Lok Sabha Question No. 161 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-11-16
Subject: Research Projects
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: SUNIL KUMAR MONDAL, B. SREERAMULU

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 161

TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2016

## RESEARCH PROJECTS

161.    SHRI SUNIL KUMAR MONDAL: SHRI B. SRIRAMULU:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) the details and present status of various ongoing research and other projects of the Ministry, project-wise, the likely benefits of these projects;
- (b) the details of funds allocated these projects and utilized to during lach of the last three years and the current year so far.
- (c) whether the Government proposes more financial assistance for the awareness of earth sciences and if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) the  details  of  plan/projects  envisaged  for  the  coming  three  years  for  earth sciences activities in the country.

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES

(SHRI Y. S. CHOWDARY)

- (a) Towards  improving  the  understanding  of  the  earth  system  (the  atmosphere, ocean,  solid  earth,  biosphere)  and  their  response  to  the  natural  and  human induced changes, research projects in academic and research institutes in the various  areas  of  Earth  System  Sciences  namely,  (1)  Atmospheric  Science including Climate Science; (2) Geoscience; (3) Ocean Science and Resources and Technology; (4) Hydrology and Cryosphere; (5) Earth System Technology, are supported.  The project-wise details and benefits are given at Annexure-1.
- (b) The program-wise budget details including allocation and expenditure (Rs. in crores) are as follows.

|   No | Name of Scheme                           | RE 2013- 14    | Actua l 2013- 14   | RE 2014- 15   |   Actual 2014- 15 | Rationaliz ed Schemes                                                                                                                                       |   R.E. 2015- 16 |   Actual 2015- 16 | BE 2016- 17   |   Exp. as on Sept 2016 |
|------|------------------------------------------|----------------|--------------------|---------------|-------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------|-------------------|---------------|------------------------|
|    1 | Atmospheric Observation Systems Services | 129.00 117.2 5 | 87.00              |               |            103.61 | Atmosphe re & Climate Research- Modelling Observing Systems & Services (ACROSS)                                                                             |           312   |            278.87 | 360.0 0       |                 120.36 |
|    2 | Atmospheric Process & Modeling           | 53.00          | 50.08              | 64.63         |             64.39 | Atmosphe re & Climate Research- Modelling Observing Systems & Services (ACROSS)                                                                             |           312   |            278.87 | 360.0 0       |                 120.36 |
|    3 | Climate Change Research                  | 30.00          | 29.82              | 32.59         |             32.56 | Atmosphe re & Climate Research- Modelling Observing Systems & Services (ACROSS)                                                                             |           312   |            278.87 | 360.0 0       |                 120.36 |
|    4 | High Performance Computing System        | 104.00         | 103.0 2            | 68.54         |             68.53 | Atmosphe re & Climate Research- Modelling Observing Systems & Services (ACROSS)                                                                             |             0.5 |              0.36 | 360.0 0       |                 120.36 |
|    5 | Airborne Platforms                       | 0.01           | 0.00               | 10.00         |             10    | Airborne Platforms for Institute Observati ons Ocean Research Vessels(A POORV) Ocean Services Technolog y Observati ons Resources Modelling and Science (O- |            80   |             76.46 | 360.0 0       |                 120.36 |
|   10 | Ocean Research Vessels                   | 55.48          | 56.47              | 36.04         |             36.04 | Airborne Platforms for Institute Observati ons Ocean Research Vessels(A POORV) Ocean Services Technolog y Observati ons Resources Modelling and Science (O- |            80   |             76.46 | 355.0 0       |                 175.51 |
|    6 | Ocean Observations                       | 40.00          | 38.57              | 45.00         |             44.49 | STORMS                                                                                                                                                      |           295.5 |            279.7  | 355.0 0       |                 175.51 |
|    7 | Ocean Science & Services                 | 70.00          | 68.30              | 71.08         |             68.5  | STORMS                                                                                                                                                      |           295.5 |            279.7  | 355.0 0       |                 175.51 |
|    8 | Ocean Survey & Mineral Resources         | 50.00          | 41.03              | 60.43         |             60.42 | STORMS                                                                                                                                                      |           295.5 |            279.7  | 355.0 0       |                 175.51 |
|    9 | Ocean Technology                         | 83.52          | 83.52              | 51.00         |             51    | STORMS                                                                                                                                                      |           295.5 |            279.7  | 355.0 0       |                 175.51 |
|   11 | Polar Sciences & Cryosphere              | 155.99         | 155.9 8            | 200.00        |            163.55 | STORMS                                                                                                                                                      |           123.5 |            118.66 | 156.0 0       |                  90.01 |
|   12 | Seismologica l Research                  | 57.00          | 46.97              | 74.35         |             74.56 | Seismolog ical & Geoscienc es (SAGE)                                                                                                                        |           131.5 |            117.78 | 150.0 0       |                  13.59 |
|   13 | Geosciences                              | 15.00          | 8.11               | 53.51         |             53.5  | Seismolog ical & Geoscienc es (SAGE)                                                                                                                        |           131.5 |            117.78 | 150.0 0       |                  13.59 |

