My brother is doing his PGDBA from IIT KGP and he was rather afraid of programming and coding when he started the course. If you're stuck in the same situation, then my only advice is to enroll in the course with an open mind and a desire to learn to program if you don't already know-how. 

Coding Experience: There is always a first time of everything. Now there are numerous MOOCs available online that can assist you in taking the initial step. The discipline of analytics (technical side) necessitates solid coding abilities, and therefore if you want to pursue a career in analytics, you should start learning the necessary skills now.

Work Experience: It is not necessary to have prior work experience to enroll in the course. However, relevant analytical experience aids in extracting greater value from the course. 

According to your assessment of your interests, you have a preference for fields involving mathematics and statistics. Analytical science is an excellent fit in that regard. I would recommend that you go into MOOCs like Coursera, audacity, and your willingness to learn more about this field. You will obtain a better understanding of the field and would be able to decide if this is a good fit for you or not.

The best course area ISI Kolkata has mastered until today is PCM. It is one of the premier institutes of India and is offering masters in several fields concerning research on Statistics. 

Apart from that, this institute offers 2 UG programs, namely B.Stat and B.Math. The entrance exams to both of these courses are considered to be highly difficult to ace. The entrance exams are relatively even more difficult than JEE-Advanced. 

A major difference between ISI Kolkata and other institutes is that they only enroll around 30-40 students per year, to help keep its value intact. 

Quite clearly, it is a very demanding course area. If only you are typically inclined towards the subject area, you can take it up as a future career, since it is extremely fruitful if aced. 

One of my friends is currently in his first year of M.tech CS at ISI Kolkata. Here are some crucial insights regarding the academics and placements according to his experience.

Academics: 

• If you have a CS background in your under graduation too, then all subjects in the first year will be mostly repetition for you. You can also check the exact list on the ISI website. However, many people with a CS background say that they have learned things in a much-refined way.
• In the second year, you finally get to choose subjects based on your interest which will help you in your final thesis.
• ISI is quite famous for cryptography but you can also find good thesis projects in prestigious fields like Machine learning, Image processing, Algorithms, VLSI, cognitive science, etc. Also, you get good guidance in all of these.

Placements:

ISI is particularly famous for statistics. So, most companies coming for placements offer Data science profiles. Very few companies would be offering developer job roles. So regarding the placements, it’s the best place to grab data scientist roles with lucrative packages. In the recent placement highlights, the average and highest CTC offered was 19.80 LPA and 42 LPA. 

Overall, ISI Kolkata is an amazing place to pursue your M.Tech in CS. The great academics and placement record indeed make it a haven for students associated with CS, mathematics, and statistics fields.

Here's an overview of the internship and Final Placement data for the M.Tech CS 2021 Batch:

Summer Internship

• The percentage of industry domains, where the most internships have been gained are - Data Science: 53.7% interns and Risk Modelling: 11% interns.
• The highest monthly stipend was INR 1.65 lakhs while the average monthly stipend was INR 82,000 lakhs.

Final Placements

• CSE department saw the highest placement percentage of 100%.
• The product-based domain offered the highest number of offers with 20.0%.
• Most of the jobs were for the role of a Data Scientist, nearly half of the total, with a 48% recruitment.
• The highest CTC offered was INR 56 LPA; the average CTC was INR 19.5 LPA and the median CTC offered was INR 18.6 LPA.

The top recruiters for the year 2021 were Google, Alphonso, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, Amazon, Flipkart, PayPal, Samsung, KPMG, OYO, TATA, Naukri.com, Reliance, and others.

One of my cousins is a recent alumnus of ISI Kolkata and mentions that there have never been any complaints regarding ragging. 

Most essentially, there is a legitimate reason behind these institutions being different from many others. That being said, ISI, CMI, IISC, IMSC, TIFR, and HRI are mostly different from every institute because they are primarily research-oriented. The list also incorporates IIT, NIT, BITS, IISER, NISER. These institutions are completely free of the Students Unions Ragging, students clubs, and more. 

ISI Delhi is a better option than ISI Kolkata when it comes to MSQE. However, if you are from West Bengal or any nearby place, ISI Kolkata must be your first preference. Moreover, if you are looking for placements desperately then it would be best suited your first option.

But on the other hand, if you want to be an economist, then you should pursue a Ph.D. in economics without any second thoughts from ISI Delhi.

When placements are looked at, then you might feel disappointed as both campuses have average placement records. Last year, approximately 31 out of 51 students were selected for ISI Delhi and only 14 out of 17 were selected for ISI Kolkata. Moreover, there is a lot of gap in the selection percentage, therefore, it can be concluded that none of them is easier.  

There is no doubt that ISI is an extremely and highly reputed institution. By any chance, if you are not left with any other alternative then it is worth waiting for ISI Kolkata.

• If you are planning for a master’s here, ISI Kolkata is a good choice.
• However, for a bachelor’s degree, you are advised to wait for a maximum of one year and not more than that under any circumstances. 
• It will be preferred if you go to other colleges.
• If you want to get a master's degree from ISI, I would recommend working throughout these two years while studying. 
• Do not just sit idle and do nothing as it doesn't look good on a resume. 
• Any work experience will be preferable to sitting at home.

If you are pursuing a bachelor's degree, study hard for one year, do nothing else, and ensure that you are accepted at the end of the year. Just to be safe, look into other colleges in India that specialize in mathematical sciences, such as CMI, Delhi School of Economics, IISc, and IIT.

I am not fully aware of IITs courses but could still try to give some insight of the same on whatever I got to know from the internet. 

• The ISI M.Tech CS entrance exam includes an optional Objective Paper Mathematics and a Subjective Paper (you may choose CS).
• The majority of ISI's placements are in analytics firms so it would be advised to not choose ISI if you're looking for a core CS job.
• If you are interested in Algorithm Design, Machine Learning, and, most importantly, Cryptography, then ISI would be a good option. 
• After completing your MTech CS at ISI, you will have several research opportunities in ISI and also abroad.
• ISI has excellent theoretical CS faculty (Mathematics, Statistics, Cryptography, Machine Learning, Data Science). 
• So, if you're interested in learning more about these topics, you can come to ISI.

Please do not expect to find Developer, Coder, or Core CS work at ISI after completing your M.Tech. Students have a misconception about it and come here with high hopes which ultimately backfires.

According to the qualification needed for M.Tech a student needs to qualify the GATE exam. A senior of mine was the first one in my knowledge to join M.Tech CS. She ranked within the top 300 in GATE electrical engineering. 

Gradually mechanical and other core branches are also allowed to apply for M.Tech in CS. It is also mentioned in the GATE brochure of ISI Kolkata that graduates from other branches can apply to M.Tech in CS

Gradually a lot of my seniors applied for M.Tech in CS after completing their graduation. A survey says that major of the applicants for M.Tech in CS are from other branches like mechanical and core branches also.