Homi Bhabha Biography

Born: October 30, 1909
Died: January 24, 1966

Achievements: Founded Tata Institute of Fundamental Research; was the first chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission; was chairman of the first United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, held in Geneva in 1955.

Homi Bhabha, whose full name was Homi Jehnagir Bhabha, was a famous Indian atomic scientist. In Independent India, Homi Jehnagir Bhabha, with the support of Jawaharlal Nehru, laid the foundation of a scientific establishment and was responsible for the creation of two premier institutions, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Homi Bhabha was the first chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission.

Homi Jehangir Bhabha was born on October 30, 1909, in Bombay in a rich Parsi family. After graduating from Elphinstone College and the Royal Institute of Science in Bombay, he went to Cambridge University. He received his doctorate in 1934. During this period he worked with Niels Bohr on the studies that led to quantum theory. Homi Jehnagir Bhabha also worked with Walter Heitler on the cascade theory of electron showers, which was of great importance for the understanding of cosmic radiation. He did significant work in identifying the meson.

Due to outbreak of Second World War, Homi Jehangir Bhabha, returned to India in 1939. He set up the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore under C. V. Raman in 1939. With the help of J.R.D. Tata, he established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research at Mumbai. In 1945, he became director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. 

Apart from being a great scientist, Homi Bhabha, was also a skilled administrator. After independence he received the blessings of Jawaharlal Nehru for peaceful development of atomic energy. He established the Atomic Energy Commission of India in 1948. Under his guidance Indian scientists worked on the development of atomic energy, and the first atomic reactor in Asia went into operation at Trombay, near Bombay, in 1956.

Homi Bhabha was chairman of the first United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, held in Geneva in 1955. He advocated international control of nuclear energy and the outlawing of atomic bombs by all countries. He wanted nuclear energy to be used for alleviating poverty and misery of people. 

Homi Bhabha received many honorary degrees from Indian and foreign universities and was a member of numerous scientific societies, including the National Academy of Sciences in the United States. He also authored many articles on quantum theory and cosmic rays. Homi Bhabha died in an aeroplane crash in Switzerland on January 24, 1966.'

Meghnad Saha Biography

Born: October 6, 1893
Died: February 16, 1956

Achievements: Made outstanding contribution to the field of Astrophysics. He put forward an "ionization formula" which explained the presence of the spectral lines.

Meghnad Saha was an outstanding Indian scientist. He made remarkable contribution to the field of Astrophysics.

Meghnad Saha was born on October 6, 1893 in Sheoratali, a village in the District of Dacca, now in Bangladesh. He was the fifth child of his parents, Sri Jagannath Saha and Smt. Bhubaneshwari Devi. His father was a grocer in the village. Meghnad Saha had his early schooling in the primary school of the village. As his family could hardly able to make both ends meet, Meghnad Saha managed to pursue his schooling only due to the generosity of a local medical practitioner, Ananta Kumar Das, who provided him with boarding and lodging in his house.

In 1905, British Government took the decision of partition of Bengal. There was great political unrest in Bengal as popular opinion was against the partition. Sir Bampfylde Fuller was governor of East Bengal at that time. One day he came to visit the Collegiate school. Meghnad Saha along with other students boycotted his visit. As a result he was suspended from the school and his scholarship was terminated. He took admission in the Kishorilal Jubili School and passed the Entrance Examination of the Calcutta University in 1909, standing first among the student from East Bengal obtaining the highest marks in languages (English, Bengali and Sanskrit combined) and in Mathematics. In 1911, he ranked third in the ISc exam while the first position went to another great scientist Satyendranath Bose.

Meghnad Saha took admission in Presidency College Calcutta. In 1913 he graduated from Presidency College with Mathematics major and got the second rank in the University of Calcutta while the first one was taken by S.N. Bose. In 1915, both S.N.Bose and Meghnad Saha ranked first in M.Sc. exam, Meghnad Saha in Applied Mathematics and S.N. Bose in Pure Mathematics.

While studying in Presidency College, Meghnad got involved with Anushilan Samiti to take part in freedom fighting movement. He also came in contact with nationalists like Subhash Chandra Bose and Rajendra Prasad.

