Evolution of Statistics in India

Evolution of Statistics in India
Author(s): J. K. Ghosh, P. Maiti, T. J. Rao, B. K. Sinha

Reviewed work(s):
Source: International Statistical Review / Revue Internationale de Statistique, Vol. 67, No. 1
(Apr., 1999), pp. 13-34
Published by: International Statistical Institute (ISI)
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InternationalStatistical Review (1999), 67, 1, 13-34, Printedin Mexico

? InternationalStatisticalInstitute
Evolution
of
Statistics
in
India
J.K. Ghosh, P. Maiti, T.J. Rao, and B.K. Sinha

Indian StatisticalInstitute,Calcutta,India
Summary
This is a briefhistoryof the evolutionof officialand academicStatisticsin Indiawhichfocusesmainly
on the period1930to 1960buttracesits originsin antiquityand recenthistory.Wealso commenton how
Statisticshas continuedto evolvesincethe 1960's.This is a historyof both institutionsand people,who
builtand shapedthem,and of ideas.
Statisticsas a key technology;Five YearPlans;Data
Key words:StatisticalSystemin India;Mahalanobis;
CentralStatistical
NationalSampleSurvey;StatisticsinIndianresearch
institutions
Requirements;
Organisation;
anduniversities.
1 Introduction
While statistics have been collected and used in the Indian subcontinentfrom antiquity,major
changes in collection and use took place during the British period (1757-1947) in Indian history.
Some of this change was due to new imperialneeds, but much of it occurredindirectlyas a result
of westerneducationand a spiritof scientificcuriosityand experimentation.Interestin rapidsocial,
economic and technological development added a new dimension after India's independencein
1947. Half a centuryafter that momentousevent seems a good time to take stock of how Statistics
has developed in India. The following account is meant to be a brief history ratherthan a current
assessment. To us the most importantperiod after independenceis the decade 1950 to 1960 when
so many things were happeningat the same time. Our account begins in antiquity,focuses on the
period 1930 to 1960 and ends with a brief sequel.
The architect of modern statistical methods in the Indian subcontinentwas undoubtedlyP.C.
Mahalanobis,but he was helped by a galaxy of very distinguishedscientiststhatincludedC.R. Rao,
R.C. Bose, S.N. Roy, S.S. Bose, K.R. Nair,D.B. Lahiriandmanyothers.Therewere also otherslike
P.V.Sukhatme,and V.G. Panse who workedindependentlyof Mahalanobis.Ourhistoryis a history
of some of these persons as well as a history of institutionsand interactionsbetween persons and
institutions.
In a concluding section, we try to assess what was unique aboutthe growthof Statistics in India
in the earlierpart of the centuryand what may have been the historicalreasons for what C.R. Rao
has called a golden periodfor Statisticsin India.
2
Historical Background
Early Origins
It is interesting and illuminatingto note that statisticalknowledge and probabilisticideas were
attributedto the kings and rulersmentionedin the greatIndianepic, the Mahabharata,as is evident
from the following quote of Ian Hackingfrom the Historyand PhilosophyScience Seminar(quoted
J.K. GHOSH,
P. MAITI,T.J.RAO& B.K. SINHA
14
by Godambe, 1976): "KingBhangasuriwantingto flaunthis skill in numbers,estimatesthe number

of leaves, and the numberof fruits, on two great branchesof a spreadingtree. There are, he avers,
2095 fruits.Nala counts all night and is duly amazedby morning.Bhangasuriaccepts his due:
"I, of dice possess the science, and in numbersthus am skilled."
That the concept of probabilitywas recognized in the Indian-Jainaphilosophy is clear from the
writingsof Bhadrabahu,who lived duringthe period433-357 B.C., on syadvadaor 'the assertionof
possibilities' (syat = 'may be', vada= 'assertion').Mahalanobis(1954) and Haldane(1957) referto
the actualtext in Sanskritof the dialecticof seven fold predication(Saptabhanginaya)andrelateit to
the concepts of probabilitytheorywith examplesof 'tossing of a coin' and 'studyof the physiology
of the sense organs'.
The great treatise in Economics, the Arthasastraby Kautilya(normally attributedto 321-296
B.C.) duringthe Mauryanperiod had a detaileddescriptionof the system of datacollection relating
to the agricultural,populationand economic censuses in villages and towns duringthe period. To
illustrate,ChapterXXXV (Shamsastry,1929, p.158) gives details such as:
"Itis the duty of Gopa, village accountant,to attendthe accountsof five or ten villages,
as orderedby the Collector-General... Also, havingnumberedthe houses as taxpaying
or non-tax paying, he shall not only registerthe total numberof inhabitantsof all the
four castes in each village, but also keep an accountof the exact numberof cultivators,
cowherds,merchants,artisans,labourers,slavesandbipedandquadrupedanimals,fixing
at the same time the amountof gold, free labour,toll andfines thatcan be collected from
it (each house)."
As observedby Mahalanobis(1950), not only were datacollected in such a fine detail,butthe need
for cross-checking by an independentset of agents working incognito was mentioned in Chapter
XXXV, p.159 thus: "Spies underthe disguise of householders(Grihapatika,cultivators),who shall
be deputedby the Collector-Generalfor espionage,shall ascertainthe validityof accounts(of Gopas
the village officers and Sthanikas,the districtofficers) regardingthe fields, right of ownershipand
remission of taxes with regardto houses, and the caste and professionregardingfamilies .... ."
It may be mentionedhere that the Chinese pilgrim and travellerHieuen Tsang's writings (dated
late seventh to early eighth century) give a detailed descriptionof the plan of cities, construction
of houses, and an account of common productsof India and data on the area of kingdomsand the
distances between them.
Moghul Period
Let us take a leap forwardto the Moghul period.An importantmasterpiecewrittenby Abul Fazal
duringthis period was Ain-i-Akbari.Abul Fazal belongedto the courtof the greatMoghul Emperor
Akbararound1590 A.D.. This haddetailsof severalgovernmentdepartmentsincludingthe system of
legalised measurements,land classificationand crop yields by season among others.Abul Fazl was
"regardedas a statistician,no detailsfromthe revenuesof a provinceto the cost of a pine-apple,from
the organisationof an armyand the gradesand duties of nobilityto the shape of candlestickand the
price of a curry-comb,arebeyondhis microscopicandpatientinvestigation"(Jarrett,1894). Revenue
guides known as Dastur-ul-amls,maintainedduringAkbar'speriod,continuedto be compiled even
duringthe times of ShahJahanandAurangzeb.Zawabit-i-Alamgirior the regulationsof the Emperor
Aurangzeb which was preparedin 1690 was a good chronicle of statistics. Other works which
containedstatisticalinformationwere due to Jag-JivanDas, Rai Chatar-maland SujanRai Bhandari
(Khulastu-i-Tawarikh
(1695-96)).
Accordingto the system of landtenureandlandrevenueduringthe Moghulperiod,all land legally
Evolutionof Statistics in India
15
belonged to the emperorand the cultivatorwas a tenantwith full liberty of exploiting his piece of
land. A proportionof produce, fixed from time to time, would have to be paid to the state as land
revenue.However,with the decline and fall of the Moghul empireshortlyafterAurangzeb,many of
the officials called Jagirdars,Inamdarsetc. appointedby the emperorbecame independentNawabs,
and Kings with no or nominalallegianceto a centralauthority.
3
Statistical System in British India
Early British Period

It was duringthe decline of the MoghulEmpirethatthe Britishset foot in Indiaas traders,plantation
owners,businessmenand the like while the Indianpoliticalscenarioconsistedof a fragmentednature
of numeroussmall and large independentor quasi-independentkingdoms.
British political power was first establishedby the East-IndiaCompany (EIC) in EasternIndia.
Eventually,all of undividedIndia except the nominally independentstates and a few French and
Portuguesesettlementscame underBritishrule (1757-1947).
In EasternIndia the British introduceda 'permanentlysettled' system wherein the intermediate
tax collectors, called Zamindarswere maderesponsiblefor the paymentof revenueof the largetracts
under them to the British treasury.The amount of revenue was made 'permanent',i.e., fixed for
perpetuity,to be paid before the 'sunset' of a fixed date. Thus underthe 'sunset-law', the system
of village revenue officials, Patwaris,as functionariesof governmentceased to exist. Therefore,in
'permanentlysettled' areas there was no elaborateofficial agency for collecting primarystatistics.
Hence, the need for acquisition of accounts and a detailed knowledge regardingthe territories
occupied was stronglyfelt by the East IndiaCompany(EIC).
A despatchfrom the Courtof Directorsof the EIC in 1807 readthus :
"Weareof the opinionthata statisticalsurveyof thecountry,underthe immediateauthority of your Presidency,would be attendedwith much utility:We thereforerecommend
propersteps to be takenfor carryingthe same for execution."
In 1807, a survey of the provinces, subject to the Presidency of Bengal was commenced by
the Governor-Generalin Council, Dr. Francis Buchanancovering an area of 60,000 square miles
and about 15 million British subjects (Buchanan,1807). Dr. Buchananspent around?30,000 and
submitteda reportto London in 1816. This reportcontaineda detailedinformationon topography
of each district, the condition of the inhabitantsalong with their religions, customs, the natural
produce of the country, fisheries, mines and quarries,the agriculturalsituation, the state of the
landed propertyand tenures,the progress made by Indiansin arts and the state of manufacturers,
the operationof commerce and, in addition,an indicationof rare, useful and curious plants and
seeds. After a relatively long gap, in 1838 Mr. MontgomeryMartinwas sent to India to study the
area surveyed in Buchanan'sreport.Impressedby the 'critical attitude,keen scientific spirit, and
the experimentalapproach'of Dr. Buchanan,Martin(1838) published'The History,Antiquitiesand
Statisticsof EasternIndia' in 3 volumes consistingof 2400 pages covering9 districtsof Bengal. The
main objective of Martinwas to bringto light the fantasticworkdone by Buchananand 'to arousein
some measurethe people of Englandto some sense of feeling for the conditionof the myriadsof their
fellow subjects...... in BritishIndiawhich is as much a partandparcelof the Empireas Scotland
or Ireland'.The main recommendationsthat stemmedout were to fix a moderateland revenuerate,
to levy duties on equivalentproduceas per free trade,to encouragea sound andjudicious banking
system and finally to establishmunicipalitiesin principalcities.
A governmentofficer named A. Shakespearepublished in 1848 the first census relating to the
area and revenueof each pargana (district)in North-West(N.W.) Provinces.A small departmentof
statistics was startedin the IndiaHouse in 1847 by Col. Sykes. In 1853, the departmentreleasedthe
16

