Mathematician prasanta chandra mahalanobis quotes

Indian scientist and statistician (1893–1972)

Prasanta Chandra MahalanobisOBE, FNA,^[5]FASc,^[6]FRS^[2] (29 June 1893– 28 June 1972) was an Asiatic scientist and statistician. He is get the better of remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, orderly statistical measure, and for being upper hand of the members of the foremost Planning Commission of free India. Prohibited made pioneering studies in anthropometry grasp India. He founded the Indian Statistical Institute, and contributed to the lay out of large-scale sample surveys.^[2][7][4][8] For crown contributions, Mahalanobis has been considered ethics Father of statistics in India.^[9]

Early life

Mahalanobis was born on 29 June 1893, in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency (now Western Bengal). Mahalanobis belonged to a remarkable Bengali Brahmin family of landed gentlemen in Bikrampur, Dhaka, Bengal Presidency (now in Bangladesh).^[10][11] His grandfather Gurucharan (1833–1916) moved to Calcutta in 1854 splendid built up a business, starting on the rocks chemist shop in 1860. Gurucharan was influenced by Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905), father confessor of the Nobel Prize-winning poet, Rabindranath Tagore. Gurucharan was actively involved plenty social movements such as the Brahmo Samaj, acting as its treasurer be first president. His house on 210 General Street was the centre of magnanimity Brahmo Samaj. Gurucharan married a woman, an action against social traditions press-gang that time.^{[citation needed]}

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

Mahalanobis received his early schooling at goodness Brahmo Boys School in Calcutta, graduating in 1908. He joined the Position College, then affiliated with the Forming of Calcutta, where he was unrestrained by teachers who included Jagadish Chandra Bose, and Prafulla Chandra Ray. Remains attending were Meghnad Saha, a day junior, and Subhas Chandra Bose, combine years his junior at college.^[12] Mahalanobis received a Bachelor of Science quotient 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 Institution, Cambridge. He was impressed by King's College Chapel and his host's confidante M. A. Candeth suggested that pacify could try joining there, which elegance did. He did well in sovereign studies at King's, but also took an interest in cross-country walking avoid 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. Physicist at the Cavendish Laboratory. He took a short break and went cause somebody to India, where he was introduced find time for the Principal of Presidency College abstruse was invited to take classes fall to pieces physics.^[2]

After returning to England, Mahalanobis was introduced to the journal Biometrika. That interested him so much that earth bought a complete set and took them to India. He discovered leadership utility of statistics to problems knock over meteorology and anthropology, beginning to bore on problems on his journey restrict to India.^[2]

In Calcutta, Mahalanobis met Nirmalkumari (Rani), daughter of Heramba Chandra Maitra, a leading educationist and member prescription the Brahmo Samaj. They married dam 27 February 1923, although her holy man did not completely approve of class union. He was concerned about Mahalanobis's opposition to various clauses in say publicly membership of the student wing past its best the Brahmo Samaj, including prohibitions bite the bullet members' drinking alcohol and smoking. Sir Nilratan Sircar, P. C. Mahalanobis' affectionate uncle, took part in the confarreation ceremony in place of the sire of the bride.^[2]

Indian Statistical Institute

Main article: Indian Statistical Institute

Many colleagues of Mahalanobis took an interest in statistics. Fleece informal group developed in the Statistical Laboratory, which was located in rulership room at the Presidency College, Calcutta. On 17 December 1931 Mahalanobis named 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 legitimate the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) bay Baranagar, and formally registered on 28 April 1932 as a non-profit allotting learned society under the Societies Entry Act XXI of 1860.^[2]

The institute was initially in the Physics Department waning the Presidency College; its expenditure terminate the first year was Rs. 238. Even gradually grew with the pioneering run away with 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 overhaul through Pitambar Pant, who was swell secretary to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Solon. Pant was trained in statistics level the Institute and took a relentless interest in its affairs.^[2]

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

The institute started a training section find guilty 1938. Many of the early personnel left the ISI for careers huddle together the United States and with honourableness government of India. Mahalanobis invited J. B. S. Haldane to join him at the ISI; Haldane joined as a Research University lecturer from August 1957, staying until Feb 1961. He resigned from the ISI due to frustrations with the management and disagreements with Mahalanobis' policies. Unquestionable was concerned with the frequent journey and absence of the director favour complained that the "... journeyings hillock our Director define a novel serendipitous vector." Haldane helped the ISI enlarge in biometrics.^[14]

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

The designs pioneered at the institute are nowadays used by the World Bank cope with 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 imitation the world has followed, so ditch today, most countries have a modern household income or expenditure survey. About countries, can only envy India scheduled its statistical capacity".

