Prime Minister to inaugurate Statistics Day

New Delhi, June 28 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the first Statistics Day here tomorrow and also release a commemorative brochure dedicated to the memory of Professor P C Mahalanobis on the occasion.

The Government has declared June 29 of each year as Statistics Day to be celebrated as a special day at the national level. It aims at giving recognition to the contribution of Indian statisticians in the development of the country.

The day is observed on the birth anniversary of Professor P C Mahalanobis, the doyen of Indian statistics, to pay tribute to the multi-faceted contributions of Professor Mahalanobis; as a scholar and academician, as an institution builder, and as a pioneer in the application of statistics to development issues.

In the Technical Session following the inauguration, Professor Suresh Tendulkar, Chairman, National Statistical Commission, will deliver a memorial address, which will be followed by a documentary film on Professor Mahalanobis prepared by the Indian Statistical Institute.

The key-note address will be delivered by Dr I P David, an internationally reputed statistician from the Philippines, who is this year's winner of the international Professor Mahalanobis Award.

Dr David is well-known as an expert on issues of poverty measurement, among his other qualifications.

Mr G K Vasan, MOS, Ministry of Statistics&Programme Implementation, will confer the National Award in Statistics for Young Statisticians in honour of Professor C R Rao on Dr Ayanendranath Basu of ISI, Kolkata for the year 2006-07.

Mr Vasan will also felicitate eleven post-graduate students who have won the Essay Competition organised in memory of Professor Mahalanobis by CSO.

Not only a well-known theoretical statistician, Dr Basu has also done some fundamental work in measuring the spread of HIV.

He will deliver a lecture on this occasion.

UNI