29/06/2026
Technology never arrives overnight.
Every breakthrough we celebrate today is built on decades of quiet work done by people whose names we rarely remember.
As the world enters an age where Artificial Intelligence is transforming how we work, learn and make decisions, it is easy to focus only on the newest inventions. But behind every modern AI model, every recommendation system, every fraud detection algorithm and every data-driven decision lies a long history of mathematical and statistical thinking.
It is our responsibility to remember those who laid that foundation.
Today, on the birth anniversary of Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, let us celebrate one of the brightest minds India has ever produced.
Often called the father of modern statistics in India, Mahalanobis did much more than work with numbers.
In 1931, he founded the Indian Statistical Institute, which went on to become one of the world's leading centres for research in statistics, mathematics, computer science and data science.
His landmark research introduced the **Mahalanobis Distance (D² statistic)** in 1930, through the paper *"Tests and Measures of Group Divergence."* Nearly a century later, this mathematical idea remains an essential tool in machine learning, pattern recognition, anomaly detection, computer vision and many AI applications.
He also pioneered large-scale sample surveys, proving that carefully designed samples could provide reliable information without measuring every individual. That idea continues to influence national surveys, census methodology, agriculture, healthcare, economics and public policy across the world.
As a member of India's Planning Commission, he developed the Mahalanobis Model, which became the foundation of India's Second Five-Year Plan and helped shape the country's early industrial strategy.
Today, governments rely on statistics to frame policies. Banks use it to detect fraud. Hospitals use it to analyse medical data. AI systems use it to recognise patterns. Much of this traces back to principles that pioneers like Mahalanobis helped establish.
The next time we talk about Artificial Intelligence, it is worth remembering that intelligence did not begin with AI.
It began with curious minds who asked better questions, built better mathematics, and taught the world how to learn from data.
Today, we remember one of those giants.
Happy National Statistics Day.
