Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis OBE, FNA, FASc, FRS was an Indian scientist and statistician from erstwhile Bengal. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure, and for being one of the members of the first Planning Commission of free India. He made pioneering studies in anthropometry in India. He founded the Indian Statistical Institute, and contributed to the design of large-scale sample surveys. For his contributions, Mahalanobis has been considered the father of modern statistics in India.