Dr. Veeramanikantan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor,
Shri A.A. Rahim, Member, Syndicate,
Dr. Yageen Thomas, Former UGC Emeritus Professor,
Dr. A.M. Mathai, Emeritus Professor, Mc Gill University,
Prof. Kartlos Kachiasvili, Georgian Technical University,
Dr. Satheesh Kumar, Professor and Head, Department of Statistics,
Dr. Manoj Chacko,
Sahodaree Sahodaranmaare,
Ellaavarkkum Ente Namaskaaram,
I am very happy to inaugurate the Second International Conference on Statistics for the 21st Century, organized by the Department of Statistics, University of Kerala, with the support of the American Statistical Association.
Let me at the outset, compliment the Department of Statistics for choosing Statistics as a Key Technology for the Well-being of a Society as the theme of the Conference. As we all know, we live in a technology driven era, with every bit of information and many day to day facilities at our finger tips. To many people in our society, the words tool and ‘technology’ are often linked or limited to the images of machines and gadgets. In fact, many people are not fully aware of the role played by Statistical tools in our major decision making processes. Therefore, the attempt to drive home and establish the idea of Statistics as technology is certainly laudable.
It is said that uncertainty is the beauty of life. If we knew what is in store for us in the coming years, life would be really monotonous. It is because of this uncertainty that we go after predictions and projections, most of which may not come true. There was a time unreasonable guessing often crept into our projections about events and socio-political trends without realizing that Statistics could have helped in predicting social trends of the future in a more reliable way.
However, times have changed and today,we rely on statistical data as the first step in framing strategy and decision making in the international, national and local levels. Over the years, statistics has gained much prominence as a research tool and as an indispensable medium for describing the social, economic, scientific and environmental scenario of a country leading to optimal policy making. The declaration of 20th of October as the “World Statistics Day” once in every five years, by the United Nations shows the critical role of high-quality official statistical information in analysis and informed policy decision-making in support of sustainable development. Besides, the importance of clean data as an aid to optimal policy making has also been acknowledged, of late. For instance, during the last year, the theme, “Better Data, Better Life”, emphasized the importance of a nation's sustainable capacity in producing reliable and timely statistics and indicators, because such information is essential for measuring a country’s progress. This also indicates that Statistics as a discipline of study has become essential in the general welfare and betterment of our society.
The relevance of Statistics was realized in Kerala even before Independence and we hear of the Travancore University, which later became Kerala university, resorting to statistical studies on agriculture, to finally recommend cultivation of Champa and another variety of paddy to significantly increase the yield. Such keen interest to use Statistical data in the primary sector is not surprising when we consider the fact that Professor P.C. Mahalanobis who laid the foundation for relying on Statistics for planning and national development in India had rendered advisory service in the development of this Department in this University. I am happy that the studies done by the researchers of this department in later years have been quoted in international reports and by greet figures like Prof. Amartya Sen.
As the second Department for Post Graduate studies in Statistics in the country, I feel this Department could very well explore the reliability of many figures projected about certain issues in our public life. For instance, the data regarding alcoholism and substance abuse in Kerala are so frightening that we really wish they were not true. The data on online abuse is another case in point. And, just look at the figures projected by many agencies about the extent of black money in the wake of the recent demonetization. There is so much variance that one really wonders whether the right statistical tools and inferences have gone into such findings. I hope the researchers of this Department would seriously consider an evaluation of many of the study results that we rely upon.
I am happy that this Conference intends to provide a platform for global level interaction among the experts in different fields of statistical theory and applications. The idea of formulating statistical strategies to solve the newly emerging problems of the twenty-first century instills hope about the evolution of a clearer picture of social trends.
This is also an occasion to pay tributes to the memory of teachers like Prof. U. Sivaraman Nair, Prof. Aleyamma George, Prof Krishna Pillai, Prof. R. Ramakumar, Prof. P.S.J. Nair, Prof. Jacob Sundar Rajan and Prof. R.N. Pillai who led this department in the past.
I greet all the delegates including the young researchers who have come to present papers in this conference and hope that these deliberations would equip them to make their research more fruitful and socially relevant. I hope to see many of you giving valuable inputs regarding many areas related to the development of our State and the Nation.
Ellaavarkkum Ente Aashamsakal
Nanni
Jai Hind
