Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
A sample survey may look like an easy and simple statistical method to us today but when Mahalanobis introduced it in India in the 1930s, it was nothing short of a grand innovation. This was evident from his meeting with Chinese premier Zhou En Lai in 1956. This is how an ET blog from last year describes it: "Zhou was frustrated by his country’s inability to produce useable data on time. China at the time collected data in every single economic unit, which generated more data than they could pro ..
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
Prasanta Chandra
Born Bengali: প্রশান্ত চন্দ্র মহালানবিস
29 June 1893
Calcutta, Bengal, British India
Died 28 June 1972 (aged 78)
Calcutta, West Bengal, India
Nationality Indian
Alma mater Presidency College, Calcutta
King's College, Cambridge
Known for Mahalanobis distance
Feldman–Mahalanobis model
Spouse(s) Nirmal Kumari Mahalanobis
Awards Padma Vibhushan (1968)
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE, 1942)
Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
Weldon Memorial Prize
Scientific career
Fields Mathematics, statistics
Institutions University of Cambridge
Indian Statistical Institute
Doctoral advisor William Herrick Macaulay
Doctoral students Samarendra Roy
Other notable students Raj Chandra Bose
C.R. Rao
Signature
Mahalanobis AutographedPostcard.jpg
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis OBE, FNA, FASc, FRS (29 June 1893 – 28 June 1972) was an Indian scientist and applied statistician. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure, and for being one of the members of the first Planning Commission of free India. He made pioneering studies in anthropometry in India. He founded the Indian Statistical Institute, and contributed to the design of large-scale sample surveys.
Many colleagues of Mahalanobis took an interest in statistics. An informal group developed in the Statistical Laboratory, which was located in his room at the Presidency College, Calcutta. On 17 December 1931 Mahalanobis called a meeting with Pramatha Nath Banerji (Minto Professor of Economics), Nikhil Ranjan Sen (Khaira Professor of Applied Mathematics) and Sir R. N. Mukherji. Together they established the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), and formally registered on 28 April 1932 as a non-profit distributing learned society under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860.