J.K. GHOSH,
first series of statistical papers on India. Census reportsof 1 January,1855 and 10 January,1868
were published.Earliercensuses of Calcuttatakenin the year 1822 andin 1847 by W.H.Careygave
a total count of 179,917 and 4,00000 respectively!(see Chaudhuri(1964)).
The censuses taken during 1769-1855 by the EIC or those taken by the Crown during 18581869 were fragmentary,hardly systematic and lacked any uniformity.The first systematic attempt
to ascertainthe whole populationof Indiaby 'actuallycountingheads' was made between 1867 and
1872. It was not a synchronouscensus for the whole country,nor was it complete.The operationof
a decennial census for the whole countrystartedin 1881 and is continuingever since. The reporton
the Census of BritishIndiatakenin 1881 was publishedin three volumes.
Kingsley Davis (1951) remarksthat 'the Indiancensuses are remarkablenot only for the information they reveal but for the special obstacles they had to overcome.... they (the census officials
in India) have enormouslyenrichedour knowledge of India in nearly every branchof scholarship,
from anthropologyand sociology to geographyand religion'.
Even thoughW. Hamiltonpublishedthe firstgazetterin 1815, he revisedit andpublishedEastIndia
Gazetterin 1828. However,Thornton'sgazetterin four volumes publishedin 1854 was considered
to be complete at thattime.
Impressedby the trendin statisticalactivities,the Secretaryof stateorderedthe Governor-General
in Council to preparea 'comprehensiveand coordinatedscheme of statistical survey' for each of
the twelve greatprovincesof the then BritishIndiaand Dr. W.W.Hunterwas appointedas DirectorGeneralof Statistics in Indiain 1869 to carryout this work.
In 1870, Huntergave a plan for an ImperialGazetterof India.The local governmentshadplanned
differentlyfor conductingthis work with bigger budgetsand manpowerwhile severalpublic bodies
such as the Asiatic Society insisted on a systematic and coordinatedeffort so that the work was
executed under a uniformplan. It was agreed upon to provide a data base collected by each local
governmentas a common basis for comparisonof statistics of the country and to suggest quick
compilation methods from the data collected on a uniform plan. Thus the Statistical Account of
Bengal (the presentBangladesh,West Bengal, Biharand Orissa)was publishedin 20 volumes under
Hunter'ssupervision.
For each district there were details on topographicaldata, ethnic divisions and creeds, agricultural situation, commerce, working of district administrationand finally the sanitaryand medical
aspects and such meteorologicaldata as could be procured.Statisticalaccountsfor the provincesof
Assam, N.W. Provinces, Punjaband othersfollowed. Thus about 100 printedvolumes aggregating
to 36,000 pages covering 240 districtscomprising 15 British Indianprovinces were publishedand
later condensed in the ImperialGazetterof Indiawhich was releasedin 1881 in nine volumes.
S.B. Chaudhuri(1964) in his comprehensivework 'Historyof Gazettersof India' commentsthus:
"No comparablearea of the world has anything like this prodigious compilation of
statisticaldata and demographicand historicalmaterialas a countrywhich is almost a
continentin the immensityand diversityof its character."
The need for timely and accuratecollection of agriculturaldata was felt by the Indian Famine
Commission and agriculturaldepartmentswere organisedin variousprovinceswhich resultedin the
publicationof 'AgriculturalStatistics of British India' in 1886. To scrutinizeand summarizethese
data collected by the agriculturaldepartments,a statisticalBureauwas formedat the centrein 1895
to coordinate the agricultural,foreign trade, prices, wages and industrialstatistics. The Director
General(DG) of Statisticswas in chargeof this operation.
17
Later British Period

During the turn of the century in 1905, Lord Curzon abolished the post of DG of Statistics,
reorganizedthe departmentby separatingout the statisticaldatacollectionjobs and constitutingthe
DirectorateGeneralof CommercialIntelligenceandStatistics(DGCI& S). Its mainfunctionswereto
collect commercialstatisticsto help tradeand business,act as a liaison between Indianbusinessmen
and their foreign counterpartsand to publishjournals and adhoc bulletins on trade statistics. The
year 1906 saw the first issue of IndianTradeJournal.An importantcontributionto price statistics
was a survey conductedin 1910 by Datta,Shirras& Gupta(1913). The book on IndianFinance and
Bankingby Shirras,who was the Directorof Statisticswith the governmentas well as a Fellow of the
Universityof Calcuttacontainsvery interestingdataon exportsandimports,balanceof trade,growth
of business, productionof gold, silver, papercurrencyand details on banks for the period ranging
in several cases from mid 1850's to 1918 (Shirras,1919). The Economic EnquiryCommitteeset up
in 1925 under the Chairmanshipof Visweswarayyaand more importantlythe Bowley-Robertson
Committee set up later in 1934, were mainly responsiblefor the government'sdecision to set up
an Inter-DepartmentalCommittee with the Economic Adviser to the Governmentof India as the
Committeerecommendedthe formationof a CentralStatistical
chairman.The Inter-Departmental
Office for coordination,institutionof a statisticalcadre,establishmentof StateBureausat StateHead
Quartersand maintenanceof importantstatisticsfor the entirecountry(StatisticalSystem in India,
CSO (1979)).
4
The Statistical System after Independence
As seen in the foregoing paragraphs,throughoutthe British period the statistical development

was geared towards administration,trade,commerce and such other activities. It is only after the
independencein 1947 that the countrysaw an urgentneed for a statisticalframeworksuitable for
economic and social development.Mahalanobiswas appointedas a HonoraryStatisticalAdviser to
the IndianCabinetin 1949 anda CentralStatisticalUnit was set up in the CabinetSecretariatin 1949
underhis technical guidance.A couple of years laterthe CentralStatisticalOrganisation(CSO) was
formed in 1951 to coordinatethe statisticalactivities in independentIndia. The National Sample
Survey (NSS) was createdin 1950 as a multi-facetedfact-findingbody. During 1961, the CSO and
NSS were put undera full-fledgedDepartmentof Statistics.
Central Statistical Organisation
The CentralStatisticalOrganisation(CSO) was set up mainly to coordinatethe statisticalwork
done in variousministriesand othergovernmentagencies and to advise them, to maintainstandards
with regardto definitions,concepts andprocedures,to provideconsultancy,keep in touch with internationalstatisticalorganisations,to prepareand publishan AnnualStatisticalAbstractand Monthly
Statistical Abstract, to act as a liaison with United Nations Statistical Office and to disseminate
annualstatistics by graphsand chartsas well as tables for public use.
The National Income Committeerecommendedin 1954 that the National Income Unit be transferred from the Ministry of Finance to the CSO and since then the estimation of nationalincome
has become an importantactivity.Similarly,a planningcell was organisedat the CSO to look into
the plan activities of the government.A populationunit was added in 1956 mainly to examine the
schemes and enquiriesrelatingto populationthat are often referredto the CSO for technical advice
from time to time andpreparationof briefsandmemorandaon censuses andvital statistics.The CSO
also took partin trainingthe centraland statestatisticalofficersto improveofficial statistics.In 1957,
the Directorateof IndustrialStatisticswas transferredfrom the Ministryof Commerceand Industry.
In order to have an integratedapproachbetween the planning, statisticaland survey organisations
18

