On 29th June 2023, India will celebrate its National Statistics Day. This day is celebrated to honour the birth anniversary of the Father of Indian Statistics, the Late Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. The theme of National Statistics Day, 2023 is “Alignment of State Indicator Framework with National Indicator Framework for Monitoring Sustainable Development Goals”.
The celebration of National Statistics Day in India was started in the year 2007 by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI). On June 5, 2007, as announced in a notification published in the Indian Gazette, Late Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis's birthday was officially designated as National Statistics Day. The purpose behind the celebration of this day is to increase public awareness regarding the role of statistics in socio-economic planning and policy making. Apart from that, this day is also used to promote the use of statistics for effective decision-making in various fields.
The father of Indian Statistics, the Late Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis is a renowned mathematician and statistician who made significant contributions to the Indian statistical system by introducing various statistical techniques. He is known for his most famous contributions such as the Mahalanobis distance, Mahalanobis-Taguchi System, and Mahalanobis-Gini coefficient. With these contributions, he drastically changed the way data was collected and analysed in India at that time.
This year, regarding the celebration of National Statistics Day 2023, the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation said, “The objective of this Day is to create public awareness, especially in the younger generation for drawing inspiration from Professor (late) Mahalanobis about the role and importance of statistics in socio-economic planning and policy formulation."
Thus celebrating National Statistics Day every year is a reminder to enable effective use of data-driven decision making which can lead to a better future for our country. The latest theme acknowledges the importance of data in planning and policy-making and encourages us to utilise it responsibly to make better sustainable decisions that can benefit our society as a whole.
