Google marked the 125th birth anniversary of statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis with a doodle on Friday. Mahalanobis was the founder of Indian Statistical Institute and introduced the statistical tool “Mahalanobis distance”, used in analysing sets of data.
Born in 1893 in present-day Kolkata, Mahalanobis is known for his contribution to conducting large-scale sample surveys and using statistical sampling. He was one of the early members of the Planning Commission and is said to be the architect of the Second Five-Year Plan.
Mahalanobis’ analysis of 60 years’ data on floods in Orissa in 1926 led to the construction of the Hirakud dam on the Mahanadi three decades later, according to The Indian Express.
Mahalanobis received the Padma Vibhushan in 1968. He died in 1972 at the age of 78.
The doodle was designed by illustrator Nishant Choksi.
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