Prasanta Chandra completed his schooling in Calcutta in 1908. In 1912, he graduated with honours in Physics from Presidency College, Calcutta. He went to England in 1913 and completed Tripos in Mathematics and Physics from King’s College, Cambridge.In 1924, he made some important discoveries pertaining to the probable error of results of agricultural experiments, which put him in touch with R.A. Fisher. Later in 1926, he met Fisher at the Rothamsted Experimental Station and a close personal relationship was immediately established which lasted until Fisher’s death.
The year 1931 marks a watershed in the development of statistics in India. From the fledgling Statistical Laboratory formed in the early 1920s by Mahalanobis within the Physics department of Presidency College, he founded the Indian Statistical Institute on 17 December, 1931. In 1959, by an act of the Indian Parliament, the Institute was declared as an ‘Institution of National Importance’.
Mahalanobis became the Honorary President of the International Statistical Institute in 1957, and was elected a fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1961. Throughout his career he received many other academic honours and awards. He received the highest national honour, Padma Vibhushan, from the President of India in 1968.
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