What did P.C. Mahalanobis do?

P.C. Mahalanobis was an Indian statistician. He developed several practical mathematical and statistical methods—including the Mahalanobis distance—that he later applied to India’s social and economic problems. His methods furthered India’s efforts to industrialize in the 1950s and ’60s. Additionally, Mahalanobis taught physics at Presidency College in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and founded the Indian Statistical Institute, the National Sample Survey, and the Central Statistical Organization.