In 1917, Meghnad Saha joined as lecturer at the newly opened University College of Science in Calcutta. He taught Quantum Physics. Along with S.N. Bose, he translated the papers published in German by Einstein and Minkowski on relativity into English versions. In 1919, American Astrophysical Journal published - "On Selective Radiation Pressure and it's application" - a research paper by Meghnad Saha. He put forward an "ionization formula" which explained the presence of the spectral lines. The formula proved to be a breakthrough in astrophysics. He went abroad and stayed for two years. He spent time in research at Imperial College, London and at a research laboratory in Germany. In 1927, Meghnad Saha was elected as a fellow of London's Royal Society.

Meghnad Saha moved to Allahabad and in 1932 Uttar Pradesh Academy of Science was established. He returned to Science College, Calcutta in 1938. During this time Saha got interested in Nuclear Physics. In 1947, he established Institute of Nuclear Physics which later was named after him as Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics. He took the first effort to include Nuclear Physics in the curriculum of higher studies of science. Having seen cyclotrons used for research in nuclear physics abroad, he ordered one to be installed in the institute. In 1950, India had its first cyclotron in operation.

In 1952 he stood as an independent candidate for Parliament and was elected by a wide margin. He died on February 16, 1956 due to a heart attack.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Biography

Born: October 19, 1910
Died: August 21, 1995

Achievements: Discovery of Chandrasekhar Limit; awarded Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. He did commendable work in astrophysics, physics and applied mathematics. Chandrasekhar was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was born on October 19, 1910 in Lahore. His father, Chandrasekhara Subrahmanya Ayyar was an officer in Government Service in the Indian Audits and Accounts Department. His mother Sita was a woman of high intellectual attainments. C.V. Raman, the first Indian to get Nobel Prize in science was the younger brother of Chandrasekhar's father. Till the age of 12, Subramanyan Chandrasekhar had his education at home under his parents and private tutors. In 1922, at the age of 12, he attended the Hindu High School. He joined the Madras Presidency College in 1925. Subrahmanyan Chandrashekhar passed his Bachelor's degree, B.Sc. (Hon.), in physics in June 1930. In July 1930, he was awarded a Government of India scholarship for graduate studies in Cambridge, England.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar completed his Ph.D. degree at Cambridge in the summer of 1933. In October 1933, Chandrasekhar was elected to a Prize Fellowship at Trinity College for the period 1933-37. In 1936, while on a short visit to Harvard University, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, was offered a position as a Research Associate at the University of Chicago and remained there ever since. In September 1936, Subrahmanyan Chandra Shekhar married Lomita Doraiswamy. She was her junior at the Presidency College in Madras.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar is best known for his discovery of Chandrasekhar Limit. He showed that there is a maximum mass which can be supported against gravity by pressure made up of electrons and atomic nuclei. The value of this limit is about 1.44 times a solar mass. The Chandrasekhar Limit plays a crucial role in understanding the stellar evolution. If the mass of a star exceeded this limit, the star would not become a white dwarf. It would continue to collapse under the extreme pressure of gravitational forces. The formulation of the Chandrasekhar Limit led to the discovery of neutron stars and black holes. Depending on the mass there are three possible final stages of a star - white dwarf, neutron star and black hole.

Apart from discovery of Chandrasekhar Limit, major work done by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar includes: theory of Brownian motion (1938-1943); theory of the illumination and the polarization of the sunlit sky (1943-1950); theory of the illumination and the polarization of the sunlit sky (1943-1950); the equilibrium and the stability of ellipsoidal figures of equilibrium, partly in collaboration with Norman R. Lebovitz (1961-1968); the general theory of relativity and relativistic astrophysics (1962-1971); and the mathematical theory of black holes (1974- 1983).

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was awarded (jointly with the nuclear astrophysicist W.A. Fowler) the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983. He died on August 21, 1995.

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Anil Kakodkar

Born - 11 November 1943

Achievements - Dr Anil Kakodkar is a famous Indian nuclear scientist. Currently, he's the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India (AECI) and the Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy. He was also the director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Trombay.

Dr Anil Kakodkar is a very distinguished nuclear scientist of India. He is presently the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India (AECI) as well as the Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy. He was the director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Trombay from the year 1996-2000 before being granted the opportunity of leading India's nuclear programme. Read on more about the biography of Anil Kakodkar.

