Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Jan 14 : On the occasion of 147th Foundation Day of India Meteorological Department today, Union Minister of State (Ind Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Ind Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated and dedicated to the nation four Doppler weather radars at Leh, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai respectively for better operational analysis and more accurate forecasts.
With today’s inauguration, the number of such radars in the country has reached up to 33. The Minister said that augmentation of modern observing platforms such as Automatic weather stations, Doppler Weather Radars and Meteorological Satellites will help in further improving weather and climate services.
Dr Singh said that India has taken a lead in Asian Continent to provide Weather and Climate services to South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle East countries.
Addressing a galaxy of administrators, scientists and scholars on the occasion, Singh said that the severe weather forecasting being provided to many countries since 2016 under PM Narendra Modi has come a long way and proved handy to countries like Nepal and Bangladesh in fighting severe climatic disasters. Referring to ISRO’s SAARC Satellite, the Minister said, in coming days, IMD will reorient its weather and climate services in the most modern way to cater to global needs.
Dr Singh said that the Ministry of Earth Sciences will deploy and use drone based Observation Technology in a big way for strengthening the localised forecasting, besides adopting the high resolution models. He emphasised that the language used in forecast and information would be made easy to understand and serve as a clear basis for taking action by every citizen.
He said that the Government is committed to make India Meteorological Department a World Class Organization for better delivery of services enabling a common man to take weather-wise and climate-smart decisions. He said, every common is impacted by 5 vital sectors of Agriculture, Health, Water, Energy and Disaster management being effectively catered to by IMD.
R.K. Mathur, Lieutenant Governor, UT of Ladakh, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, MP, Ladakh, Dr.M. Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences,Chairman, ISRO Dr. K,Sivan, Dr M. Mohapatra, DG, IMD,Dr S D Attri, Scientist G and Chairman, Organizing Committee, Ex. DGMs and other retired officials of IMD and Directors of MoES Institutes, invited dignitaries, officers, scientists took part in the ceremony.
to about 20-40% improvement in accuracy of severe weather warning by IMD in recent five years as compared to previous five years, Dr Singh said, forecast of high temperature and heat wave condition well in advance resulted in significant reduction in the number of deaths due to heat waves in subsequent years. He called upon all the agencies for zero heat related mortality in the coming year.
He said IMD has taken up upgradation and digitisation of several of its services and the results are evident in the form of near-accurate forecasts in short time range, advance prediction of cyclones and their tracks, expansion of sector-specific weather services to agriculture,water, health, power, energy, mining, disaster risk reduction and many other areas.
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