New Delhi, Jul 15 (Bureau) India will very soon start round-the-clock manning of its Arctic Research Station ‘Himadri’ at Svalbard, where Indian scientists remain in charge in the summers, but the personnel of the Norwegian Polar Institute manage it in the winters, Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister of Earth Sciences, said on Saturday. During a visit to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), here, he further said that technical negotiations have been done by the team, led by Dr M Ravichandran, secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, in this regard. “Maybe by next season, India will permanently man its Arctic Station,” he said. Speaking on the occasion, the Union Minister further stated that India is taking huge strides in triosphere studies, with a station in Arctic, two in Antarctica and a high-altitude research station in Himalayas at Spiti, Himachal Pradesh.
He said that India is a leading nation in terms of climate science and has committed towards all the international protocols related to climate change. Climate related mitigation works carried out in the country are backed by data and researches in various institutes across the country, he further stated. Talking about extremely erratic weather conditions, he said, ” Very soon, we will have a more powerful supercomputer that will help us to go further deep in terms of our forecast capacity and study of various aspects of climate and weather conditions.” He said that IITM is a leading institute engaged in the study of climate change and noted that it will remain a backbone for further research in climate change. The Earth Sciences Minister appreciated the work of National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), which is linked with IITM, in weather forecasting.
He also said that India’s Deep Ocean Mission, which has a direct connection with Blue Economy, is going to play a very important role in the country’s future economic growth. He said that for this, a deep water manned submersible is being developed by the National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai. Informing about various projects, Rijiju said that MoES and the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), are conducting awareness workshops to guide the fishing community on Ocean Information and Advisory Services at various places. NIOT was developing a desalination plant for turning sea water into fresh water at Kavaratti, Lakshadweep, he added.