The early statistical studies included analyses of data on stature of Anglo-Indians, meteorological data, rainfall data, data on soil conditions, etc. Some of the findings of these early studies were of great impact in the control of floods, development of agriculture, etc., and led to the recognition of Statistics as a key discipline.
His passion and conviction was truly guided for the solutions of applied problems. His further work on anthropological data resulted in new methodology for classifying or distinguishing populations characterized by such measurements called Mahalonobis D-square. Another very important initiative undertaken by Professor Mahalonobis was the initiation of Crop Cutting Surveys to estimate agricultural production in India, which was a novel idea of that time.