Anil Kakodkar was born on 11 November 1943 in the Barawani village located in the present day Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. He's the son of Mrs Kamala Kakodkar & Mr. P. Kakodkar, both of whom happen to be Gandhian freedom fighters. His early education happened here and at Khargoan. After this, Anil Kakodkar went away to Bombay to pursue his post-matriculation studies. He graduated from the Ruparel College there. 

Kakodkar then joined VJTI in Bombay University in 1963 to obtain a degree in Mechanical Engineering. In the year 1964, Anil Kakodkar joined the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). He also notched a masters degree in experimental stress analysis from the University of Nottingham in the year 1969. The life history of Anil Kakodkar's career as nuclear scientist further saw him join the Reactor Engineering Division of the BARC. 

Anil Kakodkar also has the credit of being a member of the core team of architects of India's Peaceful Nuclear Tests that were conducted during the years 1974 and 1998. He also led the indigenous development of the country's Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor Technology. Anil Kakodkar's efforts in the rehabilitation of the two reactors at Kalpakkam and the first unit at Rawatbhatta is noteworthy as it were about to close down. 

In the year 1996, Anil Kakodkar became the youngest Director of the BARC after Homi Bhabha himself. From the year 2000 onwards, he has been leading the Atomic Energy Commission of India and playing secretary to the Department of Atomic Energy. Dr Anil Kakodkar has been playing a crucial part in demanding sovereignty for India's nuclear tests. Infact, he is known for being a strong advocate of India's self-reliance by employing Thorium as a fuel for nuclear energy. 

Raja Ramanna Biography

Born On: January 28, 1925
Born In: Tumkur, Karnataka
Died On: September 24, 2004
Career: Nuclear Scientist, Nuclear Physicist
Nationality: Indian

Handpicked by the founder of India's nuclear program, Dr. Homi Bhabha, Dr. Raja Ramanna was a celebrated physicist and nuclear scientist that India had ever produced. A multifaceted personality, Dr. Raja Ramanna played the roles of a technologist, nuclear physicist, administrator, leader, musician, Sanskrit literature scholar, and philosophy researcher. To complete the endless list of honors that this nobleman was gifted with, he was a complete human being. Following the steps of his ideals Dr. Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai, Ramanna managed to grab a major position in shaping India's energy and security programs. He is regarded as one of the most successful creators of science and technology in India with the tremendous success of India's peaceful explosion experiment.

Early Life
Raja Ramanna was born to B. Ramanna and Rukminiamma in the busy industrial town of Tumkur in Karnataka. His father was highly reputed and served as a judge in the judicial service of Mysore state. His mother was highly intelligent and loved to read. She often read Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, though her favorite was Sir Walter Scot. Apart from gaining immense influence and inspiration from his parents, Ramanna was greatly touched by his mother's sister Rajamma, who was widowed at an early age but with his grandfather's support, she managed to move ahead and became the headmistress of a Government Middle School earning fifty rupees a month. Ramanna had his early education in Mysore, but when the family shifted to Bangalore, he was admitted to Bishop Cotton Boys' School. On completion of matriculation, he went to St. Joseph's School for his intermediate studies. He joined the Madras Christian College in Tambaram for B. Sc (Hons) degree in physics and graduated in 1945. He later traveled to England to attain his doctoral degree in nuclear physics from King's College, London. In 1948, Ramanna successfully obtained his PhD degree.

TIFR Career
Ramanna was extremely fond and highly influenced by Homi Jehangir Bhabha and was fortunate to meet him in 1944. He was introduced by an examiner at Trinity College of Music, Dr. Alfred Mistowski, who stayed back in India at the outbreak of World War II. Though Ramanna was still a science student, he was sure that this was not his first and only meeting with Homi Bhabha. On his tour to London, Homi Bhabha offered Ramanna a job at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), the cradle of India's atomic energy program. Thus, on his completion of his PhD degree, Ramanna joined TIFR on December 1, 1949. Due to the relocation and renovation of the institute from Cumbala Hills in Mumbai to Yacht Club, Ramanna was offered two adjacent rooms on the fourth floor in Yacht Club by Homi Bhabha, seeing his interest in music. While the first room was for Ramanna, the second one was for his piano. Further, the ground floor became the nuclear laboratory of physics from where he started his project on nuclear fission and scattering. Here, he made several contributions in different areas of neutron, nuclear, and reactor physics.

