(a) the progress made in the field of Earth Sciences during the last
three years and the current year;
(b) whether the Government is satisfied with its achievements;
(c) if so, the details thereof;
(d) if not, the reasons therefor ; and
(e) the steps taken by the Government in this regard?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING, MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY
OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES
(DR. ASHWANI KUMAR)
a) The progress made during the last 3 years and the current year has been
considerably significant under various projects of the ministry. Some of the major
accomplishments are described below:
Under the Meteorological Services, a district-level agro-meteorological
advisory service, providing a 5-day weather forecast for farmers, in 550 districts,
has been made operational. About 2,500,000 farmers have subscribed for the information
through mobile for planning their agricultural activities. As a part of modernization
meteorological Services, Atmospheric Observing Systems has been strengthened
through installation of 1000 state-of-the-art systems in various parts of the
country for real-time monitoring meteorological parameters. To process the huge
volume of data and run the weather forecasting models, the computation facilities
have been substantially augmented by commissioning of a set of 4 high performance
computing systems in various centres of the ministry which has a total combining
capacity of 120 Tflops. Twelve Doppler Weather Radars have been installed in
various cities viz., Delhi airport, New Delhi, Nagpur, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Lucknow,
Patna, Patiala, Agartala, Mohanbari, Bhuj and Mumbai which has contributed for now
casting. Numerical weather prediction capability has been significantly improved
from 35 km to 22.5 km resolution. Towards human resource development, an
Advanced Training School was established with self contained facilities for training
and research at Pune. The first batch of 20 students was inducted in August 2011
through a national selective process. A location-specific weather and air quality
forecast 24 hours in advance was provided successfully for the Commonwealth Games
2010 in National Capital Region, Delhi. Under the Ocean Science and Information
Services, a unique system of Fisheries Advisories based on identification of
potential fishing zones (PFZ) using remote sensing technology has been made
operational along with a new Tuna fishery advisory to deep sea fishing industry.
A dedicated Oceansat Satellite Ground Station was installed at Indian National
Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad for real time direct
reception of satellite data for various operational Ocean Information Services.
A Coral Bleaching Alert System (CABS) has been set up for providing bimonthly
status on 5 major coral environments of India viz., Andaman Nicobar, Lakshadweep,
Gulf of Mannar, Gulf of Kutchchh. The Indian Ocean Forecast System (INDOFOS) was
setup with Regional Ocean Modeling System which has a resolution of ~13km. As a
part of Ocean Observation Network, at set of 16 moored buoy network was established
for acquisition of real-time data from the seas around India. A full fledged hatchery
unit for the breeding and rearing of ornamental fishes was established at Agatti,
Lakshadweep islands. In 2010, the fish potential in the Indian EEZ was estimated
using both satellite and insitu data, which was found to be 4.32 MSY (maximum
sustainable yield). Under Disaster Mitigation Support, a state-of-the-art Tsunami
Warning System was set up, in September 2007, which has been recognized as a Regional
Tsunami warning centre for the Indian Ocean countries which has been recognized as a
Regional Tsunami Service Provider (RTSP) for the Indian Ocean Region and started
operation to the Indian Ocean Rim countries. Under the Polar Science & cryosphere,
the First Scientific expedition was successfully undertaken to the South Pole in
November 2010. The Third Station in Antarctic in the Larsemann Hills area has
been completed. Under the Ocean Technology & Resources, two more LTTD plants were
commissioned in the islands of Lakshadweep one each at Minicoy and Agatti during
March 2011 and August 2011, respectively. The remotely operable submersible
(ROSUB) was tested at 5300 m in the Indian Ocean which is land mark achievement
for exploitation of resources. Soil tester was tested in the central Indian Ocean
at a depth of 5000m. India’s had made claim to the extended continental shelf,
in pursuant to Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
(UNCLOS). A dedicated centre for Climate Change Research was established at Pune
to address various scientific issues relating to climate change. Setting up of National
Knowledge Network (NKN) connection to all the centres of MoES was accomplished for
efficient communication and data transfer useful for various information services
being rendered by the ministry.
b) Yes. Madam.
c) The progress of the ministry is satisfactory both in quantitative and
qualitative terms. The performance of the ministry has been monitored objectively
by the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMES) of the Cabinet Secretariat.
The Results-Framework Document submitted by the ministry for the year 2010-11, had
been evaluated and the performance was estimated to be 95.07%. The efforts, made
by the ministry towards augmentation of observational networks and computation
capability has lead to improved prediction of weather, and climate services.
According to a recent survey, various services such as agromet for farmers,
potential fishing zone for fisherman, ocean state forecast for shipping, aviation
services, public weather services, etc., have been extremely useful and beneficial
for society at large.
d)& e) Doesn’t arise.