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Mahalanobis, Prasanta Chandra (1893–1972)

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Abstract

Mahalanobis was born in Calcutta of a well-to-do Bengali middle-class family with a reformed outlook on Hindu religion. He was educated first at Presidency College, Calcutta, and then at Cambridge, where he graduated with a First in Natural Sciences from King’s College in 1915. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1946 and received many other scientific honours. While Mahalanobis served as Professor of Physics at Presidency College for nearly three decades, his scientific work consisted chiefly of developing statistical theory and techniques that had application to a wide range of subjects, beginning with meteorology and anthropology and ending in economics.

This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition, 2008. Edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume

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Bibliography

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Chakravarty, S. (2008). Mahalanobis, Prasanta Chandra (1893–1972). In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1215-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1215-2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95121-5

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Mahalanobis, Prasanta Chandra (1893–1972)
    Published:
    06 March 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1215-2

  2. Original

    Mahalanobis, Prasanta Chandra (1893–1972)
    Published:
    17 October 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1215-1