| 14   | Research, Education Training and Outreach   | 82.00   | 76.88   | 70.83   | 69.13   | 70.00    | 60.99   | 49.90    |   10.01 |
|------|---------------------------------------------|---------|---------|---------|---------|----------|---------|----------|---------|
| 15   | Assistance to Autonomous bodies             |         |         |         |         |          |         | 129.1 0  |   70.35 |
|      | Total                                       | 925.00  | 876.0 0 | 925.00  | 900.28  | 1013.0 0 | 932.93  | 1200. 00 |  479.93 |

(c) No, Madam.

(d) In addition to implementation of the above ongoing schemes of the Ministry, it is proposed to take up a set of  new programmes recommended by NITI Aayog for implementation during the next three years, as detailed below:-

- a) Marine Observation System Along Indian Coast (MOSAIC)
- b) Development Ballast Water Treatment Facility
- c) Energy  from  Oceans-  Ocean  Thermal  Energy  Conversion  (OTEC)  Plant  at Kavaratti
- d) Block level forecasts (around 6000) through 660 district centres
- e) Development of high resolution (12 km) weather prediction models  through high Performance Computing- 10 Peta flop
- f) Customized Forecasts for Tourism/Pilgrimage - 300 destinations spread over the country
- g) Modernization of Weather and Climate Services
- h) Atmospheric Chemistry.

Annexure1: Project -wise details of achievements and benefits.

