UnoUniverse: Earth: GOVERNMENT KEEN TO ENSURE TRAINED MANPOWER FOR R&D IN EARTH SCIENCES: B.B. Nagpal

New Delhi, Aug 2: The Government today assured scientists that they will get every help in research and development of technologies that furthered the development of the country and also aided the cause of ecology.

Minister of State for Earth Sciences Prithviraj Chavan told scientists from various units functioning under the Ministry in the field of Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences that the government was aware of the shortage of trained manpower and would do everything possible in this regard.

Meanwhile, he listed important programmes costing around Rs 500 crore that were under way and said scientists will not be found wanting for funds.

The Minister announced at the Earth Sciences Foundation Day Function today that the scientific expedition to the South Pole would be flagged off in November this year. He said it would be the first expedition which would be conducting experiments every kilometer of the route from India to the southern icy continent.

He also said a third research station was being built in the Antarctica and equipment for this had already reached the icy continent in December last.

Research was also on for cutting down fossil fuels on the one hand, and getting even better tools for metrological predictions.

The renowned scientist Dr S Krishnaswami who is a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy received this year’s National Award in Ocean Science & Technology – 2010 in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the Ocean Sciences. Prof. S. Krishnaswami during a scientific career spanning more than four decades has made fundamental and seminal contributions in the fields of Oceanography and Low-Temperature Geochemistry.

Eleven scientists in the Ocean and Atmospheric sciences units under the Ministry of Earth Sciences were honoured with Certificates of Merit.

Dr Shailesh Nayak, Secretary in the Ministry, said a major achievement had been the accuracy in the predictions about the monsoons in 2009 and this year as well.

He said scientific knowledge about weather and possible earthquakes or tsunamis had been taken to the grassroot level and around 3,60,000 were now receiving updates on mobile phones.

He announced that the Ministry was gearing to give the latest weather information and air quality reports during the Commonwealth Games.

Dr Nayak said a deep hole was being dug in Koyna which would be seven to eight kilometers deep to study the cause of earthquakes.

An Earth Vision Document 2020 was also under preparation, he said, and two of the reports that would form part of this were released today: on Solid Earth & Cryospheric Studies by a Committee headed by Dr Harsh Gupta who is a former Secretary in the Ministry, and on Technology Vision by a Committee headed by former Secretary P S Goel. A book ‘Sagar Ki Khanij Sampadha’ authored by Prof. G. S. Roonwal and Shyam Sunder Sharma and published by Satish Sharma on minerals from the sea and especially on the mineral resources of the Indian Ocean.

In his Foundation Day address, renowned agricultural scientist Professor M S Swaminathan spoke on Human Security in a Warming Planet. He said it was a good sign that young scientists were coming forward to do more research in the field of climate change. He referred to the shortage of potable water as one of the major problems facing mankind and expressed satisfaction that a unit of the Ministry had set up a desalination plant in the Andaman Islands.

He regretted that at a time when the country was marking eighty years of the Dandi March, India had not learn the lesson that Mahatma Gandhi had sought to teach.

He said the spread of mangrove forests could help build a shield against the sea level rise.

The Awards for Ocean Sciences went to Dr. P. A. Francis from INCOIS, Hyderabad; Dr. C. M. Laluraj from NCAOR, Goa; M. M. Subramaniam from NCAOR; Dr.T. Shunmugaraj from CMLRE, Kochi; Dr.G. Dharani from NIOT, Chennai; and V. K. Jayakumar from NIOT, Chennai.

The Awards in Atmospheric Sciences went to Dr. D. S. Pai from Indian Meteorological Department; Dr. B. P. Yadav from IMD; Dr. S. D. Kotal from IMD; Dr. Anguluri Suryachandra Rao from IITM, Pune; and Gopal Raman Iyengar from NCMRWF, Noida.

In addition, awards were presented to eleven employees for excellent work during the past year.

Nine school and college students from all over the country were given awards for their works of art in the Drawing Competitions held at approximately 200 locations throughout the country on 22 April 2010.

While Dr Krishmaswami got Rs 100,000 apart from a citation and a shawl, the young scientists received certificate of merit and Rs 30,000 each. The awards to the employees were in three categories of Rs 10,000, Rs 7,500, and Rs 5000 each.

The Department of Ocean Development which later became the Ministry of Earth Sciences was set up as an independent scientific department on July 27, 1981. The Department was notified as Ministry of Ocean Development (MoOD) in February 2006. Keeping in view the close interaction between Ocean, Atmosphere and Earth and the need to have an integrated scientific approach, the Government approved formation of the Earth Commission and re-organization of the Ministry of Ocean Development as Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), which came into being on 12^th of July 2007 having the Department of Ocean Development, India Meteorological Department, India Institute of Tropical Meteorology, and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting as its departments.

The mandate of the Ministry is to provide the nation with the best possible services in forecasting the monsoons and other weather/climate parameters, ocean state, earthquakes, tsunamis and other phenomena related to earth systems through well integrated programmes and utilizing world class science and technology resources. In addition, the Ministry also works on science and technology for exploration and exploitation of ocean resources (living and non-living), and plays a nodal role for Antarctic/Arctic and Southern Ocean Research. The Ministry plays a key role in disaster warning from Tsunami, oil spills, cyclones and storm surges.