Google Doodle honours P.C. Mahalanobis
New Delhi, June 29: Google on Friday dedicated a Doodle in honour of Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, regarded as the chief architect of Indian statistical system as well as father of statistical science in India.
Mahalanobis set up the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in 1931 in what is now known as Kolkata.
He also helped establish the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), the National Sample Survey (NSS) and the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), all of which were run from ISI in the early years.
The Google Doodle marks the 125th birth anniversary of Mahalanobis whose contributions in making India get an estimate of population distribution, crop yields and household consumption soon after gaining independence are now fondly remembered.
June 29, which marks his birth anniversary, is also celebrated in India as the "Statistics Day".
To develop his novel estimation techniques, Mahalanobis combined statistics with other disciplines, including anthropology, physics and economics.
His analysis of anthropometric data led to the famous concept in statistics known as "Mahalanobis Distance", a measurement used in studies of population.
Mahalanobis, who studied mathematics at King's College, Cambridge, was a member of India's Planning Commission from 1953 until 1967, and directed the nation's Second Five Year Plan.
He died on June 28, 1972.
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‘Sharbat Jihad’ controversy: Haven’t mentioned anyone’s name, justifies Baba Ramdev
New Delhi: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has defended his recent controversial ‘sharbat jihad’ comment, stating he did not name any specific brand or community in his statement.
Ramdev has been greatly criticized for saying earlier this week that a company selling sharbat was using the income to build mosques and madrasas. He had also called it ‘sharbat jihad’. Ramdev had made the comment even as he was marketing Patanjali Ayurved’s ‘Gulab Sharbat’.
Defending his statement, the yoga guru said on Friday that the Hamdard company people, who produce ‘Rooh Afza’, had assumed that the phrase ‘sharbat jihad’ was about them. “This proves they are indulging in jihad,” Ramdev has said, according to a report by the Times of India.
He said that, if the employees of the company were dedicated to Islam and were building mosques and madrasas, they should be happy. He also asked the ‘Sanatanis’ to understand the situation.
Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh had filed a complaint against Ramdev, accusing the yoga guru of making the ‘sharbat jihad’ statement and attempting to incite communal disharmony in order to boost the sales of Patanjali Ayurved’s products. The MP had called the statement ‘not just defamatory but also unconstitutional’.
Ramdev was also criticized by several social media users, who opined the statement to be communal.
