To honour the great achievements and research of noted Indian statistician and scientist Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis on 125th Birth Anniversary, search giant Google has dedicated a Doodle to him. The doodle has been created by the UK based illustrator, Nishant Choksi.
Born on 29 June 1893 in West Bengal, Mahalanobis was no normal student. While on his way back to India from King’s College, Cambridge, England, he was introduced to Biometrika, a leading book on theoretical statistics of the time, which interested him so much that he bought nine volumes of the same and read it on his journey. Mahalanobis’ fascination with statistics and research grew to this extent that today, the world remembers him by the "Mahalanobis distance", a way of measurement used in population studies and was one of the members of the first Planning Commission of India.
The man was a self-taught statistician and also taught at Presidency College in Kolkata where, in 1931, he was responsible for founding the Indian Statistical Institute. He even laid the foundations of Indian statistical system through the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) and the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO).
Mahalanobis always believed that statistics is the most powerful technology for increasing the efficiency of human effort. With his research and accurate thought process, in 1926, he analyzed 60 years’ data related to floods in Orissa, which led to the construction of the Hirakud dam on the Mahanadi, after three decades. Later in the days, he even collaborated with top economists and mathematicians from around the world.
Just a day before his 79th birth anniversary, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis died on 28 June 1972.