J.K. GHOSH,
the Departmentof Statistics, including the CSO and NSSO, has been transferredto the Ministry
of Planningand ProgrammeImplementationfrom February,1973. B. Ramamurti,S. Subramanian,
P.C.Mathew,and K.R. Nair headed the CSO in the early years.
National Sample Survey
The StandingCommitteeof the DepartmentalStatisticiansas well as the National Income Committee (NIC), established in 1949, felt that there was an urgentneed for improvingthe quality of
statisticalinformation.In 1950, the NIC recommendedthe use of samplingmethodsto fill the gaps
in the estimationof nationalincome.
The Indian StatisticalInstitute(ISI) which had acquiredexperienceand expertise in large scale
surveys since 1935 was approachedby the Governmentof Indiato preparethe design with detailed
plans and estimatesfor a comprehensivesocio-economicnationalsamplesurveycoveringruralareas
of India. The first round of data collection startedin October 1950 and was completed by March
1951 with a sanctionedstrengthof 607 personnel.The Directorateof the National Sample Survey
was transferredfrom the Ministry of Finance to the Cabinet Secretariatin 1957. As mentioned
earlier, it has been in the Departmentof Statistics since 1961. While the field work was done by
the Directorate,technical design includingdrawingup of questionnaires/schedules,instructionsto
field workers,details of scrutiny,dataprocessingand tabulationwere entrustedto the ISI underthe
general direction of Mahalanobis.In January1971, the design and analysis wing was reorganised
by shifting it from the Indian StatisticalInstituteto the Departmentof Statistics and forming the
NationalSample SurveyOrganisationwhich also includedthe Field OperationsandData Processing
Divisions. The NSS is the largestmulti-purposesocio-economic surveyin the world. The activities
were coordinatedby four main divisions, viz., SurveyDesign and Research,Field Operations,Data
ProcessingandEconomicAnalysis. Currently,besides socio-economicsurveys,datais also collected
throughAnnual Survey of Industries,CropYield and Area EstimationSurvey,UrbanFrameSurvey
and Prices Survey.J.M. Sengupta,D.B. Lahiri,S. RajaRao, M.N. Murthywere associatedwith NSS
since the early rounds.
According to D.B. Lahiriwho is one of the chief architectsof the NSS right from the beginning
"theNSS chose a multi-purposeand multi-subjectframework,and the surveydesign was gradually
so evolved as to permitstudy of the inter-connectionsbetweenthe variouscomponentsof the socioeconomic picture of the country and its constituentregions and states. The NSS has in the main
been a population survey in a comprehensivesense, althoughthere has been a sizeable effort on
the estimation by an area survey of crop acreage and productionto which Mahalanobisattached
great importancebecause of chronic food shortage".Commentingon the complexity and scope
of Mahalanobis'splans for the National Sample Surveys of India, Deming (1973) remarked:'No
country,developed, under-developedor over-developed,has such a wealth of informationabout its
people as India .........'
Other Statistical Divisions and Activities in the Government
Among the otherimportantstatisticalwings in the Governmentof India,the office of the Director
General of CommercialIntelligence and Statistics is one of the oldest establishments.It continues
to be responsiblefor commercialintelligenceand foreign tradestatistics.The office of the Registrar
General which was createdin 1948 carriesout its decennial Census Operationsas well as Sample
RegistrationSystem and publicationof otherdemographicand vital statistics.Duringthe 1951 and
1961 Censuses, several major changes were adoptedeither in collection or analysis of data under
the leadershipof the RegistrarsGeneral,R.A. GopalaswamiandAshok Mitra.Forprovidingreliable
vital rates to meet the needs of planningand policy decision, the Office of the RegistrarGeneral,
19
initiatedthe SampleRegistrationSystem to cover the ruralandurbanareasof the countrysince 1970.

This scheme has been very successful.
The Labour Bureau set up in 1946 is responsible for collection and dissemination of labour
statistics and publicationof consumerprice indices. Apartfrom these departmentsat the centre and
host of othersin variouscentralministries,the State StatisticalBureaus(SSB), which play the same
role as the CSO at a state level, also collaboratewith the NSSO in conductingmulti-purposesurveys.
Committee
The need for forming a statisticalcadre was recognized by the Inter-Departmental
on Official Statistics and in 1964 an IndianStatisticalService was organisedto cater to the needs
of the CentralMinistries.Recently, the Departmentof Statistics,which covers new activities such
as environmentalstatistics, service statistics,and genderstatistics,has undertakena programmefor
modernizationand complete computerizationof the existing dataprocessing systems.
Perspective Planning Division
At the request of the Governmentof India, a draftof the second Five YearPlan was preparedat
the IndianStatisticalInstitutein 1954 by Mahalanobis.Following a forwardlooking Harrod-Domar
type of model, he modelledthe net outputof the economy as originatingin two sectors,(Mahalanobis
(1953, 55)), the investmentgoods producingsector and the consumergoods producingsector. His
model is based on a growthcurve for the economy given by
=
+
Yt Yo[1+ ao{(1 + Xifi)'
1}{ifli
Xcflc}/ifi]l
where Ytis the National Income in year t, ao is the initial rate of investmentin the base year 0, X
and Xc are respectivelythe sharesof investmenttowardsthe investmentgoods industriessector and
consumergoods industriessector while fi and fc arerespectivelythe ratiosof incrementof income
to investmentfor the two sectors. Over a longer period,a largerXi gives a higherrate of growth.In
the Second Plan, Xi was taken as around0.3 giving a limiting investmentrate of about 18 percent.
The model thus led to a priorityto the developmentof investmentgoods industriesover consumer
goods industriesin orderto have a high rate of growthof consumptionin the long run. Lateron, he
prepareda four sector model in which the consumersector is furtherdividedinto factorytype, hand
type inclusive of agriculture,and services of all sorts. The draftSecond Five YearPlan was based on
this model. It emphasizeda rapidindustrialdevelopmentas the rightstrategyfor economic growth.
As pointed out by C.R. Rao, "Mahalanobisnever claimed that his model was a contributionto
economic theory: he meant it as 'a conceptual frameworkwhich would be of help for practical
purposes', and in revealing the broad characteristicsof the system under considerationwithout
getting lost in details".The conceptualframeworkprovedto be useful for subsequentplans also.
In 1955, Mahalanobiswas appointedas a memberof the PlanningCommission.In orderto carry
out furtherstudieson planning,he envisagedthe need of a PerspectivePlanningDivision (PPD)which
was establishednext door to the PlanningCommissionin Delhi. PitambarPantwho was secretaryto
JawaharlalNehru duringthe pre-Independencedays, was chosen to look afterthe PPD. Panthelped
the Institutewith respectto all negotiationswith the governmentin additionto his responsibilitiesat
the PPD. At the PPD, variousmodels were developedfor long-termplanningunderthe guidanceof
Pant.A paperthuspreparedentitled"Perspectiveof Development:1961-76, Implicationsof planning
for a minimumlevel of living"was circulatedin 1962 and subsequentlypublishedin Sankhya,1974.
The depth and outputof the Division and its role in the policies of PlanningCommissionduringthe
early sixties could be consideredas the 'high watermarkof Pitambar'scareer'(Minhaset al., 1974).
One of the interestingaspects of the preparationof the draft of the Second Five Yearplan was
the massive use of data collected by CSO and NSS. Records of this survive in the large numberof
working paperspreparedduringthis period.
In "StudiesRelatingto Planningfor NationalDevelopment"workingpaperNo. 1/P.U.1.1, released
20
J.K. GHOSH,
in 1954, Mahalanobiswrites as follows:

"... Intensive studies have been startedon the basis of the data collected by National
Sample Survey to find out how the consumptionof particularcommodities or services
actuallychanges with increasinglevels of.per capitaexpenditure..."
In the same paper,Mahalanobisrelates this to productionas follows: "One industrywould sell
its products to various other industries.Also it would get its needs from other sources . . . . The
whole industrialstructureis closely interlockedand in orderto conceive of a change in the level of
productionof one commodity,it is necessaryto give considerationto the change in outputof many
other industries.When an approximateallocationof investmentis ready,the anticipatedconsumer
expenditureis known, and the requirementof final flows of consumergoods have been settled, it
would be necessaryto work out the total outputof the differentindustries".
"Thiscan be done with the help of interindustryrelations(sometimescalled input-outputtables).
Workis alreadyin progressin 12 sectors (i.e. a 12 x 12 table) and arrangementsare being made to
preparea 90 x 90 table."
One of the key tools in this analysiswere to be input-outputtableswhich areupdatedor constructed
afresh and utilised for nationalaccounts.Mahalanobis'sremarksremainrelevant:
"In order to consider the detailed breakdownsof productionof commodities and the supply of
services, the economic and technologicalrelationsbetween investment,income and employmentin
differentindustrieswould have to be used for which workon a small scale has alreadybeen started."
One of the early sources of input-outputtables is a 12 x 12 table (Studies relating to Planning
for National Development: working paper No. 1/P.U.1.1, November 19, 1954, Indian Statistical
Institute).
Over the years, ISI has made many more detailed and sophisticatedstudies of consumptionand
income elasticity but the link with planningand policy is less clear.
5
P.C. Mahalanobis and the Indian Statistical Institute
The Early Period (1915-1931)

Mahalanobis,whose name has croppedup severaltimes in this article, was born in a well-to-do
progressiveBrahmofamily in 1893. Brahmoswere an enlightened,reformistgroupwho preachedfor
monotheismand againstcastes and varioussuperstitiousritualswithinHinduism.Mahalanobiswent
to study in Cambridgein 1913 and in 1915 finishedhis Triposin NaturalScience with a first class.
His firstencounterwith Statistics,which took place at this time, is describedas follows by C.R. Rao
(1973): 'At the time of Mahalanobis'sdepartureto India from Cambridge,the first world war was
on and there was a shortdelay in his journey.Mahalanobisutilized this time browsingin the King's
College library.One morning, Macaulay,the tutor,drew his attentionto some bound volumes of
Biometrika... Mahalanobisgot so interestedthathe boughta complete set of Biometrikavolumes
... he startedreadingthe volumes on the boat duringhis journey and continuedto study and work
out exercises on his own duringspare time after arrivalin Calcutta.'He tried to look for problems
where he could apply the new knowledge he was acquiring.In these pursuits,AcharyaBrajendra
Nath Seal had a great influenceon Mahalanobis.He had been one of the firstmen to appreciatethe
significance of the new discipline. The first importantwork in Statisticsin the modern sense to be
undertakenin Indiawas possibly the statisticalanalysisof examinationresultsin CalcuttaUniversity.
Seal, in 1917, as Chairmanof the Committeefor examinationreformsin CalcuttaUniversitysought
Mahalanobis'shelp in the above analysis. Anotherpersonwho providedsupportto Mahalanobisin
his choice of a new, untroddenpathwas the poet Tagore,who even wrotea poem for one of the early
issues of Sankhya,the IndianJournalof Statistics(vol.2 (1934) p. 1).
Duringthe session of the IndianScience Congressat Nagpurin 1920, Mahalanobishad a meeting
Evolutionof Statisticsin India
21
with Annandale,the Directorof Zoological Surveyof Indiawho hadcollected dataon Anglo-Indians