BARC Career
Ramanna organized physics and rector physics programs at Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC), Trombay. In 1956, when India's first nuclear reactor, Apsara, was commissioned by Homi Bhabha, Ramanna was one of the youngest reactor physicists in the team. However, the major advancement came when BARC Training School was established in 1957 to develop the skilled manpower required for facing the challenging problems in nuclear science and technology under the leadership of Ramanna. It was under his directorship that India carried out the first nuclear test in Pokhran in 1974, nicknamed as Operation Smiling Buddha. He held the position of the Director of BARC from 1972-78 and 1981-83.

Later Life
Raja Ramanna was associated with a number of science academies and learning bodies across India. He helped in setting up the Centre for Advanced Technology at Indore in the early 1980s, which was dedicated towards the development of advanced accelerators, lasers, and other related technologies. Further, he even lent his support in the establishment of Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VEC) in Kolkata. He later ended up becoming the founder-Director of National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), an institution set up by JRD Tata in Bangalore. Ramanna served his later years in supporting science institutions throughout the nation as President of Indian National Science Academy, Scientific Advisor Committee to Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency, President of 30th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vice President of Indian Academy of Sciences, President of Indian National Science Academy, and President of General Conference of Atomic Energy Agency at Vienna. He was honored with numerous accolades during his entire career tenure.

Death
Raja Ramanna passed away on September 24, 2004 in Mumbai after a cardiac arrest. Till date, he is highly honored and respected in India and Pakistan, and often known as the "Father of the Indian Nuclear Program".

Honors
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, 1963
Padma Shri Award, 1968
Padma Bhushan Award, 1973
Padma Vibhushan Award, 1975
Meghnad Saha Medal of the Indian National Science Academy, 1984
Om Prakash Bhasin Award, 1985
R.D. Birla Memorial Award, 1986
Asutosh Mookerji Gold Medal, 1996
D.Sc. (Honoris Causa) by several universities

Posts Held

• Chairman, Governing Council, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
• Council of Management, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore
• Chairman, Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, 1972-78
• President, Indian National Science Academy, 1977-78
• Vice-President, Indian Academy of Sciences, 1977-79
• Scientific Adviser to the Minister of Defence, 1978-81
• Director-General of Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) , 1978-81
• Secretary for Defence Research, Government of India
• Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, 1983-87
• President, General Conference of Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1986
• Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy
• Director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, 1972-78 and 1981-83
• Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISC campus, Bangalore, 1987-89 and 1990-97

Timeline
1925: Raja Ramanna was born in Tumkur, Karnataka
1944: Met Homi Bhabha
1945: Obtained B. Sc (Hons) degree in physics from Madras Christian College, Tambaram
1948: Received Ph. D from King's College, London
1949: Joined TIFR on December 1st
1956: India's first nuclear reactor, Apsara, was commissioned, which Ramanna was a part of
1968: Honored with Padma Shri Award
1972-78: Served as Director of BARC
1973: Bestowed with Padma Bhushan Award
1974: Carried out India's first nuclear test at Pokhran
1975: Conferred upon with Padma Vibhushan Award
1981-83: Director of BARC
1996: Presented with Asutosh Mookerji Gold Medal
2004: Died on 24th September aged 79.

Harish-Chandra

Born On: October 11, 1923
Born In: Kanpur

Died On: October 16, 1983
Career: Mathematician
Nationality: Indian 

For those who quiver at the thought of calculations and numerical deductions, unless when counting money, mathematics can be the equivalent of hell on earth. And for such 'math atheists' a mathematician like Harish Chandra can very well seem like a mirage. Harish Chandra is one amongst those few people who often change tracks in their career and yet reach a glorious destination. Yes, he was a genius who studied theoretical physics but decided to build a career pursuing higher mathematics as he felt that he didn't have the "mysterious sixth sense which one needs in order to succeed in physics". And higher mathematics, as anyone will tell, is that jumble of confusion where alphabets are used more than numbers, X and Y being particularly favorite. In a career spanning to three decades, Harish Chandra had worked with some of the best mathematical minds of this age and whose work in representation theory brought it from the periphery of mathematics to its center stage. Unarguably, he is the second greatest modern mathematician, after Ramanujan, of India.

