Prof. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis was born in Calcutta on 29th June, 1893. He had his education in Calcutta University and later in Cambridge University. He was ‘a physicist by training, a statistician by instinct and a planner by conviction.’

He set up the Statistical Laboratory in the Presidency College Calcutta and also founded the Indian Statistical Institute for advanced research and training in statistics. He also started ‘Sankhya’ the Indian journal of statistics in 1933. In 1950, he established the National Sample Survey for periodic collection of socio-economic data through sample surveys.

Mahalanobis viewed statistics ‘as a key technology for increasing the efficiency of human efforts in the widest sense’. He pursued this objective in his theoretical as well as applied work in statistics. His famous work on D2 statistic, known as Mahalanobis Distance, arose out of his investigations on anthropometric problems. In the matter of samples and survey techniques his most well-known contributions are the concept of optimum sample design, interpenetrating network of samples and pilot surveys.

Mahalanobis’s greatest contribution to national development was in ushering in a new way of thinking in India on economic planning. As a Member of Planning Commission from 1952 to 1967 he was closely associated with the Indian Planning process. The Draft Second Five-Year Plan, prepared by Mahalanobis, marks a critical watershed in the evolution of planning in developing countries and has served as a model for all subsequent Five-Year Plans in India.

Mahalanobis received numerous awards from academic societies all over the world. He was also honoured with Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India. Mahalanobis was a multi-faced personality and he was a great lover of art and literature. He was closely associated with the poet Rabindranath Tagore and was one of the two Secretaries of Vishwabharati when it was founded. He wrote a number of literary and philosophical articles in Bengali and English.

The Department of Posts is happy to issue a stamp in honour of this great statistician. The FDC depicting the cover of the Second Five-Year Plan Document, is a tribute to his contributions to the Five-Year Plans, and also recalls his famous D2 statistic.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India