in Calcutta and got interestedin statisticalanalysis of Annandale'sdata. This resulted in the first
paper(Mahalanobis,1922) relatingto the statisticalanalysis of Anglo-Indianstature.He continued
to work on the anthropologicaldata (Mahalanobis, 1925, 1930, 1931, 1936) and built up new
methodologies for classifying or distinguishingpopulationscharacterizedby such measurements.
The famous MahalonobisD2 emergedin course of this work.
If , denotes the common dispersionmatrixof the measurements,then the Mahalanobismeasure
of distance between two populationsis given by
D2 = (A,1 -
2)'-((1
A -
L2)
where Ati is the mean vector for the ith population, i = 1, 2 and E-1 is the inverse of E.
Mahalanobis (1930) considers only the case of a diagonal E. In Mahalanobis(1936), he considers also the correlatedcase, i.e. general E and also introducedthe familiarstudentizedversion
where the parametersA and E are replacedby theirestimates.He also introducedwhat amountsto
graphicalcluster analysis.
There is evidence (Pearson,1928, quotedin Rudra,1996) thatPearsonhad expressedreservations
about the D2-statistic and did not want to publish Mahalanobis'spaper on the D2-statistic which
had been originally submittedto Biometrika.Mahalanobiswas disappointedbut did not give up
(Mahalanobis, 1929, quoted in Rudra, 1996). He published his paper elsewhere (Mahalanobis,
1930). Mahalanobis'sconfidence in this work has been amply justified in subsequenttheory and
applications.One of the firstmajortheoreticalcontributionsof the IndianSchool was the proof that
the studentizedD2-statistichas a non-centralF distribution(Bose & Roy, 1938). The D2-statistic
remainsa powerfulandfundamentaltool in multivariateanalysis,classificationproblemsandcluster
analysis.
Some of the conclusions of Mahalanobisin his anthropologicalpapershave also stood the test of
time. He was right in claiming that the Bengali Brahminsresemble other Bengali castes far more
closely thanthey resembleBrahminselsewherein India.However,in some othercases, laterevidence
points in a differentdirection.For example, as far as the Anglo-IndianCommunityis concerned,it
is now believed that Mahalanobishad probablyconfinedhis study to a sample from upperstratum
of the community and hence his conclusion of resemblanceto uppercaste Hindus is applicableto
the upperclass Anglo-Indiansonly.
With this backgroundin analysis of anthropologicaldata, it is not surprisingthat Mahalanobis
(1933) turnedhis attentionto Risley's (1891) famousdataset whichwas collected on 5784 individuals
belonging to 87 castes and tribes of NorthernIndia summarizedby 11 means and 8 indices. In a
total of 20797 values, he found 142 serious discrepanciesof which 133 were correctedby 'crossexaminationof data' and 'internalconsistency checks'. Also the importanceof standardizationin
measurementswas stressedby him (Mahalanobis,1928).
During the early twenties, an officer of the Indian Civil Service, J.A. Hubback observed that
the crop cutting system was quite inadequateand defective and conductedextensive crop cutting
experimentson the paddycrop, which he called a 'randomsamplingmethod', by demarcatingareas
by a specially devised detachabletriangularmetal frame as distinct from the traditionaltapes to
demarcatethe rectangularareas.This firstexperimentin 1923 relatedto the GoddaThanaof Santal
Parganasof Bihar State where 400 samples were harvestedover an areaof 100 squaremiles. Later,
in 1925 he extendedhis methodto 8 subdivisionseach of about 1000 squaremiles in SantalParganas
District and also in the State of Orissa.Mahalanobisgot interestedin the use of randomsample cuts
for the estimation of areas under crop and crop yield. Hubback'swork (Hubback, 1925) seems to
have had influence on Fisher,Yates,Cochranand othersof thattime in Britain.
On the suggestion of Sir Gilbert Walker,the Director General of Observations,Mahalanobis
(1923) looked at the correlationsbetweenupperair variables.He got appointedas a Meteorologistin
22
J.K. GHOSH,
Calcutta,besides his usual duties as Professorof Physics at the PresidencyCollege. Thus duringthe
late twenties, Mahalanobisgot involved in variousdirectionsof the growthof the new discipline of
Statistics-the conceptualdevelopmentsin multivariateanthropometricdataanalysis,the acceptance
of sample surveys as a methodof datacollection as stressedby Kiaer(1895, 1897), Bowley (1906),
Jessen (1926) among others, meteorologicalstudies, crop cutting experimentsto name a few. It is
only naturalthatthe 'StatisticalLaboratory',which was being runas a 'workshop'at the Presidency
College, Calcutta,should be given a statusof an institutionof researchand higherlearning.
Two young colleagues, SubhenduSekharBose and HarishChandraSinha urgedMahalanobisto
approachsome importantpersons of the countryto starta StatisticalSociety. On the fourteenthof
December 1931, ProfessorPramathaNathBanerjea,Nikhil RanjanSen andP.C.Mahalanobisissued
the following notice: (cf. Sankhya,1, p. 124, AnnualReport)
"A meeting will be held to consider steps to be taken towardsthe establishmentof an
IndianStatisticalInstituteon Thursday,the Seventeenthinstantat 2.30 p.m. in the Board
Room of M/s. Martin & Company, 12, Mission Row, Calcutta.Sir R.N. Mookerjee,
K.C.I.E, K.C.V.Owill preside."
Fromthe minutesof the meeting, we note that 'it was unanimouslyresolvedthatan IndianStatistical
Institutebe startedand that Sir R.N. Mookerjeebe requestedto accept the office of the Presidentof
the Institute ..'.
The Indian Statistical Institutewas founded as a society on 17 December, 1931. Sankhya,the
IndianJournalof Statistics,was foundedtwo years later.
The Second Period (1931-1950)
The second periodis markedby the emergenceof samplesurveys,multivariateanalysisanddesign
of experimentsas majorstatisticaltools for practicalwork. They were also subjectsfor researchat
cutting edge. Another notable feature of the period was the introductionof undergraduateand
postgraduatecourses in Statistics.Last butnot least, trainingprogrammesand practiceof Shewart's
StatisticalQualityControlwere introducedduringthis period.
Startingwith exploratorysurveysconfinedto a few squaremiles in Bengal in 1937, Mahalanobis
was perhaps the first person to organise and carry out an objectively defined large scale survey
covering the whole of Bengal (about 59000 squaremiles) in 1941. This scheme was designed to
estimate the yield of jute crop and acreageunderjute in Bengal. The survey in its earlieryears was
able to provideimportantinformationon the variabilityof the characteristicsunderstudyandcosts of
differentsurvey operations.He recognisedthe need for assessing and controllingthe non-sampling
errors.
In his reportto the Indian CentralJute Committeeafter a careful assessment of Mahalanobis's
method H. Hotelling states:
"... no technique of random sample has, so far as I can find, been developed in the
United States or elsewhere, which can comparein accuracyor in economy with that
describedby ProfessorMahalanobis...."
Also, Fisher commented:
"... The ISI has takenthe lead in the originaldevelopmentof the techniqueof Sample
Surveys, the most potentialfact findingprocess availableto the administration."
Mahalanobis's(1946) Sample Survey of Jute productionin Bengal gave a figure of 7540 bales (1
bale = 400 lbs.) while the plot to plot enumerationby the Governmentwhich was ten times more
costly and had a fifty fold manpowercomparedto the samplingmethod gave an underestimateof
23
6304 bales. The customs and tradefigure which independentlytakes into account nearly all of the
producegave an answer of 7562 bales.
D.B. Lahiri collaboratedwith Mahalanobison the analysis of errorsin Censuses and Surveys
in the Indian context (Mahalanobis& Lahiri, 1961). According to Lahiri (1973) the three notable
contributionsto sample survey techniquesby Mahalanobisare "pilot surveys, concept of optimum
survey design, and interpenetratingnetwork of subsamples (IPNS)". All the three concepts are
forerunnersof importantpracticalstatisticalcontributionsthat emerged later-'pilot surveys' as a
preludeto Wald's 'sequentialanalysis', 'optimumsurveydesign' stressingthe philosophythatall the
resourcesprovidedfor a surveyshouldbe used optimallyas a precursorto 'operationsresearch'and
'IPNS technique' as one of the curtainraisersfor 'resamplingprocedures'like Bootstrap.Edward
Deming (1964) acknowledgedthus ... ". .. for 14 yearsI haveused only interpenetratingnetworkof
samples (IPNS), initiatedby him (Mahalanobis),as everyoneknows, about 1936. .. " ". .. The main
featureof the IPNS is simplicity in the calculationof the standarderrorof an estimate.It also enables
one to estimaterapidlythe mathematicalbias, if any,in the formulaof estimation.... It helps to detect
gross blunders in selection, recordingand processing. It permits evaluationof variancesbetween
investigators,coders and otherworkersin the variousstatisticalstages of processing".Mahalanobis,
(Mahalanobis, 1938) was aware of the probabilityproportionalto size (pps) selection (Hansen &
Hurwitz (1943)) even in 1937. He realised that, in agriculturalsurveys, it would be necessary to
select plots using the cumulativetotals of theirareas,since these areasvary considerably.However,
he assumedthatexcessive workload wouldmakethe selection impracticableandtakinginto account
the high costs of travelbetween plots which are widely scattered,he recommendedthe use of 'grid
sampling'. On a different level, he had considered the possibility of air surveys 'using specially
sensitised films' for estimationof crop acreagein 1937 itself-a techniquewhich has now become
popularas 'Remote Sensing'.
Mahalanobis's work on D2 and studentized D2 led to very innovative use of matrix and ndimensional geometric methods for derivationof the distributionof these statistics undera multivariateNormalmodel. The identificationof the studentizedD2 as a non-centralF by R.C. Bose and
S.N. Roy was the firstmajorbreakthroughin theoreticalstatisticsin the thirtiesby the Indianschool.
