New Delhi, Nov. 15 -- In 1915, after finishing his studies in Physics at Cambridge University, a delay in his return to India due to World War I led Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis to discover statistics in the King's College library.

Captivated by Karl Pearson's journal Biometrika, the young Bengali physicist shifted his focus from the quantum realm to data. He would go on to become the chief techno-architect of the Nehruvian state, the man who gave India its first scientific eyes and an audacious blueprint for its economic future.

Born in 1893 into an intellectually vibrant Brahmo family in Kolkata (then Calcutta), Mahalanobis was schooled at the Brahmo Boys' School. After his graduation from Presidency College, he pursued higher studies...