The Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies (NCDS) here organised a panel discussion on the National Statistics Day on June 29 to celebrate 127th birthday of Prof PC Mahalanobis.
The panellists were Professor T Krisnha Kumar, formerly with the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and a direct student of Prof Mahalanobis; Profesor MH Suryanarayana from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai and ICCR Chair 2020, King's College, London and a grandstudent of Professor Mahalanobis; and Prof Pulak Ghosh of Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru and Member, National Statistical Commission.
The discussion was moderated by Director, NCDS, Prof Srijit Mishra with the help of his colleagues Professor Shibalal and Dr Rashmi Mishra.
Professor Kumar pointed out that with the change in time, our concepts and data sets are changing, and hence, we need to have new kind of thinking on how to do survey and how to make use of data available in the form of text, voice, as also static and moving pictures. He also stressed that information from historical sources should be subjected to the new tools and techniques.
Professor Suryanarayana emphasised on the careful use of statistics in public policy so that we can address the concerns of the vulnerable.
Professor Ghosh brought out that statistics will be in danger if it does not accept the developments in Computer Science in the use of Big Data analytics. The statistician should also look for new data sources to address emerging concerns like Covid-19 and the related concern regarding return of migrants.
Rashmi Samal summarised the discussions and gave the vote of thanks. Technical support was provided by Dr Bibhuti Sahoo, Niranjan Mohapatra and other staff of NCDS.
More than 100 participants saw the programme live.