PC Mahalanobis: Know about the father of Indian statistics

Every year June 29 is observed as National Statistics Day in our country to create public awareness about the importance of statistics in socio-economic planning and policy formulation.

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, considered the father of modern statistics in India, founded the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), shaped the Planning Commission and pioneered methodologies for large-scale surveys. Every year June 29 is observed as National Statistics Day in our country to create public awareness about the importance of statistics in socio-economic planning and policy formulation.

During his initial working days, Mahalanobis joined the Cavendish Laboratory with physicist CTR Wilson.(@_shibendu/Twitter)

Born to Probodh Chandra Mahalanobis and Nirodbashini Devi on June 29, 1893, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis was the eldest of six children—two sons and four daughters. He died on June 28, 1972, a day before his 79th birthday.

Education

Mahalanobis studied at the Brahmo Boys’ School, which was founded by his grandfather Guru Charan Mahalanobis in 1904 and joined the Presidency College to study physics. He also attended the King’s College in Cambridge, where he met mathematical genius--Srinivasa Ramanujan.

Career

During his initial working days, Mahalanobis joined the Cavendish Laboratory with physicist CTR Wilson. Later, Mahalanobis returned to India and started teaching physics at the Presidency College in 1922. He remained a teacher there for over three decades and held the post of meteorologist at the Alipore Observatory in Calcutta, now Kolkata, from 1922 to 1926.

Mahalanobis formed a group that was interested in statistics, that later expanded and eventually, the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) was founded in 1932. In the next year, he launched Sankhya: The Indian Journal Of Statistics.

He also established the National Sample Survey in 1950 and set up the Central Statistical Organisation to coordinate statistical activities. He became a member of the Planning Commission in 1955 and continued till 1967.

Contributions

Mahalanobis was instrumental in formulating India’s second five-year plan (1956-1961), which laid the blueprint for industrialisation and development in India.

One of his most remarkable achievements was when Mahalanobis devised a measure of comparison between two data sets, now popularly called "Mahalanobis distance". The study is widely used in the field of cluster analysis and classification.

He also introduced innovative techniques to devise a statistical method called fractile graphical analysis used to compare socio-economic conditions of varied groups. He analysed data regarding the floods in Odisha and published his findings in 1926. This analysis later formed the basis for the construction of the Hirakud dam on the Mahanadi River.