Childhood
Harish Chandra Mehrotra was born in Kanpur, then known as Cawnpore in British India, to Chandrakishore Mehrotra, a civil engineer and Satyagati Seth, the daughter of a wealthy lawyer. He spent most of his childhood at his maternal grandfather's house where he received his early schooling at home from a tutor. He also learnt dancing and music. He was brilliant in his studies, but was prone to frequent illness and both these aspect of his childhood continued throughout his life. At the age of nine, Harish Chandra was enrolled in a private school and then completed his intermediate schooling from the Scindia School. He joined the University of Allahabad to study theoretical physics in which he proved to be a brilliant student. According to an interesting anecdote when C.V Raman was an examiner at the University, Harish Chandra solved the only question of the acoustic paper, which was on the theory of vibration of the mridangam, on the spot. He was given 100% marks by a highly impressed C.V Raman. Harish Chandra was influenced to study physics after reading the Principles of Quantum Mechanics by Paul Dirac. In 1941, he completed his B. Sc and received his Masters Degree in 1943. He then moved to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore as a postgraduate research fellow under Homi Bhabha to work on problems in theoretical physics. As a research fellow, Harish Chandra published several research papers along with Bhabha, the first being 'On the Theory of Point Particles' in 1944. 

Early Work 
In 1945, Harish Chandra was selected as a research student under Paul Dirac and so moved to the University of Cambridge. In Cambridge, he became a lifelong friend of Wolfgang Pauli when during a lecture by the famous physicist, he pointed out a mistake. It was at Cambridge that Harish Chandra became more and more interested in Mathematics. In 1947, after obtaining his Ph. D he moved to the USA, where Dirac was teaching in the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton University. At Princeton, he worked as Dirac's assistant. His early influence in mathematics was triggered by the works of Hermann Weyl, Emil Artin and Claude Chevalley who were working at Princeton and subsequently, moved over to mathematics. 

As A Mathematician 
In 1949, Harish Chandra moved to Harvard and in 1950 he shifted to Colombia University, where he worked as a faculty member. It was in Colombia University during the period 1950 to 1963 that he carried out research on 'semisimple lie groups' which were considered to be his best research. It was also during this period that he studied the 'discrete series representations of semisimple Lie groups' as his special area. He also worked with Armand Borel with whom he founded the theory of arithmetic groups and collaborated numerous papers on finite group analogues. Harish Chandra is also known for enunciating a precursor of the Langlands Philosophy known as 'Philosophy of Cusp Forms'. While still affiliated to Cambridge, he worked at the Tata Institute in Bombay from 1952 to 1953 and then at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton from 1955 to 1956 and as a Guggenheim Fellow in Paris in 1957 to 1958. In 1961, he awarded the Sloan Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and worked there till 1963. Thereafter, he went back to the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton till he was appointed the IBM von Neumann professor in 1968 and served till his death. 

Awards And Legacy
Harsh Chandra received many prestigious awards during his lifetime. In 1951, he published several papers on 'representations of semisimple Lie algebras and groups' for which, in 1954, he received the AMS Cole prize from the American Mathematical Society. In 1973, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. The same year, he was awarded with an honorary degree from Delhi University. The Indian National Science Academy in 1974 awarded Harish Chandra the Ramanujan Medal for his work in mathematics. In 1975, he was made a fellow of the Indian Academy of Science and a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. In 1981, he was made a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States and was also bestowed with an honorary degree from Yale University. A bust of Harish Chandra was unveiled at the Mehta Institute in his memory. His college, V.S.S.D College, which he attended during his youth, celebrates his birthday every year. The Government of India renamed a premier institute devoted to theoretical physics and mathematics the Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI) in his honor. 

Personal Life & Death
In 1952, he married Lalitha Kale the daughter of Dr. Kale a botanist when he was serving a stint at the Tata Institute. He had two daughters Premala and Devaki. In 1983, Harish Chandra was attending a conference to in honor of Armand Borel's 60th Birthday in Princeton when he had a heart attack and passed away. He had suffered three heart attacks before. He died before he could attend a similar conference in his honor and so the scheduled event became a memorial conference. 

