National Statistics Day 2022: Who Is PC Mahalanobis? Know The History, Significance Of This Day

National Statistics Day 2022: In 2007, Prof PC Mahalanobis's birthday was chosen as the National Statistics Day and a notification about this was published in the Gazette of India on June 5, 2007.

New Delhi: The National Statistics Day is celebrated to mark the birth anniversary of Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, an Indian scientist and statistician. Prof PC Mahalanobis was one of the members of the first Planning Commission of independent India. He is also known for formulating a statistical measure, ‘Mahalanobis distance’. This year, National Statistics Day 2022 marks the 129th birth anniversary of Prof Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis.

History 

Mahalanobis was born on June 29, 1893, in Calcutta and is known as the father of Indian statistics. He graduated with honours in physics from Presidency College, Calcutta, in 1912. He then moved to England to study physics and mathematics at the University of Cambridge.

The Government of India decided to celebrate National Statistics Day to honour the late Professor PC Mahalanobis as he had made tremendous contributions in the fields of economic planning and statistical development. 

He introduced 'Mahalanobis distance' in 1936. It is a statistical formula commonly used in chemometrics to measure the distance between a point and a distribution on the basis of multiple dimension measurements. He was a recipient of the 'Padma Vibhushan', which is a prestigious civilian award in India. 

In 2007, his birthday was chosen as the National Statistics Day and a notification about this was published in the Gazette of India on June 5, 2007.

Significance of National Statistics Day

According to the PIB’s recent press release, this day is observed to create public awareness, especially in the younger generation to draw inspiration from Professor Mahalanobis about the role and importance of statistics in socio-economic planning and policy formulation.

MoSPI also recognizes the outstanding contribution through high quality research in the field of applied and theoretical statistics benefiting the official statistical system through awards instituted for this purpose. The names of the winners of Prof PC Mahalanobis National Award in Official Statistics are also announced on this day. 

Theme for 2022

Every year, Statistics Day is celebrated with a theme of contemporary national importance. The theme of Statistics Day, 2022, is ‘Data for Sustainable Development’. National Statistics Day 2021 theme was “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-2: End Hunger, Achieve Food Security and Improved Nutrition and Promote Sustainable Agriculture”. The theme mainly focuses on the second Sustainable Development Goal of the United Nations.