P.C. Mahalanobis Collection

6 Entries found

In this collection, we have notes written by P. C. Mahalanobis, files of the Education Department of Government of Bengal regarding Mahalanobis and articles on Mahalanobis written by his students. The official documents have been retrieved from the records of the erstwhile Principal’s room of the Presidency College (now Presidency University) and the West Bengal State Archives. Prasanta ChandraMahalanobis (1893 – 1972) was a student of Presidency College and the University of Cambridge, a teacher of the Physics Department of Presidency College and thePrincipal of the College. The Postgraduate Statistics Department of the University of Calcutta and the Undergraduate Statistics Department of Presidency College, both being first of their kinds in Asia, were established by him in 1941 and 1944 respectively. He formulated India’s second five-year-plan that laid out the blueprint for rapid state-led industrialization. He was the statistical advisor to the Government of India. He was the founder of the Indian Statistical Institute which began as the Statistical Laboratory in Presidency College in 1931. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 1968.