A portrait of P. C. Mahalanobis

Prasantachandra Mahalanobis (1893-1972) was the principal of Presidency College (now Presidency University) from 1945-1948. He was an alumnus of Presidency College and a member of its Physics faculty from 1917-1948. He founded the first statistics department at the undergraduate level in India (and perhaps in Asia). It all started in 1931, when Mahalanobis started the Statistical Laboratory at Presidency College. Later, it got transformed into the Indian Statistical Institute. He made pioneering studies in anthropometry and designed large-scale sample surveys. He is best remembered for Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure, and as the architect of India's Second Five Year Plan. Mahalanobis was the honorary statistical advisor to the Government of India. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan by Government of India in 1968.