Mahalanobis'sworkwith S.S. Bose on cropcuttingexperimentsandyield estimatespavedway for
fundamentaldiscoveriesin constructionof designof experimentsby R.C.Bose using finitegeometries
and Galois fields. R.C. Bose derived new methods of constructionfor balancedincomplete block
designs, orthogonallatin squares,confoundedfactorialdesigns andmuchelse. Formanyyears,India
remaineda leading contributorin this area.Otherswho madeimportantcontributionswere K.R. Nair
(Mahalanobis& Nair, 1940; Nair, 1992) and C.R. Rao. It was C.R. Rao who introducedthe notion
of orthogonalarrays(Rao, 1947) which in the handsof Taguchihad a profoundeffect on industrial
experimentation.
At Mahalanobis'sinitiative,the firstpost graduatecourse in Statisticswas introducedat Calcutta
Universityin 1941. The firstbatchof studentsincludedC.R. Rao, who influencedthe growthof the
ISI more than anyone else except Mahalanobisand, along with Mahalanobis,is the most famous
statisticianto come out of the Indiansubcontinent.This is how he (Rao, 1992) recalls his early years
at the ISI:
"I passed the M.A. degree examinationwith a first class, securing the first rankand a
high percentageof marks.I was thus among the firstfive to receive the M.A. degree in
Statisticsfrom any IndianUniversity.The Professorofferedjobs to all of us in the ISI as
technical apprenticeson a salaryof Rs.75 a month.I joined the ISI in December 1943."
(At currentexchange rates Rs. 75 amountsto abouttwo U.S. dollars).
Prior to this, C.R. Rao had an M.A. degree in Mathematicsfrom AndhraUniversity in 1940.
He received his Ph.D. from Cambridgein 1948 underthe guidance of R.A. Fisher and Sc.D. from
24
J.K. GHOSH,P. MAITI,T.J. RAO & B.K. SINHA
the same University in 1965. When Rao returnedfrom Cambridgein 1948 he took charge of the
Researchand TrainingSchool (RTS) which was one of the Divisions of the Institutewith the sole
responsibilityof organisingthe researchand trainingactivities.D. Basu was amongthe firstbatchof
scholars,who joined in September,1950. Graduallywith freshadmissionsof traineesevery year,the
RTS expandedits activitiesfurther.C.R. Rao held the post of Professorand Head of the Division of
the TheoreticalResearchandTrainingin the ISI from 1949 to 1963. In 1963 he became the Director
of the RTS. After Mahalanobis'sdeathin 1972, Rao became the Secretaryand Directorof the ISI,
the designationswhich Mahalanobishad.
During the mid-forties Mahalanobisforesaw the need for introducingQuality Control (QC) in
Indian industries and later C.R. Rao also had been associated with the QC movement in India.
In 1945-46 a special course on QC was organisedby the ISI which was attendedby 12 persons.
There was encouragementfrom a few men like C. Tattersallof the OrdnanceTesting Laboratory
who fully realized the importanceof using QC in industry.But governmentdepartmentswere
apathetic.Influencedby the pioneeringworkdone by WalterShewartin StatisticalQualityControl,
Mahalanobisinvited him to India. Shewartarrivedin Calcuttaon December 22, 1947 and took the
lead in organizing a one-week conference on 'Standardizationin IndustrialStatistics' in Calcutta
from 8th to 14th February1948 under the auspices of ISI and Indian StandardsInstitution.This
was attendedby 190 persons. All these efforts finally culminatedin startingthe first SQC Unit at
Bombay in 1953 followed by two units at Bangaloreand Calcuttain 1954. The main objective of
these unitsinitially was promotional-to visit industriesandact as consultants.This service was later
on extendedto manyprincipalindustrialcities in the country.Todaythe Division, knownas the SQC
and OR Division, is engaged in both teaching and researchbesides consultationand promotional
activities.
Afterdevastatingfloods in the Brahmaniriverin the stateof Orissain 1926, an expertcommitteeof
engineersattributedthis to the risingriverbed andrecommendeda correspondingrise in the height of
embankments.Whenthe problemwas referredto Mahalanobis,he (Mahalanobis,1931, Mahalanobis
& Chakravarti,1931) studiedthe dataon rainfallin the catchmentareasof the riverduringthe period
1868-1928 and related this to the level of the rivers. Contraryto the engineers' suggestion, he
recommendedconstructionof dams in the upperreaches of the river to stop the excessive rainfall
from flooding the plains. Based on his calculationsfor a multipurposescheme of flood control,
hydroelectricpower generationand irrigationfacilities, the Hirakuddam was constructedin 1957.
The Chief Ministerof Orissa wrote a letterthankingMahalanobisfor his efforts.This work may be
regardedas one of the earliest case studies in Systems Analysis and OperationsResearch,subjects
which flourishedafterthe second world war.
Fifties and Early Sixties
The substantialcontributionsof the Instituteto theoreticaland applied work, its trainingand
promotionalactivitiesculminatedin recognitionby the Governmentof India.The parliamentpassed
the Indian StatisticalInstituteAct, 1959 which declaredthe Instituteas an "Institutionof National
Importance"and empowered it to awarddegrees and diplomas in Statistics. The Prime Minister
of India, PanditJawaharlalNehru who piloted this bill in Parliament,made a speech that remains
relevantas one of the most inspiringdefences of science and academic freedom ever made by the
head of a Government:
... "Now we wantscience to grow, andI thinkit is quiteessentialthatwe shouldaccept
this broadapproachto this question that scientific work should have a certainlatitude.
Therefore,we have decided that in this particularmatter,this should continueto be an
autonomousorganization..."
25
Soon after, in June 1960, the Instituteintroducedthe Bachelor of Statistics (B.Stat.), Master of
Statistics (M.Stat.) and Ph.D. degree courses. In view of its currentexpertise in the related areas
of QuantitativeEconomics, Mathematicsand ComputerScience, the Act has been amendedby the
Parliamentin September1995 permittingthe Instituteto give degrees in these relateddisciplines as
well.
Fisher's view that "teaching,instructionor trainingin Statistics, at whateverlevel, is bound to
be, on the one side with fact finding projectsin the traditionalstatisticalfields of demographyand
economics, and on the other side with opportunitiesto gain firsthand familiaritywith at least some
field in naturalsciences... " was also sharedby Mahalanobis.The syllabusfor the B.Stat.degreethus
includes an acquaintancewith biological, physical and geological sciences. With ProfessorJ.B.S.
Haldane as a regularstaff member,the Biometricunit expandedfurther.This unit had been set up
earlier under the leadershipof Masuyamabefore his departurein August, 1954. The Institutenow
has a Biological Sciences Division consisting of 37 scientific workers.
As early as in 1950, the ComputingMachines and ElectronicsLaboratory(CMEL) was started
in the ISI. In March, 1956, HEC-2M was installed while a Russian ComputerURAL was gifted
in 1959. Lateron the Institutepossessed IBM 1401 and Honeywell systems. A joint projectof the
Indian Statistical Instituteand the JadavpurUniversity,Calcuttaresulted in the first Indian-made
solid state generalpurposedigital electroniccomputerISIJU-1 in April 1966. Furtherimprovements
had to be abandonedon the advice of the Government.However, the Instituteremains a leading
centre of researchin Image Processing,PatternRecognitionand variousotheraspects of theoretical
and appliedComputerScience.
Mahalanobissaw the need for trainingstatisticalofficers from the MiddleEast, South and South
East Asia, the Far East and from the CommonwealthCountriesof Africa. Under the auspices of
UNESCO and the Governmentof India, the InternationalStatisticalEducationCentre (ISEC) was
opened in 1950 and is jointly operatedby the InternationalStatisticalInstituteand the ISI, Calcutta.
Since its inception the centrehas providedtrainingto 1239 traineesfrom over 50 countries.
After Mahalanobis'sdeath,C.R. Rao continuedas Secretaryand Directorof the ISI from 1972 to
1976. In 1976, the Institutegot a distinguishedprobabilistas its new Director-Gopinath Kallianpur.
Kallianpurwas a Professorat the ISI in the fifties, buthad left permanentlyto workin the U.S.. After
thirteenyears at the Universityof Minnesota,Kallianpurreturnedto the ISI as the Directorin 1976,
a post he held until 1979.
The ISI also had a new Constitutionin 1976. The new Constitutionputs more stress on teaching
and research and less on societal activities. The post of Secretarywas abolished, but the Director
was to functionin futurealso as the Secretaryof ISI. The ISI was to remainboth as an Institutionof
National Importancegovernedby the Act of Parliamentand a Society governedby the Registration
of Societies Act. Currently,the Institute has its headquartersin Calcutta and two other centres
at Delhi and Bangalore. It also has a network of service units of the SQC and OR Division at
Vadodhara,Mumbai,Thiruvananthapuram,
Pune,Coimbatore,Chennai,Hyderabad,Calcutta,Delhi
and Bangalore.
Arguablythe golden period of the ISI was the fifties (cf. Rao, 1973). In additionto Mahalanobis
and Rao, the faculty included R.R. Bahadur,D. Basu, G. Kallianpur,D.B. Lahiri, M. Mukherjee,
R. Mukherjeeand many other distinguishedluminaries.Bahadurwas a professor at the ISI from
1956-1961, when he returnedto the Universityof Chicago.D. Basu left Dhaka(now in Bangladesh)
after independenceto join the ISI as a studentand laterbecame a Professoras well as the firstDean
of Studies. Between them Rao, Bahadur,Basu and Kallianpurand a new groupof brilliantstudents
R. Ranga Rao, V.S. Varadarajan,
S.R.S. Varadhanmade fundamental
including K.R. Parthasarathy,
contributionsto probabilityand classical inferenceduringthis periodwhich were as importantas the
earlier contributionsof Bose and Roy to design of experimentsand multivariateanalysis. Among
the other earlier studentsof the Institutewho achieved internationalreputationare G.P. Patil, T.N.
26