Timeline
1923: Harish Chandra was born
1932: Enrolled in a private school 
1941: Completed his B. Sc
1943: Received his Master's Degree; moved to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore as a postgraduate research fellow under Homi Bhabha 
1944: Published several research papers along with Bhabha, the first being 'On the Theory of Point Particles' 
1945: Was selected as a research student under Paul Dirac and so moved to the University of Cambridge. 
1947: Obtained his Ph. D and moved to USA 
1949: Moved to Harvard
1950: shifted to Colombia University
1950-53: Carried out research on 'semisimple lie groups'
1952-53: Worked at the Tata Institute in Bombay from 
1954: Received the AMS Cole prize from the American Mathematical Society for his research on 'semisimple lie groups'
1955-56: Worked at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton 
1957-58: Worked as a Guggenheim Fellow in Paris
1961: Was awarded the Sloan Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study 
1963: Went back to the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton 
1968: Was appointed the IBM von Neumann professor
1973: Became a Fellow of the Royal Society; awarded with an honorary degree from Delhi University
1974: Indian National Science Academy awarded him the Ramanujan Medal for his work in mathematics
1975: Was made a fellow of the Indian Academy of Science and a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. 
1981: Was made a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States; was also bestowed with an honorary degree from Yale University.

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis

Born On: June 29, 1893
Born In: Calcutta 
Died On: June 28, 1972
Career: Scientist and Statistician
Nationality: Indian


Economic census, population census, agricultural surveys and various other large scale and in depth samples and surveys that have been admired the world over for their scope and accuracy owes its popularity and worldwide acceptance to the grit, determination and genius of one man, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. His knack and passion for graphs and numbers made him a leading light in the field of statistics. In India, his contribution to this field has been immense. From giving birth to the Indian Statistical Institute to guiding the newly independent nation of India on its first stride towards a glorious era, it is the contribution of Mahalanobis that brought the mapping of this diverse nation, which helped its leaders to formulate policies and schemes for the benefit of the people and propel the story of India on its growth trajectory. Indeed only a cursory glance at the formation era of this nation will show how the data collected through his organizations using his techniques has influenced the decision makers of India. And his works are still relevant and widely used in present times. And since brilliance, like a glowing light, cannot be confined so has the works of Mahalanobis been admired, used and influenced the policies of various other nations. 


Childhood
PC Mahalanobis was born into a family of social reformers and intellectuals. His father, Prabodh Chandra Mahalanobis, was a professor of Presidency College and was much respected as an educationist. Mahalanobis spent his early childhood in Cornwallis Street at the house of his grandfather, Gurucharan Mahalanobis who was an active member of the Brahmo Samaj. As such, since childhood, young Mahalanobis was in the thick of social and political activity. 


Early Life
Mahalanobis received his schooling from the Brahmo Boys School, from which he graduated in 1908. He then completed his B. Sc from the Presidency College after which he joined Cambridge, England. Other than pursing his honors in physics he also took an avid interest in punting on the river and cross-country walking. It was also at Cambridge that Mahalanobis met the famous mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. In 1915, he completed his 'Tripos’ in physics. Mahalanobis also worked for a short duration at the Cavendish Laboratory with C. T. R. Wilson. It was during this time that he took a short break and went to India, where he was introduced to the Principal of Presidency College and was invited to take classes in physics. Upon returning to England, he was introduced to the journal Biometrika. The journal interested him so much that he purchased the complete set and took them to India. On his way back to India, he discovered the utility of statistics to problems in meteorology, anthropology and began working on the same. Statistics later became his lifelong love and passion and he pursued statistical work in India mentored by Acharya Brajendranath Seal.


Work In Statistics 
Mahalanobis is remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure which is independent of measurement scale introduced by him. Mahalanobis’s work in statistics started by analyzing university exam results, anthropometric measurements on Anglo-Indians of Calcutta and also, meteorological problems. He also contributed significantly in developing schemes to prevent floods but his most important contributions came with the large scale sample surveys. He is recognized as the first statistician to introduce pilot surveys and advocating the usability of sampling methods. Early surveys were conducted from 1937 to 1944 and included topics such as consumer expenditure, tea-drinking habits, public opinion, crop acreage and plant disease. Additionally, Mahalanobis also introduced a a method for estimating crop yields which involved statisticians sampling in the fields by cutting crops in a circle of diameter 4 feet. However, difference in opinion with P. V. Sukhatme and V. G. Panse, who began to work on crop surveys with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, upon the usage of the existing administrative framework, caused bitterness.