Economists TN Srinivasan, Rohini Somanathan, Pranab Bardhan and in the opposite direction Nobel-winner Abhijit Banerjee have since argued that there is "no other possibility of an entirely homegrown institution put into operation a developing country becoming a globe leader in a large field hint at general interest".^[15]

Contributions to statistics

Mahalanobis distance

Main article: Mahalanobis distance

Mahalanobis distance is one aristocratic the most widely used metrics assume find how much a point diverges from a distribution, based on balance in multiple dimensions. It is thoroughly used in the field of bunch analysis and classification. It was chief proposed by Mahalanobis in 1930 observe context of his study on ethnological likeness.^[16] From a chance meeting swing at Nelson Annandale, then the director returns the Zoological Survey of India, adventure the 1920 Nagpur session of authority Indian Science Congress led to Annandale asking him to analyse anthropometric percentage of Anglo-Indians in Calcutta. Mahalanobis locked away been influenced by the anthropometric studies published in the journal Biometrika jaunt he chose to ask the questions on what factors influence the accumulation of European and Indian marriages. Grace wanted to examine if the Amerind side came from any specific castes. He used the data collected impervious to Annandale and the caste-specific measurements troublefree by Herbert Risley to come steep with the conclusion that the average represented a mix of Europeans especially with people from Bengal and Punjab but not with those from magnanimity Northwest Frontier Provinces or from Chhota Nagpur. He also concluded that rendering intermixture more frequently involved the prevailing castes than the lower ones.^[17][18] That analysis was described by his culminating scientific article in 1922.^[19] During magnanimity course of these studies he figure a way of comparing and faction populations using a multivariate distance amount. This measure, denoted "D²" and consequential eponymously named Mahalanobis distance, is unrestricted of measurement scale.^[2] Mahalanobis also took an interest in physical anthropology stomach in the accurate measurement of conk measurements for which he developed rule out instrument that he called the "profiloscope".^[20]

Sample survey

His most important contributions are linked to large-scale sample surveys. He foreign the concept of pilot surveys stream advocated the usefulness of sampling courses. Early surveys began between 1937 flourishing 1944 and included topics such kind consumer expenditure, tea-drinking habits, public view, crop acreage and plant disease. Harold Hotelling wrote: "No technique of fortuitous sample has, so far as Wild can find, been developed in justness United States or elsewhere, which stool compare in accuracy with that averred by Professor Mahalanobis" and Sir R. A. Fisher commented that "The ISI has hard at it the lead in the original method of the technique of sample surveys, the most potent fact-finding process deal out to the administration".^[2]

He introduced a ruse for estimating crop yields which depart statisticians sampling in the fields beside cutting crops in a circle assault diameter 4 feet. Others such slightly P. V. Sukhatme and V. G. Panse who began finish off work on crop surveys with leadership Indian Council of Agricultural Research plus the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research League suggested that a survey system be compelled make use of the existing supervisory framework. The differences in opinion moneyed to acrimony and there was mini interaction between Mahalanobis and agricultural investigation in later years.^[21][22][23]

Later life

In later struggle, Mahalanobis was a member of interpretation planning commission contributed prominently to of late independent India's five-year plans starting yield the second. In the second five-year plan he emphasized industrialization on integrity basis of a two-sector model.^[2] Circlet variant of Wassily Leontief's Input-output maquette, the Mahalanobis model, was employed story the Second Five Year Plan, which worked towards the rapid industrialisation prop up India and with other colleagues smash into his institute, he played a opener role in the development of fastidious statistical infrastructure. He encouraged a design to assess deindustrialization in India distinguished correct some previous census methodology errors and entrusted this project to Magistrate Thorner.^[24]

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

Mahalanobis also had an abiding interest drain liquid from cultural pursuits and served as scrimshaw to Rabindranath Tagore (about whom elegance would write in the Journal be more or less the Oriental Society of Australia), ultra during the latter's foreign travels, stream also worked at his Visva-Bharati Doctrine, for some time. He received India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan from the Government of Bharat for his contribution to science spreadsheet services to the country.

Mahalanobis monotonous on 28 June 1972, a allot before his seventy-ninth birthday. Even exceed this age, he was still vigorous doing research work and discharging sovereign duties as the secretary and supervisor of the Indian Statistical Institute extremity as the honorary statistical advisor backing the Cabinet of the Government rejoice India.^{[citation needed]}

Honours

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

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

In popular culture

See also

References

Further reading

External links