J.K. GHOSH,
No treatSrinivasan,R.G. Laha,J. Roy, Sujit KumarMitra,D.K. Roy Choudhury,I.M. Chakraborty.

ment of such topics as linearmodels, estimation,maximumlikelihoodestimates,complete sufficient
statistics, conditioningand ancillarity,probabilitieson locally compact commutativegroups, weak
convergenceand Edgeworthexpansions,can be complete without an appropriatecoverage of work
done at the ISI during those years. The Cram6r-Raolower bound, Rao-Blackwell Theorem and
Basu's theoremon independenceof an ancillaryand a complete sufficientstatistichave been partof
any undergraduateor graduatecourse in TheoreticalStatistics.The Cram6r-Raolower bound has
sophisticatedrecent applicationsto boundingrates of convergenceof Bayes risk and density estimates. It was a sign of intellectualvitalityof those times thatLahiriwas botha distinguishednumber
theoristand a samplingexpertpar excellence. M. Mukherjeewas India'sleading expert in national
income and R. Mukherjeeone of India'sforemostquantitativeanthropologistand sociologist.
During the fifties Mahalanobishimself had turnedto planningbut found time to introducea new
statistical tool called FractileGraphicalAnalysis. He also workedon demographicproblems.The
Second Five Year Plan draftedby Mahalanobiswith the help of Indianand Foreign collaborators
was to remaina model for Indianplannersfor manyyears.While planningin its old somewhatrigid
form is no longer in fashion, it cannotbe denied thatthe policies advocatedby Mahalanobishelped
in India's rapidpost independenceindustrialisation.Most expertsagree that this is an essential step
for economic development.
It was duringthe fifties thatthe ISI attracteda host of famous visitors. Among them was Norbert
Wiener.Exposureto Wiener'spredictiontheory,generalisedharmonicanalysis andchaos expansion
changed the directions of Kallianpur'sresearchwhich culminatedin the now-famousKallianpurStriebel function space version of Bayes formulaand foundationsof the theory of optimal filtering
in the context of stochasticdifferentialequations.
At a suggestion from Wiener,Masani, a distinguishedyoung mathematicianof Bombay (now
Mumbai),came to ISI Calcuttaduringthe Octoberholidays of 1955 and startedworkingon several
problemsin factorizationand in multivariateprediction.Masani's collaborationwith Wienerwas a
majorevent in his career.
Kolmogorov visited the Institutein April 1962 and was a great inspirationto the probabilists.A
frequentvisitor to the ISI in the fifties, the Indiancombinatorialmathematician,S.S. Srikhandewas
a studentof R.C. Bose at Chapel Hill during 1947 to 1950. Along with the other "EulerSpoilers",
Bose andParker,he settledin the negativethe famousEulerConjectureon OrthogonalLatinSquares.
6
Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI)
On the recommendationof the Royal Commissionof Agriculture,a small Statistics section was
set up in the Indian Council of AgriculturalResearch(ICAR) in 1929. P.V. Sukhatmejoined the
section in 1940. After completingschool educationin Pune, P.V.Sukhatmegraduatedin 1932 from
Fergusson College of the same city with Mathematicsas the principalsubject and Physics as the
subsidiary.During 1933-36, he studiedat the UniversityCollege of Londonandwas awardeda Ph.D.
in 1936 and a D.Sc. in 1939 for his work on bipartitionalfunctions. Before joining the Statistics
section in ICAR, he was a Professor at the All India Instituteof Hygiene and Public Health at
Calcuttaduring 1939-40. Towardsthe end of 1943, the enquirycommitteeset up by the Government
of India to look into the causes of the devastatingBengal famine observed that one of the main
factors responsible for the famine was the defective statistics of crop productionavailable at that
time. The Statistics section, under the guidance of Sukhatme,began researchin the methods of
collection of yield statistics of crops by developing survey techniques of yield estimation under
randomsampling.Official forecastswere also being releasedfrom the resultsof sample surveys by
1949. The workdone by the section was recognizedby the UnitedNationsandthe FAOand a special
trainingprogrammewas organisedfor the statisticalofficersfromthe South-EastAsian governments
27
for 14 weeks in 1949 on appropriatecensus and samplingtechniquesas applied to populationand

agriculture.Sukhatmeleft ICAR to take over as Chief of StatisticsBranch,FAOin Rome in 1951.
V.G. Panse, Director of the Instituteof Plant Industry,Indore,who was closely associated with
the work of the Statistics section of the ICAR, replaced him soon after. Panse was collaborating
with Hutchinsonat the Instituteof PlantIndustryon the use of quantitativetechniquesin Agronomy.
They adaptedthe randomizedblock and split-plotdesigns to the plant breedingmaterialat Indore
anddevelopeda 'replicatedprogeny'(Panse& Hutchinson,1935, 1937). Panse(1940) demonstrated
how the genetic component of observed variabilitycould be estimated by taking the regression
of progeny means on parentalvalue and explainedthe importanceof selecting plots based on their
deviationsfromplantmeansratherthanbasingon theirown values.Pansealso introducedappropriate
genetic models which broughtout the effects of the numberof segregatinggenes, the magnitudeof
their action, the modificationdue to dominanceand the environmentalinfluenceon progressdue to
selection. Using Panse's methods, a statisticalanalysis of data collected over a ten-yearperiod in a
goat breeding project at Etah in U.P. was done at the ICAR. It was observed that improvementin
milk yield was not so much due to a genetic improvementof the stock throughselection as due to
extraneousfactors.Consequently,this led the animalbreedersto realize the need and importanceof
statistical methods in planning animal breedingexperimentsand analyzing them. It is the success
of this statisticalappraisalwhich led to the expansionof ICAR Statistics section to become a fullfledged Institute of AgriculturalResearch Statistics. Panse moved to Delhi in 1951 as Statistical
Adviser to ICAR.
During 1941, Panse was approachedby the Indian CentralCotton Committee (ICCC) for objectively estimatingthe yield per acre of cotton productionin place of the subjectivemethod being
followed in the country.Panseinsistedthatany samplingmethodmustfit into the existing administrative structureand takecognizanceof the fact thatthe departmentalstaff andthe farmerswere already
familiarwith crop cuttingprocedures.Mahalanobis,as pointedout earlier,havingconductedseveral
crop-cuttingexperimentspreferredplots of small sizes-three or four concentriccircularplots with
differentradii.However,ICCCadoptedPanse'smethod.The meritsanddemeritsof the two methods
of Panse and Mahalanobiswere extensively debated(Panse & Sukhatme,1948, 1951). Panse also
carriedout a numberof sample surveys to check the accuracyof area statistics and observed that
the estimates by the patwari agency in the surveyed areas were quite satisfactory,even though it
involved extra burdento the patwaris in additionto theirnormalwork.
Panse was one of the foundersof the IndianSociety of AgriculturalStatistics.It was established
on 3 January 1947 with a view to promotingthe study of and researchin statisticaltheory in the
widest sense and its application to Agriculture,Animal Husbandry,AgriculturalEconomics and
allied areas. The Journalof the IndianSociety of AgriculturalStatisticsreleased its fiftieth volume
in 1997.
The IARS, renamed as the Indian AgriculturalStatistics Research Institute(IASRI), has contributedsignificantlyover the years to the fields of ExperimentalDesigns, SamplingMethods, Statistical Genetics, Biostatistics, ForecastingTechniques,StatisticalEcology etc. underthe guidance
of Panse and Sukhatme.Duringthe recentyears,PremNarain,the notedgeneticist andbiometrician
became the Directorof IASRI.
A Major ScientificDispute
We conclude this section with an accountof a majorscientificdisputebetween ISI and ICAR on
the best method of crop-cuttingexperimentsand agriculturalsurveys, which is of interestfrom the
point of view of Sociology of Science (cf. Adhikari,1990).
After considerableexperimentationwith cuts of differentshapes and sizes, Mahalanobisrecommended the use of circularcuts of radius4' for yield surveys and the ISI had been using the same
28
J.K. GHOSH,
circularcuts in the National Sample Survey and other surveys. As againstthis, the ICAR had been
using the rectangularcuts of size 33' x 16.5' in the crop yield surveys conductedthroughthe state
agency.
Keen interestin resolving this technicalcontroversyon this issue was shown by Mahalanobisand
he suggestedjoint studies both by the ICAR and the ISI (Mahalanobis,1946):
"I may mention, however, that for some considerabletime, I have been pressing on
ICAR authoritiesthe need for carryingout crop cutting work by both ISI and ICAR
methods in the same region with a view to studyingthe relativeefficiencies of the two
systems."
Adhikariindicatesthatthese studies did not reveal significantdifferencesbetweenthe two methods.
However,the controversycontinued.
Both the ISI under the leadershipof Mahalanobisand the ICAR under the leadershipof Panse
differedsignificantlyaboutthe investigatingagencies in conductingthe field work also.
In the scheme of Panse, it was emphasizedthat any sampling methodmust fit into the existing
administrativestructure.Mahalanobis,on the other hand, advocatedthat the field work should be
done by well trainedinvestigatorsrecruitedfor the purposeof the survey.
Adhikari(1990) relates this to the fact that Panse and Mahalanobiscame from differentparts of
India with very differentsystems of collecting revenue-one going back to the Moghul period and
the otherintroducedby the British.
"The Moghul Emperorappointedofficials called Jagirdars,Inamdarsover large tracts
responsiblefor the collection of land revenue.At the level of the village, there was the
village accountant(now called a patwari), also a state employee who would actually
determinethe land revenue of each cultivatorand collect it on behalf of the officials.
"Atthe end of the 18thcentury,the Britishgovernmentintroduceda new systemin a fairly
large partof India, particularlyEasternIndia, called the permanentsettlement.In this
system the intermediatetax collectors,called the Zamindars,were made responsiblefor
the paymentof revenueof the largetractsunderthemto the Britishtreasury.The amount
of revenue was made permanent"... "... The system of patwaries as functionaries of
Governmentceased to exist..."
What appearedto be a scientific controversywas rootedin the social backgroundof the scientists
and, in a way, both were right and both were wrong.
Sastry (1977) refers to joint studies of the Ministry of Agriculture,CSO and ISI conductedin
1960-61 and the studies by a TechnicalCommitteeset up by the PlanningCommission conducted
on 4 crops during 1963-66. No markeddifferencesin the yield rateswith the two types of cuts were
observed.
7 Statistics in some Indian Universities
The Departmentof Statistics of CalcuttaUniversityis the oldest in the country and one of the
pioneering Departmentsin the world which introducedStatistics as a separate and full-fledged
discipline and not as a partof Mathematicsor Economics. It was startedin 1941 at the initiationof
Mahalanobisin collaborationwith the IndianStatisticalInstitute,which was at thattime functioning
fromthe premisesof the PresidencyCollege, Calcutta.The post-graduateMaster'sdegreeprogramme
in Statisticsof CalcuttaUniversitywas the firstof its kind introducedin Asia. Initially,Mahalanobis
was the honoraryHeadof the Departmentof Statisticswhich consistedof one Lecturer,one Assistant
Lecturerand some part-timelecturers.As regardsresources,it had a few hand-operatedcalculating
29
machinesand a libraryconsisting of one single book shelf. The firstbatchof Master'sdegreeholders,

