India Meteorological Department (IMD) celebrated 150th Year of its establishment and service to the nation today. The Vice President of India, Shri Jagdeep Dhankar graced the occasion as Chief Guest in the inaugural ceremony celebration of 150th years of its establishment. Shri Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister of Earth Sciences graced the occasion as Guest of Honour. Dr. M Ravichandran, Secretary MoES presided over the function. Former Secretaries of Ministry of Earth Sciences, former Director Generals of India Meteorological Department (IMD), Heads of various sister organisations in MoES, Secretaries of various Ministries, Chief Secretaries & Resident Commissioners of various States and Union Territories, Heads of various disaster management agencies, Heads of various Universities and institutions, employees of IMD, researchers & academicians and press & electronic media participated in the ceremony. Around 1,200 delegates countrywide participated in the event organised in New Delhi.
Vice President of India, in his address appreciated IMD for its valuable services to the nation and congratulated IMD for reaching this important milestone. He highlighted that the policy, plans and programmes of IMD are aligned with mainstream programmes of India and the vision & mission of Prime Minister and his team. He appreciated IMD for the pivotal role in increasing the farmer’s income through appropriate forecast of daily weather, hazards and crop weather advisories issued by IMD in collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture, state & central Agricultural Universities and the state Agricultural departments. Through accurate forecast, a BPL family farmer with a land holding of less than 2 acres in rainfed area gains Rs 12,500 by using weather information and the country gains 13,300 crores towards GDP per year.
To support Gati Shakti and Udaan Scheme, IMD has contributed significantly by ensuring safe aviation through Aviation Weather monitoring and forecasting for all 117 Airports. He appreciated the indigenous development of various instruments, software’s to improve the weather & climate services, including the decision support system and the mobile App launched today.
He also appreciated the early warning services provided by IMD during Super Cyclone Amphan in 2020 and cyclone MOCHA in 2023 for which IMD earned appreciation from WMO and United Nations and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He also appreciated the accurate forecast during cyclone Biparjoy that enabled disaster managers achieve absolute zero loss of life in Gujarat. He also highlighted the role of IMD in economic development of the country through its services to each sector of society.
The release of Mausam Gram today is in line with the Government’s programme of “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikaas”. IMD is playing a pivotal role in providing Early warning to more than 90% population in the country. He also highlighted the services of IMD to Power & Renewable Energy Sector to minimse the losses and improve the economy, in line with Govt. of India Scheme “LIFE”. The National Framework of Climate Services launched today aims to maximise utilisation of climate information, as a part and parcel of all our activities, with special emphasis on disaster risk reduction, water, health, energy and agriculture management. He urged the countrymen, business & industries, farmers & fishermen, researchers & academia and all socio-economic stakeholders to utilise climate & weather information in all their activities including human & community, agricultural, health and industrial activities to ensure a “Weather Ready and Climate Smart India”.
He concluded his address with remarks that IMD must be prepared to adopt new technologies to enable India to emerge as Global leader for meteorological services. IMD is supporting India’s ethics of Vasudhav Kutumbakam by providing weather forecast services to various countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Middle east and many more.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Kiren Rijiju congratulated IMD on this momentous occasion. He applauded the proactive measures taken by IMD to improve the weather observational network in the country in the last decade. For example, the number of Doppler radars in the country has increased from 15 in 2014 to 39 in 2023, and additional 25 radars will be added in the next 2-3 years. Rainfall Monitoring Stations have increased from 3,955 in 2014 to 6,095 in 2023; upper air stations have increased from 43 in 2014 to 56 in 2023; High wind speed recorders increased from 19 in 2014 to 35 in 2023. He also informed that total number of radars in the country will go upto 86 in next 5 years and events like cloudbursts will be predicted with sufficient lead time. He also expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister for the mega scheme PRITHVI that will enable the Ministry to take up new initiatives for further improving the services. In his address he highlighted that IMD has traversed with many successes and challenges and especially in recent decade, it has demonstrated its global leadership through scientific and technological innovations. He wished that IMD would continue its journey of progress, bring out new innovations and meet the requirement of people in the world. He congratulated all IMD employees and entire meteorological fraternity for achieving this milestone. He hoped that in this Amrit Kaal, IMD will reach out to every household and ensure scientific knowledge based information and guidance to have not only disaster resilience society, but also to be partner in 5 trillion dollar economy.
