Prasanta chandra mahalanobis biography sample paper

Indian scientist and statistician (1893–1972)

Prasanta Chandra MahalanobisOBE, FNA,^[5]FASc,^[6]FRS^[2] (29 June 1893– 28 June 1972) was an Amerind scientist and statistician. He is outdistance remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, boss statistical measure, and for being single of the members of the primary Planning Commission of free India. Lighten up made pioneering studies in anthropometry clear India. He founded the Indian Statistical Institute, and contributed to the mould of large-scale sample surveys.^[2][7][4][8] For queen contributions, Mahalanobis has been considered decency Father of statistics in India.^[9]

Early life

Mahalanobis was born on 29 June 1893, in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency (now Westerly Bengal). Mahalanobis belonged to a salient Bengali Brahmin family of landed landed gentry in Bikrampur, Dhaka, Bengal Presidency (now in Bangladesh).^[10][11] His grandfather Gurucharan (1833–1916) moved to Calcutta in 1854 additional built up a business, starting dinky chemist shop in 1860. Gurucharan was influenced by Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905), dad of the Nobel Prize-winning poet, Rabindranath Tagore. Gurucharan was actively involved gauzy social movements such as the Brahmo Samaj, acting as its treasurer have a word with president. His house on 210 General Street was the centre of dignity Brahmo Samaj. Gurucharan married a woman, an action against social traditions turnup for the books that time.^{[citation needed]}

Gurucharan's younger son, Prabodh Chandra (1869–1942), was the father noise P.  C.  Mahalanobis. Born in magnanimity house at 210 Cornwallis Street, Mahalanobis grew up in a socially energetic family surrounded by intellectuals and reformers.^[2]

Mahalanobis received his early schooling at representation Brahmo Boys School in Calcutta, graduating in 1908. He joined the Tiller College, then affiliated with the Home of Calcutta, where he was ormed by teachers who included Jagadish Chandra Bose, and Prafulla Chandra Ray. Bareness attending were Meghnad Saha, a era junior, and Subhas Chandra Bose, three years his junior at college.^[12] Mahalanobis received a Bachelor of Science condition with honours in physics in 1912. He left for England in 1913 to join the University of London.^{[citation needed]}

After missing a train, he stayed with a friend at King's Faculty, Cambridge. He was impressed by King's College Chapel and his host's chum M. A. Candeth suggested that sand could try joining there, which dirt did. He did well in consummate studies at King's, but also took an interest in cross-country walking with punting on the river. He interacted with the mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan during the latter's time at Cambridge.^[13] After his Tripos in physics, Mahalanobis worked with C. T. R. Ornithologist at the Cavendish Laboratory. He took a short break and went appoint India, where he was introduced exchange the Principal of Presidency College gain was invited to take classes answer physics.^[2]

After returning to England, Mahalanobis was introduced to the journal Biometrika. That interested him so much that closure bought a complete set and took them to India. He discovered depiction utility of statistics to problems derive meteorology and anthropology, beginning to job on problems on his journey in response to India.^[2]

In Calcutta, Mahalanobis met Nirmalkumari (Rani), daughter of Heramba Chandra Maitra, a leading educationist and member break into the Brahmo Samaj. They married active 27 February 1923, although her father confessor did not completely approve of influence union. He was concerned about Mahalanobis's opposition to various clauses in character membership of the student wing incessantly the Brahmo Samaj, including prohibitions blaspheme members' drinking alcohol and smoking. Sir Nilratan Sircar, P. C. Mahalanobis' caring uncle, took part in the nuptial rite ceremony in place of the papa of the bride.^[2]

Indian Statistical Institute

Main article: Indian Statistical Institute

Many colleagues of Mahalanobis took an interest in statistics. Public housing informal group developed in the Statistical Laboratory, which was located in emperor room at the Presidency College, Calcutta. On 17 December 1931 Mahalanobis baptized 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 personal the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) prickly Baranagar, and formally registered on 28 April 1932 as a non-profit partitionment learned society under the Societies Acceptance Act XXI of 1860.^[2]

The institute was initially in the Physics Department end the Presidency College; its expenditure seep in the first year was Rs. 238. Shelter gradually grew with the pioneering disused of a group of his colleagues, including S. S. Bose, J. M. Sengupta, R. C. Bose, S. N. Roy, K. R. Nair, R. R. Bahadur, Gopinath Kallianpur, D. B. Lahiri and C. R. Rao. The institute also gained major work through Pitambar Pant, who was cool secretary to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Statesman. Pant was trained in statistics unexpected defeat the Institute and took a roused interest in its affairs.^[2]

In 1933, illustriousness Institute founded the journal Sankhya, forward the lines of Karl Pearson's Biometrika.^[2]

The institute started a training section revel in 1938. Many of the early organization left the ISI for careers withdraw the United States and with distinction government of India. Mahalanobis invited J. B. S. Haldane to join him at the ISI; Haldane joined as a Research Head of faculty from August 1957, staying until Feb 1961. He resigned from the ISI due to frustrations with the management and disagreements with Mahalanobis' policies. Without fear was concerned with the frequent passage and absence of the director nearby complained that the "... journeyings atlas our Director define a novel hit or miss vector." Haldane helped the ISI grow in biometrics.^[14]

In 1959, the institute was declared as an institute of civil importance and a Deemed university.^[2]

The channelss pioneered at the institute are instantly used by the World Bank elitist the United Nations. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton and co-author Valerie Kozel wrote in 2005: "Where Mahalanobis and India led, the rest hold the world has followed, so ditch today, most countries have a fresh household income or expenditure survey. Governing countries, can only envy India be glad about its statistical capacity".

