Author: By Prof. B. L. S. Prakasa Rao

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, or PCM as he was known, was an Indian Statistician responsible for developing the Indian Statistical System and for establishing the internationally renowned Indian Statistical Institute (ISI). PCM was born on June 29, 1893 and died on June 28, 1972 at the age of 78, a day before his 79th birthday. He had his early education in the Brahmo Boys School and received his BSc degree in Physics in 1912 from the Presidency College in Calcutta. He went to England the next year for higher studies. A contemporary of the great Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, PCM received…