Indian Statistical Institute
At Presidency College, Mahalanobis formed a group of academics interested in statistics. This group met at his room in the college. At a significant meeting of the group, held on December 17, 1931, the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) was born, and was formally registered on April 28, 1932. Mahalanobis served as its secretary and director.  Initially headquartered in the Physics Department of the Presidency College, it gradually grew. Contribution from S. S. Bose, J. M. Sengupta, R. C. Bose, S. N. Roy, K. R. Nair, R. R. Bahadur, G. Kallianpur, D. B. Lahiri and C. R. Rao helped ISI to make significant progress. Assistance from Pitamber Pant, who was a secretary to the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, further propelled the success. Founded along the lines of Karl Pearson's Biometrika, the Institute started a training section in 1938. ISI was conferred upon with a deemed university status and was declared as an institute of national importance in 1959. 


Later Life
After the independence of India, Mahalabonis established the Central Statistical Unit, and under his guidance and supervision it later became the Central Statistical Organization (CSO). This organization was set up to facilitate the coordination among different ministries engaged in statistical activities and also to provide statistical inputs.  He also chaired the National Income Committee which recommended the formation of the National Sample Survey to fill up the data gaps in socio-economic progress. This organization came into being in 1950 and in 1970 it was established as the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO). Later in life, Mahalanobis was appointed as the member of the planning commission and greatly influenced the development of the five-year plans, starting from the second. His Mahalanobis model, a variant of Wassily Leontief's Input-output model, worked towards the rapid industrialization of India. Apart from this, Mahalanobis was also deeply inspired by culture and thus, served as a secretary to Rabindranath Tagore. This solved dual purpose as his cultural pursuits also were satisfied. Mahalanbis also served a stint at the Viswa-Bharati University. Till his death, he was also the Honorary Statistical Advisor to the Cabinet of the Government of India. It was in recognition of his contributions to science and national service that Mahalanobis was conferred upon with India’s highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan. The Government of India declared 29th June, the day he was born, as National Statistical Day.


Awards & Honors
Weldon Medal from Oxford University (1944)
Fellow of the Royal Society, London (1945)
President of Indian Science Congress (1950)
Fellow of the Econometric Society, U.S.A. (1951)
Fellow of the Pakistan Statistical Association (1952)
Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, U.K. (1954)
Sir Deviprasad Sarvadhikari Gold Medal (1957)
Foreign member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (1958)
Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge (1959)
Fellow of the American Statistical Association (1961)
Durgaprasad Khaitan Gold Medal (1961)
Padma Vibhushan (1968)
Srinivasa Ramanujam Gold Medal (1968)


Personal Life 
Mahalanobis married Nirmalkumari, daughter of Herambhachandra Maitra, a leading educationist and member of the Brahmo Samaj, on February 27, 1923. 


Death
Mahalanobis passed away on 28th June, 1972 just a day short of his seventy-ninth birthday. 


Timeline 
1893: Mahalanobis was born to Prabodh Chandra Mahalanobis and Nirodbasini.
1908: Completed his schooling from Brahmo Boys School.
1912: Graduated in Physics from Presidency College. 
1913: Mahalanobis left for England to pursue higher education from Cambridge. 
1915: Returned to India and joined Presidency College.
1922: Started working as a meteorologist and published his first scientific statistical research paper.
1923: Mahalanobis married Nirmalkumari. 
1931: Established the Indian Statistical institute. 
1944: Received the Weldon medal from Oxford.
1945: Was elected the Fellow of Royal Society of London. 
1947: Was appointed Chairman of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Statistical Sampling.
1948: He retired as principal of Presidency College.
1949: Mahalanobis was appointed the Honorary Statistical Advisor by the Government of India 
1950: Was elected as the president of the Indian Science Congress. 
1951: Established the Central Statistical Institute. 
1951: Became a Fellow of Econometric Society of America. 
1952: Became a fellow of Pakistan Statistical Association. 
1953: Was inducted as a member of the Planning Commission.
1954: Was elected as Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society of England.
1959: Became a Foreign Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. 
1961: Fellow of the American Statistical Association. 
1968: Conferred upon with the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India. 
1972: Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis breathed his last.