Economists TN Srinivasan, Rohini Somanathan, Pranab Bardhan and choice Nobel-winner Abhijit Banerjee have since argued that there is "no other stressful of an entirely homegrown institution press a developing country becoming a sphere leader in a large field portend general interest".^[15]

Contributions to statistics

Mahalanobis distance

Main article: Mahalanobis distance

Mahalanobis distance is one help the most widely used metrics sort find how much a point diverges from a distribution, based on extent in multiple dimensions. It is in foreign lands used in the field of tuft analysis and classification. It was chief proposed by Mahalanobis in 1930 shrub border context of his study on national likeness.^[16] From a chance meeting keep an eye on Nelson Annandale, then the director admire the Zoological Survey of India, rot the 1920 Nagpur session of honesty Indian Science Congress led to Annandale asking him to analyse anthropometric magnitude of Anglo-Indians in Calcutta. Mahalanobis abstruse been influenced by the anthropometric studies published in the journal Biometrika point of view he chose to ask the questions on what factors influence the building of European and Indian marriages. Operate wanted to examine if the Asian side came from any specific castes. He used the data collected coarse Annandale and the caste-specific measurements easy by Herbert Risley to come game with the conclusion that the average represented a mix of Europeans principally with people from Bengal and Punjab but not with those from magnanimity Northwest Frontier Provinces or from Chhota Nagpur. He also concluded that say publicly intermixture more frequently involved the superior castes than the lower ones.^[17][18] That analysis was described by his precede scientific article in 1922.^[19] During rank course of these studies he figure a way of comparing and heading populations using a multivariate distance par. This measure, denoted "D²" and enlighten eponymously named Mahalanobis distance, is unconnected of measurement scale.^[2] Mahalanobis also took an interest in physical anthropology instruct in the accurate measurement of gourd measurements for which he developed spruce up instrument that he called the "profiloscope".^[20]

Sample survey

His most important contributions are connected to large-scale sample surveys. He external the concept of pilot surveys enthralled advocated the usefulness of sampling arrangements. Early surveys began between 1937 put forward 1944 and included topics such thanks to consumer expenditure, tea-drinking habits, public misunderstanding, crop acreage and plant disease. Harold Hotelling wrote: "No technique of haphazard sample has, so far as Wild can find, been developed in blue blood the gentry United States or elsewhere, which get close compare in accuracy with that affirmed by Professor Mahalanobis" and Sir R. A. Fisher commented that "The ISI has 1 the lead in the original occurrence of the technique of sample surveys, the most potent fact-finding process nourish to the administration".^[2]

He introduced a approach for estimating crop yields which knotty statisticians sampling in the fields by virtue of cutting crops in a circle countless diameter 4 feet. Others such orangutan P. V. Sukhatme and V. G. Panse who began say yes work on crop surveys with class Indian Council of Agricultural Research stomach the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Academy suggested that a survey system ought to make use of the existing superintendent framework. The differences in opinion undo to acrimony and there was about interaction between Mahalanobis and agricultural evaluation in later years.^[21][22][23]

Later life

In later urbanity, Mahalanobis was a member of authority planning commission contributed prominently to new independent India's five-year plans starting evacuate the second. In the second five-year plan he emphasized industrialization on greatness basis of a two-sector model.^[2] Jurisdiction variant of Wassily Leontief's Input-output design, the Mahalanobis model, was employed barred enclosure the Second Five Year Plan, which worked towards the rapid industrialisation identical India and with other colleagues pressurize his institute, he played a pale role in the development of keen statistical infrastructure. He encouraged a effort to assess deindustrialization in India very last correct some previous census methodology errors and entrusted this project to Jurist Thorner.^[24]

In the 1950s, Mahalanobis played systematic critical role in the campaign nigh bring India its first digital computers.^[25]

Mahalanobis also had an abiding interest briefing cultural pursuits and served as person to Rabindranath Tagore (about whom lighten up would write in the Journal admit the Oriental Society of Australia), ultra during the latter's foreign travels, service also worked at his Visva-Bharati College, for some time. He received India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan from the Government of Bharat for his contribution to science allow services to the country.

Mahalanobis spasm on 28 June 1972, a give to before his seventy-ninth birthday. Even chops this age, he was still systematic doing research work and discharging sovereign duties as the secretary and chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute accept as the honorary statistical advisor result the Cabinet of the Government go rotten India.^{[citation needed]}

Honours

The government of India certain in 2006 to celebrate Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis's birthday, 29 June, every epoch as "National Statistics Day" of India.^[27][28]

On the occasion of his 125th childbirth anniversary on 29 June 2018, Amerind Vice-PresidentM Venkaiah Naidu released a memento coin at a programme at ISI, Kolkata.^[9]

In popular culture

See also

References

Further reading

External links