P.C. Mahalanobis: the ‘Plan Man’ of India

(MainsGS1: Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues.)

Context:

• Every year june 29 is celebrated as national ‘Statistics Day’, in ‘recognition of the contributions made by Prof. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, the ‘Plan Man’ of India.

Embracing technology for human welfare:

• Mahalanobis was “a physicist by training, a statistician by instinct and an economist by conviction”. 
• He had an uncanny knack for embracing technology for human welfare, perhaps as a result of his background in physics and he even built some simple machines to facilitate his surveys and measurements. 
• Thus, one may safely perceive that Mahalanobis would have embraced the power of AI in enhancing human productivity, such as Big Data analyses, and perhaps in a way that is far more effective than how AI is currently applied to that goal.
• Mahalanobis, who was deeply inspired by Kautilya’s Arthashastra, successfully introduced the revolutionary concept of built-in cross-checks into his surveys.

Changed statistical perspective:

• Around seven decades ago, from the perspective of the newly independent nation, planning, with the aid of extensive technocratic exercises with democratic participation, moved from the realm of politics, primarily due to Mahalanobis. 
• Now India’s upcoming census will be a digital exercise and the dynamics of other surveys are also bound to change in the new normal setup which shows evolution of statistics. 
• We would miss the leadership of an expert such as Mahalanobis from this changed statistical perspective.

Shift in the nature of data and statistics:

• Over the past 20 years, there has been a global shift in both the nature of data and statistics. 
• With the advent of the Internet and virtually everything confined to the Internet of Things, there has been a flood of data
• Another significant yet related issue is how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming our lives and lifestyles. 
• Mahalanobis also encountered a Big Data problem when his large-scale surveys yielded lots of data that needed to be looked into for effective planning.
• And to handle tons of data and tackle the complex mathematical calculations, Mahalanobis persuaded the government and succeeded in procuring the first two digital computers of the country (and South Asia, too) at his Indian Statistical Institute, in 1956 and 1958 and thus ushered in the age of computers in India.

Conclusion:

• As AI is threatening to replace millions of jobs without creating alternatives and is also aiding in spreading disinformation, there is a substantial global attempt to clip its wings.
• Thus someone like Mahalanobis is needed with an uncanny knack for perfection, tireless dedication, brilliant leadership, and who could understand the “dance steps of numbers in the arena of time and space”.