- i)  Atmospheric Observation Network and Services: Recognizing the importance of real-time Observational weather and climate data for various operational forecast and  advisory  services,  state-of-the-art  observing  system  networks  have  been commissioned during the last 4 years through augmentation with 1291 Automatic Rain  gauges  (ARGs)  and  680  Automatic  weather  stations  (AWSs)  all  across  the country. 15 Nos. of Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) have been set up, respectively at Delhi airport, New Delhi Lodi Road, Nagpur, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Patna, Patiala, Agartala, Mohanbari, Bhopal, Bhuj and Mumbai to the earlier network of 5DWRs installed at Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Machilipatnam, Chennai and Sriharikota.  A  specific  nowcasting  (3-6h)  weather  service  (Thunderstorms;  heavy rainfall  from  lows/depressions  over  the  land)  covering  117  urban  centers  on experimental basis under which nowcast of severe weather has been initiated. The Agro-Meteorological  Advisory  Service  (AAS)  has  been  extended  to  district  level from  the  agro-climatic  zone  level  (cluster  of  4-6  districts)  and  extended  to  608 districts  of  the  country.  Currently,  over  19.5  million  farmers  have  been  receiving crop specific advisories under the AAS service in vernacular languages. During the past few years, several   tropical cyclones viz., Hudhud, Phailin, Helen, and Lehar have  been  impacted  on  the  east  coast  of  India.  Track,  intensity  and  landfall  of these  severe  cyclones  has  been  forecasted  with  sufficiently  lead  time  so  as  to assist appropriate emergency response actions by the respective state government/UT authorities in order to minimize the loss of life.. A weather and air quality  forecast  service  for  next  24  had  been  launched  over  the  NCR  of  Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. Under the framework of Regional Integrated Multi-hazard Early warning  System  (RIMES),  a  data-sharing  arrangement  has  been  established  with the nine countries to provide rainfall forecast for next 3-days. Block level forecast for 37 districts (342 blocks) has been initiated in pilot mode.
2. ii)  Atmospheric  Processes,  Modeling  and  Climate  Change  Research:  A  National Monsoon  Mission  has  been  launched  to  build  a  state-of-the-art  coupled  oceanatmospheric  climate  model  for  a)  improved  prediction  of  monsoon  rainfall  on extended range to seasonal time scale (16 days to one season) and b) improved prediction of temperature, rainfall and extreme weather events on short to medium range time scale (up to15 days) so that forecast skill gets quantitatively improved further for operational monsoon forecast, seasonal and extended range prediction and short range monsoon forecast has been initiated. .Operational implementation of  improved  forecast  suite  of  models  after  the  commissioning  of  the  High Performance  Computing  (HPC)  systems  have  enhanced  the  weather  forecasting capacities through assimilating all available global satellite radiance data for the production  of  forecast  products  at  22Km  grid  globally  and  9Kms/3Kms  grid  over India/regional/mega  city  domains.  The  performance  evaluation  of  the  updated global/meso-scale  forecast  systems  for  the  past  5-7  years  have  demonstrated enhanced forecast skill by about 18% quantitatively as far as the track and landfall forecasts of the tropical cyclones are concerned. A dedicated Centre for Climate Change Research was established as a part of ESSO-IITM, Pune to address various science issues relating to climate variability and change.
3. iii)  Ocean Observations: The augmentation of Ocean Observation networks in the seas  surrounding  India  includes  deployment  of  19  moored  buoys  including  7 tsunami  buoys,  270  Argo  Floats,  144  drifters,  16  wave  rider  buoys  etc.,  for acquisition of real-time data from the seas around India. An appropriate system of archival  and  retrieval  for  the  various  types  of  ocean  observations  has  been established.  In  particular,  moored  buoy  data  sets  were  found  to  be  very  useful during  the  passage  of  cyclones  over  the  open  seas.  A  dedicated  OCEANSAT Satellite  Ground  Station  was  commissioned  at  ESSO-INCOIS,  Hyderabad  for  real time  direct  reception  of  satellite  data  for  rendering  various  operational  Ocean Information Services.
4. iv) Ocean Science and Services: A unique system of Fisheries Advisories based on identification of potential fishing zones (PFZ) using remote sensing technology has been  made  operational  by  expanding  it  to  cover  Tuna  fish  to  deep  sea  fishing industry. The advisories were issued daily for the entire Indian coast. Ocean state forecast at every six hours for sea surface temperature, currents, waves, etc. is provided daily for next 5-days. A Coral Bleaching Alert System (CABS) has been set up  for  providing  biweekly  status  on  5  major  coral  environments  of  India  viz., Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Gulf of Mannar, Gulf of Kutch. A state-of-the-art Tsunami  Warning  System  was  set  up,  in  September  2007,  which  has  been  now recognized as a Regional Tsunami Service Provider (RTSP), provided advisories at 1800 forecast points for all the Indian Ocean Rim countries. The maps of Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) on 1:100k scale for the entire country were prepared and provided  to  all  stakeholders.  Coast  vulnerability  maps  on  1:25K  has  also  been prepared for the entire coast and undergoing validation. Launched Indo-US ocean experiments in the Bay of bengal for studying monsoon studies.
- v)  Ocean  Survey  &  Mineral  Resources:  As  a  part  of  hydrothermal  sulphide exploration  program,  seven  cruises  of  30-day  each  have  been  conducted  in  the Central Indian Ocean Basin for acquisition of marine geophysical data. Quantum of data has been collected to date, in the Central Indian Ridge (CIR) and South West Indian  Ridge  (SWIR)  using  Multi-beam  Eco  Sounder  (MBES)  surveys  of  ~65,000 km2(area),  Magnetic  surveys  of  ~17,000  km2(line)  and  Gravity  surveys  ~9,115 km2(line). India has filed an application with the International Seabed Authority in July  2013  for  allotment  of  specifically  identified  zones  over  the  Indian  for exploration  of  Polymetallic  Sulphides.  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).
6. vi) Geoscience: India's scientific proposal for deep sea drilling in the Arabian Sea has  been  accepted  by  Integrated  Ocean  Drilling  Program  (IODP)  and  drilling  will commence in 2015.  This  will  provide  information  on  evolution  of  Himalayas  and origin of monsoon.
7. vii)  Ocean  Technology: Two more Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) plants  have  been  commissioned  in  the  islands  of  Lakshadweep,  respectively,  at Minicoy and Agatti during March 2011 and August 2011. A full-fledged hatchery unit for the breeding and rearing of ornamental fishes has been established at Agatti, Lakshadweep islands. The remotely operable submersible (ROSUB) was tested at ~5300m  at  the  Indian  mining  site  over  the  Indian  Ocean  which  is  a  land  mark achievement for exploitation of ocean resources. A Remotely Operable In-situ Soil Tester (ROSIS) has been developed and was tested at a water depth of ~5400m in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB).
8. viii)  Seismological Research: The Borehole Geophysical Research Laboratory was established  in  Karat,  Maharashtra  to  carry  out  'Scientific  Deep  Drilling  in  the Koyna  Intra-plate  Seismic  zone',  to  measure  the  in-situ  physical  properties  of rocks, pore-fluid pressure, hydrological parameters, temperature and other parameters of  an  intra-plate,  active  fault  zone  in  the  near-field  of  earthquakes  before, during and after their occurrence. A set of 6 have been drilled so far (to depths  of  1522.5m  (Rasati),  1196m  (Udgiri),  1134m  (Kundi),  1211.6  (Nayari), ~1500m (Panchgani) and ~1500m (Ukhalu) ) with logging and heat flow measurements.. National Seismological Network consisting of 82 field observations including two telemetric clusters have been set up for monitoring of seismic  activity  in  and  around  country  on  24X7  basis.  A  large  seismic  network established  by  the  Ministry  has  provided  more  insights  to  the  Nepal  earthquake occurred  in  April  2015.  A  report  on  Seismic  Hazard  Microzonation  of  NCT  Delhi 1:10000 scale has been prepared. : First time conducted deep sea drilling in the Arabian Sea in May 2015 onboard D/V JOIDES Resolution as a part of International Ocean  Drilling  Program  to  document  the  co-evolution  of  mountain  building, weathering, erosion, and climate over a range of timescales including the study of evolution  of  continental  breakup  between  India  and  the  Seychelles  and  its relationship to the plume-related volcanism of the Deccan Plateau
9. ix)  Polar  Science:  India  attained  'Observer'  status  within  the  Arctic  council  for conducting scientific research. The Third Antarctic Station 'Bharati' was successfully commissioned in March 2012 for operations towards conducting front line  research.  A  satellite  ground  receiving  station  has  been  setup  at  the  Bharati Station  in  the  Antarctica  for  acquiring  data  from  all  passing  polar  orbiting satellites.  Arctic  mooring  Observation  system  has  been  established.  Accorded approval for acquisition of Polar Research Vessel. Towards augmentation of ocean observations networks, the retrieval of Arctic Observatory and deployment of Polar Remotely Operable Vehicle (PROVe) in the Antarctic were carried in July 2015 and February 2015, respectively
- x) High Performance Computing System: In order to process and assimilate huge volume of global scale weather and climate data for a suite of forecast models, the computation facilities have been substantially augmented to the Petaflop scale.

