Currently he is Consultant and Vice President of Governing Body of IASDS.

Prof. V.K. Gupta Former ICAR National Professor. Educated at Delhi United Christian School, Delhi 1967; B.Sc. Ramjas College, University of Delhi, 1970; M.Sc. Indian Agricultural Research Institute, 1972; PG Diploma, Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI), 1974; Ph.D. IARI, 1983. Scientist S-1, 1976-82, Senior Scientist, 1982-88, National Fellow, 1995-2000, Head, Division of Design of Experiments, 2000-03, and Joint Director, 2003-06, IASRI, New Delhi; FAO Consultant, 1994; ICAR National Professor, IASRI, New Delhi, 2006-16. Awards/Honours: IARI Best Teacher Award, 1999; First Dr. D.N. Lal Memorial Lecture Award, 2000; Professor P.V. Sukhatme Gold Medal Award, 2005; ISAS Sankhyiki Bhushan, 2010; Sessional President, 61st Annual Conference, Indian Society of Agricultural Statistics, 2007; Chair Editor, Journal of the Indian Society of Agricultural Statistics; Associate Editor, Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference, Journal of Statistical Theory and Practice and Agricultural Research. President, Society of Statistics, Computer and Applications; Vice-President, Indian Society of Agricultural Statistics; President, Governing Body, Institute of Applied Statistics and Development Studies, Lucknow. Fellow: Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute; Indian Society of Agricultural Statistics. Research Areas: Design of Experiments, Sampling Theory, Applied Statistics

Dr. S.P. Singh started his career as Assistant Professor in 1978 at RAU, PUSA, Bihar and elevated to the post of Assoc. Professor in 1991 and Professor & Head in 1999. He also worked on lien as Associate Professor at IIM, Lucknow from 1999 to 2004, and handled many World Bank funded projects and also made significant contribution in starting Post Graduate Diploma in Agribusiness Management at IIM, Lucknow. Dr. S.P. Singh established MBA Agribusiness Programme at RAU, Pusa since 2006 as coordinator and also helped BAU Kanke, Ranchi to establish MBA Agribusiness Programme also served in various capacity and retired as the Dean, Faculty of Basic Sciences & Humanities from RPCAU, Pusa, in July 2018. Presently, he is associated with the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences & Allied Industries, Rama University, Kanpur.