Google Doodle honours Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis: All about Indian Statistical Institute founder

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis is best remembered for the theory of Mahalanobis distance, and was also one of the members of the first Planning Commission of India.

The Google Doodle honours Indian scientist and the founder of Indian Statistical Institute, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, on his 125th birthday. He is best remembered for the theory of Mahalanobis distance, and was also one of the members of the first Planning Commission of India.

The noted scientist was born into a family of reformists and intellectuals. His grandfather Gurucharan, who ran a chemist shop, served as the treasurer and president of the Brahmo Samaj. Mahalanobis pursued his education at Brahmo Boys school in Calcutta and later joined the Presidency College. Following this, he went for higher studies to University of London.

He went on to establish the Indian Statistical Institute along with Pramatha Nath Banerji, Nikhil Ranjan Sen and Sir RN Mukherji.

Mahalanobis is also known for his contribution to conducting surveys. While he introduced the concept of pilot surveys, he also acquainted many with the system of sampling. He also introduced a method for estimation of crop yields using statistical sampling.

The scientist breathed his last on June 28, 1972, just a day ahead of his 79th birthday. At that time, apart from being the director of the Indian Statistical Institute, he was also serving as honorary statistical advisor to the government of India.