Pandurang Vasudeo Sukhatme (1911–1997) was an Indian statistician. He is known for his pioneering work of applying random sampling methods in agricultural statistics and in biometry, in the 1940s. He was also influential in the establishment of the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute. As a part of his work at the

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

in Rome, he developed statistical models for assessing the dimensions of hunger and future food supplies for the world. He also developed methods for measuring the size and nature of the

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...

gap. His other major contributions included applying statistical techniques to the study of

human nutrition Human nutrition deals with the provision of essential nutrients in food that are necessary to support human life and good health. Poor nutrition is a chronic problem often linked to poverty, food security, or a poor understanding of nutritiona ...

. One of his ideas, the ''Sukhatme–Margen hypothesis'', suggested that at low calorie intake levels, stored energy in the body is used with greater metabolic efficiency and that the metabolic efficiency decreases as the intake increases above the homeostatic range. This involved paying attention to intra-individual variability that was found to be more than the inter-individual variability in protein or calorie intake. He gave a genetic interpretation of the intra-individual variation jointly with P. Narain. He was awarded the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

in 1971.

Early life

Sukhatme was born in a Deshastha Brahmin family on 27 July 1911 in village Budh, district Satara in the state of Maharashtra in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He graduated in 1932 from

Fergusson College Fergusson College is an autonomous public-private college offering various courses in the streams of arts and science in the city of Pune, India. It was founded in 1885 by the Deccan Education Society. Professor Vaman Shivram Apte was its fir ...

with Mathematics as principal subject and Physics as subsidiary subject. From 1932 to 1936, he studied at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1936 and a D.Sc. in 1939 for his work on bi-partitional functions. With J. Neyman and E. S. Pearson he made significant contributions in the statistical theory of sampling which was instrumental in his subsequent research in sampling theory of survey and improvement of agricultural statistics in India. This ushered in what may appropriately be termed as ''Sukhatme era'' in the development of agricultural statistics in India.

Professional life

*1940–1951: Statistical Adviser, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. *1951–1971: Director, Statistics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization,

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Contributions

Some of Dr Sukhatme's significant contributions in the form of research papers and books are: * "Contribution to the Theory of the Representative Method",

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society The ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of statistics. It comprises three series and is published by Wiley for the Royal Statistical Society. History The Statistical Society of London was founded ...

(1935). PhD thesis under the guidance of

Jerzy Neyman Jerzy Neyman (April 16, 1894 – August 5, 1981; born Jerzy Spława-Neyman; ) was a Polish mathematician and statistician who spent the first part of his professional career at various institutions in Warsaw, Poland and then at University Colleg ...

and Egon Pearson (son of Karl Pearson). * "On Bi-partitional Functions", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1936). DSc thesis under the guidance of

Ronald Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was a British polymath who was active as a mathematician, statistician, biologist, geneticist, and academic. For his work in statistics, he has been described as "a genius who ...

. * "Random Sampling for Estimating Rice Yield in Madras Province", Indian Journal of Agricultural Science (1945). * "The Problem of Plot Size in Large-Scale Yield Surveys", Journal of the American Statistical Association (1947). * "Use of Small Size Plots in Yield Surveys", Nature (1947) * (With V.G.Panse). Crop Surveys in India — II, Journal of Indian Society of Agricultural Statistics (1951). * (With K. Kishen). Systems of Agricultural Statistics, Bulletin of International Statistical Institute (1951). * "Sampling Theory of Surveys with Applications", Book published jointly by Indian Society of Agricultural Statistics and Iowa State University Press (1954). Translated in Spanish. * "Statistical Methods for Agricultural Workers" (co-author: V G Panse), Book published by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (1954). Translated in Spanish. * "The World's Hunger and Future Needs in Food Supplies", Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (1961). * "Size and Nature of the Protein Gap", Nutrition Review (1970). * "The Protein Problem — Its Size and Nature", Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (1974). * (With S. Margen). Models for protein deficiency. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1978). * "Autoregulatory Homeostatic Nature of Energy Balance", American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1982). * (With P. Narain). The genetic significance of Intra-individual variation in energy requirement. In: W. G. Cochran's Impact on Statistics, Edited by P.S.R.S. Rao and J. Sedransk, John Wiley & Sons., New York (1982).

Awards

* 1963 - The Guy Medal by the Royal Statistical Society, London for his paper on 'The World's Hunger and Future Needs in Food Supplies'. * 1971 -

, the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India. * 1973 - The B.C.Guha Memorial Lectureship of the Indian Science Congress Association.

Recognition

* 1950 - Elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

.View/Search Fellows of the ASA
accessed 2016-07-23. * 1982 - Bal Gangadhar Tilak Lectureship of the Indian National Science Academy.

Early life

Professional life

Contributions

Awards

Recognition

See also

References

Further reading