June 29: National Statistics Day

The Government of India has been celebrating National Statistics Day on June 29. This is to popularize statistics in every day life and create awareness among the public on how statistics help to frame policies. This year the GoI is celebrating Statistics Day under the theme

Theme: SDG-3 and SDG-5

Significance of theme

The SDG-3, the Sustainable Development Goal-3 ensures healthy lives and promotes well-being for all at all ages. The Sustainable Development Goal-5 aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

The 2020 Statitics Day

The year the GoI is to celebrate the Statistics Day virtually in the view of travel and Safety advisories on COVID-19. To commemorate the day, GoI is to release an updated version of the Report on Sustainable Development Goals-National Indicator Framework Progress Report. 2020. Also the Indian Statistical Services Cadre Management Portal is to be launched

Awards

In 2019, the GoI launched Professor P C Mahala Nobis National Award on official statistics. The award recognizes outstanding achievements of the official statisticians associated with GoI.

Background

The GoI decided to celebrate Statistics day on June 29 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Prasanta Chandra Mahala nobis, an Indian statistician and scientist.

Mahala Nobis

He was one of the members of the first Planning Commission of independent India. He is best known for the Mahala Nobis distance. It is a statistical measure that was founded by Mahala Nobis.

Mahala Nobis distance

It is the statistical measure between point P and distribution D. It measures how many standard deviations are away from point P.

World Statistics Day

The World Statistics Day is celebrated on October 20 by the United Nations. The day was created by the United Nations Statistical Commission. It is celebrated once in 5 years. The first World Statistics Day was celebrated in 2010. The next World Statistics Day is to be celebrated in 2020.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2020