Union Minister of Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju today asked private sector to join hands with government for manufacturing sophisticated communications and weather equipment in PPP mode.
Rijiju also called upon commercial organizations in weather forecasting domain to integrate with IMD for a win-win proposition. He said, private parties can use IMD products on payment basis.
Briefing the media after visiting various facilities of IMD including Central Forecasting System and Satellite Data Centre at Mausam Bhawan, Delhi, Shri Rijiju said, 22 new Doppler Weather Radars have been commissioned in the country during 2014-23 taking the total number to 37.
Rijiju said, these Doppler Radars are being manufactured in India as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Atmanirbharta. He said, in the next two to three years a total of 68 Radars will be installed to cover every nook and corner of the country. Doppler Radars provide information on severe weather events occurring over the region and support disaster management authorities, the Minister added
Rijiju also informed that ISRO will be launching some more communications satellites in September, thus taking a quantum jump in weather forecasting. He added that there has been a 40 to 50 percent improvement in forecast accuracy of other severe weather events like heavy rainfall, fog, heat/cold waves and thunderstorm in recent five years. The Minister said, high resolution ensemble global/regional models and satellite data assimilation were developed for these applications.
Lauding the role of IMD for providing services to all organizations, every sector and all individuals in the country, Shri Rijiju said, Government will provide all necessary support including higher financial allocation to upgrade the facilities in IMD and financial support to our researchers.
Rijiju said, India’s modelling system is one of the best in the world and we are a leading nation in giving Tsunami warning to all Indian Ocean Rim countries, besides the pioneer country in cyclone prediction. He said, there have been significant improvements in early warning system and weather forecasting services in India with augmentation of observational network, data communication system, high performance computing system, modelling and forecasting system and warning dissemination system.
Replying to a question, Rijiju informed that there was 5 percent extra rainfall in this Monsoon and due to concentration in few pockets, loss of lives and properties were reported. Giving the example of recent flash flood in Himachal Pradesh, the Minister opined that natural disasters cannot be prevented, but one can mitigate its impact through timely and accurate forecasting.
Underling the importance of forecasting for the farmers and fishing community in India, Rijiju said, Impact Based Forecasting (IBF) is being issued for all severe weather events at district and city levels with inclusion of exposure and vulnerability parameters and suggested response actions in collaboration with agencies.
Block level agromet advisories are issued for ~3100 blocks covering ~360 districts of country while weather forecast is issued for all Blocks and districts. In addition to agromet advisories, IBF for agriculture and related agromet advisories are being issued based on the district-level severe weather warnings.
The Minister also informed that presently Flash Flood Guidance system provides flash flood guidance for >30,000 watersheds in India and South Asian countries of Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on a daily basis.
Referring to his recent visit to Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, Rijiju said, our forecasting system can be compared to the best in the world. The Minister went around all the laboratories and gathered detailed information about all the research projects going on in the institute, which is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). He also witnessed the functioning of the Pratyush supercomputer, cloud stimulation, lightning phenomenon and other studies which are being carried out in the Pune institute.
