Government of India is celebrated National Statistics day on 29th June on the birth anniversary of Prof. P C Mahalanobis. The National Statistics Day is celebrated to create awareness among youth about the role of statistics in socio-economic planning and policy formulation. Statistics Day to popularize the use of Statistics in everyday life and sensitize the public as to how Statistics helps in shaping and framing policies. The theme of Statistics Day 2020 is selected as SDG- 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages) & SDG- 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls).
National Statistics Day: History
The National Statistics Day was first celebrated on 29th June 2007. The Government of India decided to celebrate the outstanding contribution made by Late Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in the field of economic planning and statistical development and hence mark his birth anniversary as ‘National Statistics Day’.
Who is Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis?
Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis is known as the father of Indian Statistics. He was born on 29 June 1893, an Indian statistician and scientist. He devised a measure of comparison between two data sets that are now known as the Mahalanobis distance. His contribution to large-scale surveys is huge. He was a pioneer in anthropometry studies and in pilot surveys. He was the member of the planning commission(1956-61) and he gave two-sector Input-output model for the Second Five Year Plan which later became known as the Nehru-Mahalanobis model. He founded Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in December 1931 in Kolkata. He was honoured with many prestigious awards by India as well as foreign countries. Those are Padma Vibhushan (1968), Weldon Memorial Prize from the University of Oxford (1944), Fellow of the Royal Society, London(1945).
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