which came out in 1943, includedamong othersC.R. Rao and H.K. Nandi.
In additionto offering a post-graduatecourse, the departmentcarriedon researchactivities right
from the start. Members of the faculty included, apart from Mahalanobis,R.C. Bose and S.N.
Roy, who between them made fundamentalcontributionsto the application of classical multidimensional geometry and finite geometrics to multivariateanalysis and constructionof designs.
After Mahalanobis,R.C. Bose became the Head of the Departmentin 1945. When Bose left for the
U.S.A. in 1949, S.N. Roy acted as Head till 1950 when he also left for the States. Thereafterthe
Headshipdevolved on P.K. Bose. Two other active membersof the faculty at that time were H.K.
Nandi and M.N. Ghosh who made fundamentalcontributionsin design of experiments,inference,
decision theory and asymptotics.
Three years afterthe post graduateDepartmentof Statisticsof CalcuttaUniversitywas started,an
undergraduateDepartmentof Statisticswas establishedin 1944 in the PresidencyCollege, Calcutta.
The departmentwhich offeredHonourslevel courses in Statisticsalso initiallyhad the supportfrom
the ISI faculty in the form of part-timeteachers.Mahalanobishimself wouldlectureon some general
topics concerning this new discipline and motivate them. K.B. Madhavaof ISI was the honorary
Head and around1946, A. Bhattacharyyaand B.N. Ghoshjoined the Department,the formerserving
as the departmentalHead. They framed and followed a syllabus and a curriculumwhich became
a model for several other undergraduateStatistics Departmentsin the country that followed suit.
Bhattacharyyais well known for his contributionsto estimationtheory,measuresof divergenceand
characterizationtheory. The characterizationof the bivariatenormal has led to interestingrecent
developmentsin multivariateanalysis (cf. Arnold, 1994).
The Post GraduateDepartmentof Statistics was startedin 1948 in Bombay University.M.C.
Chakravartiwas appointed as the Head of the Department.Under his guidance, the department
grew up to be one of the prominentteaching and research centres in Statistics in the country.
Chakravartialso founded the Indian StatisticalAssociation and became the editor of the Journal
of Indian StatisticalAssociation. Chakravarti'swork in Design of Experimentsis well known and
several studentsof his have occupied importantpositions in variousIndianand foreign universities
and industries.
The Departmentof Statistics at the University of Pune was startedin 1953 with 11 students
enrollingin the firstbatchunderthe leadershipof V.S. Huzurbazar,who is the firstBayesianin India.
He had earlier obtained a Ph.D. Degree from Cambridgeworking under the guidance of Harold
Jeffreys, the famous astrophysicistand Bayesian. The Departmentof Pune University gradually
expandedandmade notablecontributionsto ProbabilityTheory,StochasticProcesses,Inferenceand
other areas. It is currentlyone of the most active departmentsof Statisticsin India.The University
Grants Commission has selected the Departmentfor Special Assistance for Statistics under the
programmefor Centresof AdvancedStudies.
OthermajorUniversitieswhich have played a leadingrole in the areaof StatisticsareUniversities
of Madras,Mysore, Kerala,Patna,Guwahati,Andhra,Lucknow.All these Departmentsof Statistics
were formedroughly between early fortiesthroughearly fifties more or less in the ordermentioned.
Togetherthe IndianUniversitieshave producedsome of the world'smost well-knownstatisticians.
8
A Sequel: The Period After 1960
Most of the earlierdiscussion centeredon the period before the sixties. In this section, we take a
quick look at the sequel.
One of the reasons for rapidgrowthof Statisticsin Indiawas the close interactionbetween the ISI
and various technical wings of the Governmentof India.It did not last very long after 1960. Nehru
died in 1964, Mahalanobisin 1972, ending an era of close cooperationthatbegan in 1947.
30
J.K. GHOSH,
There were other historical reasons for fewer interactions.The Planning Commission of the
Governmentof India was strengtheningits in house research.Also, the PlanningUnit of ISI Delhi,
which was stationedin the same buildingas the PlanningCommissionmoved to a new campus, far
from the PlanningCommission. Finally, differencesin perceptionabout what would be an optimal
path of developmentled to partingof ways.
Something similar happened to weaken relations with the NSS. During the final years of
Mahalanobis'slife, ISI's managementof the Design Division of the NSS had come in for criticism. Reports of surveys were far behind schedule. A year before Mahalanobisdied this section
was taken out of the ISI and made a part of the NSS Organisation.In a sense this was a natural
administrativestep leadingto the unificationof the field operationsandtheoreticalwings of the NSS.
But it did not bringaboutany improvementin publicationof reports.The relationwith the NSS was
neverthe same again even thoughISI is representedon the GoverningCouncil of NSS.
Globally too, specially in the United States, theoreticaland applied statistics had been drifting.
This had its effect on Indianstatisticiansmany of whom were trainedin the U.S. or had interactions
throughvisiting assignments.
Therewere manyachievementson the theoreticalside to compensatefor thisisolation.Indeedthere
was an exponentialgrowthin fundamentaltheoreticalworkby Indianstatisticiansin Indiaandabroad.
Some of the notable contributionsby the post-C.R. Rao generationsinclude developmentof new
tests in multivariatenon-parametricinferenceby S.K. Chatterjee,M.L. Puriand P.K.Sen, a critical
evaluation of classical survey sampling from differentpoints of view by V.P. Godambe,D. Basu
and J.N.K. Rao and introductionof a new class of designs called searchdesigns by J.N. Srivastava.
Moreover,R.N. Bhattacharya,J. Sethuraman,M. Ghosh,J.K. Ghoshandmany otherscontributedto
variousaspects of asymptoticsand inferencerangingfromrigorouslyderivedEdgeworthexpansions
and higher order asymptotics to sequentialanalysis, reliability and life testing. A paradigmshift
involving Bayesian Analysis had arrivedin India.
The scenario on the applicationsside showed less activity.It was here that the effects of breach
between academiaand government,the prime user of Statisticsin India, is most visible. But there
have been outstandingexceptions as well as modest but sustainedgrowthin certainareas.
We would place in the first category Sukhatme's(1965) new hypotheses about nutritionwhich
suggest that an individualcan adjustto varying intakes of calories and that the usually stipulated
norms may be higher than necessary.A bivariateanalysis of availabledata on protein and calorie
intake for Asian countries, particularlyfor India, revealed (Sukhatme, 1965) that when diet is
adequatein energy,the proteinintakeis usually satisfactory.It was shown thatproteindeficiency is
the indirectresult of inadequateenergy in the diet. His scientific beliefs as well as philanthropyled
to the establishmentof 'IndiraCommunityKitchen' in Pune. Based on a survey carriedout by the
NSS, Minhas analyzedthe datawhich seems to lend empiricalsupportto this hypothesisbut results
of similarenquirieslaterhave been ambiguous.
Othersubstantialcontributionshave been in the assessmentof the extentof povertyandits decline
after independence.Contributorsinclude Nikhilesh Bhattacharya,S.D. Tendulkarand others. (See
for example, Pal, Chakravarty& Bhattacharya(1986), Tendulkar(1989), Minhas,Jain& Tendulkar
(1991)). The monographby Bhattacharya,Coondoo, Maiti & Mukherjee(1991) deals with time
trendsin povertyand inequalityin ruralIndiausing NSS budgetdatafrom 1952-53 to 1983. In this
workan econometricmodel is fittedto explainthe observedvariationin the incidenceof this poverty.
Therehave also been extensivestudiesof officialstatisticsanddatacollectedby NSS. An innovative
study by Minhas (1988) shows how estimates obtainedfrom these two sources can be reconciled.
Among other importantcontributionswe would include a definitivestudy of one of India's largest
dams by Minhas et al. (1972).
We now leave aside these outstandingbut mostly individualachievementsand turnto areas that
saw a modest but sustainedgrowth.These includemanyimprovementsin the preparationof national
31
accounts by the CSO, and applicationsof Taguchi'smethodsto industry,mainly by the Division of

