Pandurang Vasudeo Sukhatme

Who is Pandurang Vasudeo Sukhatme?

Pandurang Vasudeo Sukhatme was an Indian statistician who did pioneering work in the 1940s by applying random sampling methods in agricultural statistics and in biometry. He was influential in the establishment of the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute. Later, while working at FAO 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 gap. Another of his major contributions was the application of statistical techniques for studying human nutrition. 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.

He was conferred the Padma Bhushan by the President of India in 1971.