Context:

India is celebrating the 18th National Statistics Day on June 29.

More on the news

• National Statistics Day is celebrated on June 29 every year to acknowledge and appreciate the exceptional contributions made by statisticians in India
• This day particularly honours Prof. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, an eminent statistician, on his birth anniversary
• The theme for National Statistics Day 2024 is "Use of Data for Decision Making," focusing on the impact of statistics in driving sustainable development and innovation across various sectors.

Significance 

• The celebration aims to popularize statistics as a field of study and highlight its importance in policy-making and everyday life.
• This day encourages individuals to learn and understand how statistics may be used to assist in developing and outlining the country's policies.

National Statistics Day

• It was first celebrated in 2007 to recognize the invaluable contributions of Professor P.C. Mahalanobis to the field of statistics and economic planning.’

P.C. Mahalanobis

• He is known as the 'Father of Modern Statistics in India.
• He was one of the members of India’s first planning commission and played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in 1931.
• He developed the Mahalanobis Distance, a widely used statistical measure.
• In 1926, he analyzed 60 years of flood data in Orissa, which eventually led to the construction of the Hirakud Dam on the Mahanadi three decades later.
• Peter Hall, a highly acclaimed statistician of the modern era, traced the origins of 'Bootstrap', one of the most potent techniques in modern statistics, back to research conducted by Mahalanobis in the 1930s and 1940s.
• The Mahalanobis International Award is sponsored by the Ministry of Statistics and& Programme Implementation of the Government of India.