The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) celebrated its 15th Foundation Day on 28th July at its Headquarters in Prithvi Bhavan, New Delhi. The Ministry launched multiple societally beneficial initiatives on occasion of the Foundation Day.
- MoES came into existence through a Presidential Notification dated the 12th July, 2006.
- India Meteorological Department (IMD), Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) come under its Administrative control.
i.The Initiatives were launched by Minister of State (Independent Charge) for MoES, Dr Jitendra Singh. He was the Chief Guest of the event. The initiatives are
- MoES-ESSDP (Earth System Science Data Portal), an Integrated digital web portal
- New MoES Website
- ‘Pune Weather Live’, a new mobile app developed by India Meteorological Department (IMD).
- A New book ‘Hydrocarbon fluid inclusions in petroliferous basins’
ii.Winners of the MoES National Awards for 2021 were announced during the event.
Seminar by WMO
The event was marked by a lecture on ‘WMO, Disasters, Climate and COP-26’ by Dr Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Discussions were carried out on the issue of climate change and its impact.
MoES-ESSDP Integrated Digital Web Portal
MoES-ESSDP is an integrated digital web portal of MoES institutes.
- The portal will provide data on various themes of earth system science for public use.
- It is aligned with the Digital India initiative and aims to facilitate search and retrieval of earth system science data (of atmosphere, ocean, poles, geosciences and seismology).
New MoES Website
The newly launched MoES website aims to provide a user-friendly interface and cyber secure experience to the public.
Release of New Book
Dr. M Rajeevan, Secretary of MoES and others released the book ‘Hydrocarbon fluid inclusions in petroliferous basins’.
- It is authored by Dr V Nandakumar, Scientist G/Group Head and Former Director of National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and Dr Jayanthi JL, Project Scientist at NCESS.
- It discusses the latest tools for oil exploration, the book will serve as a reference for researchers studying fluid inclusion and oil prospecting.
IMD’s New app ‘Pune Weather Live’
Released by Dr Rajeevan, the ‘Pune Weather Live’ app provides real-time and location-specific weather updates for Pune.
- It captures live data from more than 80 weather stations, including information on rainfall.
MoES National Awards 2021
The MoES National Awards aims to recognize the major scientific contributions made by eminent scientists/engineers in various fields of Earth System Science.
| S.No | Award | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | LifeTime Excellence Award | Dr Satish Shetye for his work on Indian Monsoons (Former Director of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa) |
| 2 | National Award for Ocean Sciences | Sunil Kumar Singh (Director of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)-NIO, Goa) |
| 3 | National Award for Atmospheric Science and Technology | Dr R Krishnan (Scientist ‘G’ and Executive Director, Centre for Climate Change Research, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune) |
| 4 | National Award for Geoscience and Technology | Dr Kalachand Sain (Director, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology) |
| 5 | National Award for Ocean Technology | Dr M V Ramanamurthy (Director, National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), Chennai) |
| 6 | Anna Mani Award recognising Woman Scientists | Dr Thara Prabhakaran & Dr Vandana Prasad |
| 7 | Young Researcher awards | Dr Waliur Rahaman & Dr Kandula V Subrahmanyam |
Recent Related News:
i.June 16, 2021, the Union Cabinet approved the The ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ of MoES. It will be a mission mode project to support the Blue Economy Initiatives of Government of India.
ii.July 15, 2021, DBT & MoES signed an MoU for mutual collaboration in the field of Polar Biology (Biology of Polar regions).
About Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES)
MoS (I/C) – Dr Jitendra Singh (Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir)
Headquarters – New Delhi