Statistical Quality Control and OperationsResearchin the ISI. Even more importanthas been the
developmentof Medical Statistics.Indianow has an Institutefor Researchin Medical Statisticsand
several active Departmentsof Biostatistics. Though no new methodology has emerged, India has
gainedexperienceandexpertisefor conductingclinical studiesfor new treatmentsin the environment
of a developing country.The ongoing controversyof the failureof the polio vaccinationprogramme
(Wyatt, 1996) highlights the dangers of WHO programmesthat ignore local conditions and local
expertise.
Indiahas also had a strongpopulationstudiesprogramme,conductedby the InternationalInstitute
for Population Sciences in Mumbai and various Population Research Centres set up in certain
Institutionsand Universities.
A very large scale NationalFamilyHealthSurvey(NFHS)covering24 StatesandNationalCapital
Territoryconsisting of 88562 samplehouseholdswas launchedby the Ministryof HealthandFamily
Welfare,New Delhi in 1992-93. This providesa memorabledemographicsnapshotof the world's
largestdemocracycoming to termswith problemsof marriage,family planning,old age and growing
need of healthcare, infantand child mortalityamong otherthings (see IIPS, 1995).
From the late seventies onwardthere have been many discussions in India on how this fruitful
interactionbetween theoreticiansandpractitionerscan be restoredandwhatcould be possible frameworks for such dialogues. While no clear frameworkor concensus has emerged many individuals
started doing such joint researchin the eighties. Here, too, a global change in the perceptionof
prioritieshas helped.
A significant new development has been the setting up of two centres in the ISI--the Policy
Planning and Research Unit (PPRU) at ISI Delhi and Survey Researchand Data Analysis Centre
(SURDAC)at Calcuttato revivea close interactionbetweenacademiaandgovernment.The SURDAC
is expected to be a modest version of the Survey ResearchCenter of the University of Michigan.
Similarjoint consultancy projects with industry,health professionals,epidemiologists, ecologists,
environmentalistsand computerscientists have become very popularin the ISI, and otheracademic
institutions.
The nineties have seen the impactof InformationTechnologyon academia,government,business
and industry.A significantinnovationhas been the use of Palm Top Computers(PTC) in the North
Indian state of Haryanafor collection of socio-economic survey data besides the traditionaldata
collection by investigatorsof the FOD of the NSSO. It is envisaged that PTC's would be used in
some other states as well. Necessary modificationsin softwareare being developed by the National
InformaticsCentre. District Head Quartersare being linked up for electronic communication.The
DirectorateGeneralof CommercialIntelligenceand Statisticsat Calcuttais planningto transmitdata
electronicallyto the CentralGovernmentat Delhi. The reportsof NSS are now availableto the users
on floppies. Even though the use of computersin teaching Statisticsis alreadygaining momentum
in variousUniversitiesand Institutions,the "MultimediaApproach"is still in an infantstage.
The apex nationalcommittee for Statistics,NationalAdvisory Board on Statistics (NABS), was
set up in September,1982 to provide technicalguidance for policy issues concerningdevelopment
of Statistics. This has been reconstituted six times, most recently in 1998 with a membership of 32.
So far its influence on the StatisticalSystem in India is not properlyfelt. However,it is beginning
to take an active step in encouragingnew initiatives.The IndianOfficial StatisticalSystem itself is
receiving a great deal of critical attentionboth from scholarsand from the media. We would regard
this too as a positive sign of the relevanceof Statisticsand the need to change with times. One of the
importantnew prioritiesis to provideshorttermestimatesof the nationalincome and industrialand
agriculturalgrowth.The CSO's shorttermestimateshave not been as reliableas its annualestimates.
In any case a right frameworkis now in place for interactionbetween academia, industryand
governmentas well as interdisciplinaryresearchinvolving Statistics and other sciences. Only the
J.K. GHOSH,
32
futurecan tell how we make use of these new opportunities.

9
Conclusion
Indiahad a long historicaltraditionof collection and use of variouskinds of statistics.The system

was strengthenedduringthe Britishperiod.Nonetheless,the developmentin Statisticsthattook place
between, say, 1930 and 1960 is quite remarkable.We do not know of any other developing country
where this happened.Nor was such growthvisible in any otherdiscipline in Indiaduringthe same
period.What were the possible reasons?One can only hazarda guess.
We believe therewere severalimportantingredientsfor success.
In Statistics,unlikeotherdisciplines,Indiawas not a late starter.Indeed,much of the development
even in the United States came later. Only Britainhad startedearlier.This helped creation of an
Indianschool of Statisticswith its own mix of theoryand applications.
The blending of theory and applications,and interactionbetween institutions,academiaand the
Governmentwas a source of live problems,excitementand funding.In hardlyany other discipline
in Indiadoes one find greateropportunitiesfor researchor the excitementof an emergingdiscipline
with significant applicationsbacked by a new theory. This attractedthe best Indian minds from
among mathematicians,physicists, economists, sociologists and anthropologists.
The single most importantreason was probablythe appearanceof a right man at the right time.
By one of those extra-ordinarybutrecurringcoincidencesin history,Mahalanobisswitchedinterests
fromPhysics to Statistics.He was able to see the futurefor Statisticsas one of the key technologiesof
our time, and took up its study and applicationswith all the passion of an inventorand entrepreneur.
The rest is history.
Acknowledgements
The idea of writing this history came from editor Vijay Nair. Many people helped us with
references.Our sincere thanksto Dr. B.B.P.S. Goel, FormerDirector,IASRI, Mr. C. Bhattacharya,
Chief Librarian,ISI and Prof. N. Bhattacharya,ISI. We are grateful to Prof. S.K. Chatterjeeof
CalcuttaUniversityfor some discussionson the IndianUniversities.Finally we thankProfessorNair
and a reviewerfor theircomments.
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Resume
'
Ceci est une courte histoire de l'hvolutionde la Statistiqueofficielle et acad6miqueen Inde. Nous retragonsl'histoire
'
partirdes origines de l'antiquit6jusqu'h l'histoire plus r6centemais portonsplus d'attentionsur la periodedes annees 1930
1960. Ceci et l'histoire d'institutions,des gens qui les bitirentet les formhrentet d'id6es.
[ReceivedApril 1998, accepted July 1998]

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Evolution of Statistics in India

Author(s): J. K. Ghosh, P. Maiti, T. J. Rao, B. K. Sinha

InternationalStatistical Review (1999), 67, 1, 13-34, Printedin Mexico

J.K. Ghosh, P. Maiti, T.J. Rao, and B.K. Sinha

by Godambe, 1976): "KingBhangasuriwantingto flaunthis skill in numbers,estimatesthe number

Evolutionof Statistics in India

Statistical System in British India

Early British Period

P. MAITI,T.J.RAO& B.K. SINHA

Evolutionof Statistics in India

Later British Period

The Statistical System after Independence

As seen in the foregoing paragraphs,throughoutthe British period the statistical development

P. MAITI,T.J.RAO& B.K. SINHA

Evolutionof Statistics in India

initiatedthe SampleRegistrationSystem to cover the ruralandurbanareasof the countrysince 1970.

in 1954, Mahalanobiswrites as follows:

P.C. Mahalanobis and the Indian Statistical Institute

The Early Period (1915-1931)

Evolutionof Statisticsin India

with Annandale,the Directorof Zoological Surveyof Indiawho hadcollected dataon Anglo-Indians

Evolutionof Statisticsin India

J.K. GHOSH,P. MAITI,T.J. RAO & B.K. SINHA

Evolutionof Statisticsin India

P. MAITI,T.J.RAO& B.K. SINHA

No treatSrinivasan,R.G. Laha,J. Roy, Sujit KumarMitra,D.K. Roy Choudhury,I.M. Chakraborty.

Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI)

Evolutionof Statistics in India

for 14 weeks in 1949 on appropriatecensus and samplingtechniquesas applied to populationand

Evolutionof Statistics in India

machinesand a libraryconsisting of one single book shelf. The firstbatchof Master'sdegreeholders,

A Sequel: The Period After 1960

Evolutionof Statistics in India

accounts by the CSO, and applicationsof Taguchi'smethodsto industry,mainly by the Division of

futurecan tell how we make use of these new opportunities.

Indiahad a long historicaltraditionof collection and use of variouskinds of statistics.The system

Evolutionof Statistics in India

Godambe,V.P.(1976). A historicalperspectiveof the recentdevelopmentsin the theoryof samplingfrom actualpopulations,

Rao, C.R. (1973). MahalanobisEra in Statistics.Sankhya,35 (suppl.), 12-26.

[ReceivedApril 1998, accepted July 1998]

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