xi) Research Education and Outreach: An Advanced Training School was established with facilities for training and research in Earth System Science and Climate  at  ESSO-IITM,  Pune.  The  first  batch  of  students  joined  various  units  of ESSO. The second and third batch of 20 students was inducted in August 2012 and August 2013 through an exhaustive national level selective process. International Training  Centre  for  Operational  Oceanography  at  ESSO-INCOIS,  Hyderabad  under agreement  with  UNESCO-IOC  has  been  established.  The  International  Training Centre  for  Operational  Oceanography  (ITCOcean)  had  conducted  4  short  term training programmes in the past one year. More than 135 participants from India and  three  neigbouring  countries  attended  the  courses.  MoES  Chairs  have  been established  in various  leading  academic  institutions  like  Indian  Institute of Technologies for promotion of research in various branches of earth sciences. As a part of outreach programs, the ESSO had supported organization of Earth Science Olympiad in September 2014 in India. OUTREACH: Towards promoting  awareness about  the  programmmes  and  achievements  among  the  public,  student  and  user communities,  major  National  and  International  exhibitions  held  in  India  and Seminars, Symposia, Workshops, have supported.

xii)  Ocean Research Vessels: A fleet of six scientific research vessels are under regular operation by undertaking various targeted oceanographic research activities  for  acquisition  of  multidisciplinary  oceanographic  data;  conducting geophysical    survey to assess marine non-living resources;

National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS):  Considering the importance of studies on solid earth for understanding earth system science research, NCESS  a centre  of  the  Government  of  Kerala  was  taken  over  by  the  Ministry  in  January 2014.  The CESS has been engaged in various research areas relting to solid earth and  earth  science  application.  Crustal  evolution  and  geodynmics,  quarternary evolutionprocesses, sedimentology and deploistion process, weather and surface processes, coastal dynamics.