Introduction: 

There has been a feeling among several senior scientists and experts that there is need to create conditions to improve the overall general quality of research and education in Mathematical Sciences in Uttar Pradesh and some of its adjoining areas. One reason seems to be the lack of the needed expertise and facilities at one convenient location. As a result, a large number of well-motivated students, young researchers and teachers, having genuine (research) interest in mathematical sciences, are not able to sustain their interest in these areas for long. Hence establishing some sort of a Centre for Mathematics at a convenient location was felt to be a solution. The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) was considered a convenient location in view of the fact that BHU is a well-recognized seat of learning in India, having a very large number of departments in almost all disciplines from Science, Engineering & Technology, and Medical Science etc. In particular, its Departments of Mathematics, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, and Computer Science have been, and are, well-known for their teaching, research and faculty. In addition, BHU already has excellent infrastructure and facilities, offering thereby a convenient platform where people having diverse research interests can interact and flourish, with multi-disciplinarity as an advantage. Perhaps, keeping some of these things in mind, the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India, sanctioned in November 2007 the establishment of a Centre for Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences, in the Banaras Hindu University, primarily to impart Training and Research in Mathematical Sciences and to establish Core-Group Research Facilities in this region.