Lok Sabha Question No. 4516 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-08-20
Subject: New Initiatives to Strengthen India’s Climate Preparedness
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Shri Manish Jaiswal, Shri Sudheer Gupta, Shri Chavan Ravindra Vasantrao

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4516

TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 20 TH AUGUST, 2025

## NEW INITIATIVES TO STRENGTHEN INDIA'S CLIMATE PREPAREDNESS

4516.   SHRI MANISH JAISWAL: SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA: SHRI CHAVAN RAVINDRA VASANTRAO:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  recently  launched  any  new  initiatives  to  strengthen country's climate preparedness and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the manner in which these initiatives are expected to improve country's capability in climate forecasting, disaster management and early warning systems;
- (c) whether the Government proposes to collaborate with any international agency/agencies and private sector to upgrade its climate preparedness and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) the details of steps taken/being taken to enhance communication and public outreach with respect  to  tools/equipment  developed  by  the Government agencies for advance climate preparedness; and
- (e) whether the Government is also planning to explore underwater wealth as a potential driver of future economic growth, if so, the details thereof and the steps taken in this regard?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a) Yes. The Government of India recently launched Mission Mausam under the Ministry of  Earth  Sciences  (MoES)  to  strengthen  the  country's  climate  preparedness.The Mission  Mausam is  launched  with  a  goal  of  making  a  "weather-ready  and  climatesmart" initiative to mitigate the impact of climate change and extreme weather events and strengthen  the  resilience  of  communities.  In  addition,  initiatives  have  also  been undertaken focused on enhancing early warning systems and improving the weather and climate forecasts.

Climate  services  are  one  of  the  most  cost-effective  tools  for  climate  adaptation.  To strengthen these services in India, the Ministry of Earth Sciences has established the Climate  Research  and  Services  (CRS)  division  under  the  India  Meteorological Department  (IMD)  in  Pune.  The  CRS,  IMD,  Pune  office  conducted  a  stakeholder's workshop to establish the National Framework of Climate Service (NFCS) during 5-6 October 2023. The main aim of the workshop was;

-  To provide a brief background and progress on the development of the concept of  NFCS  to  consolidate  the  efforts  of  various  agencies  involved  in  climate services in India.
-  To  seek  inputs  from  all  relevant  stakeholders  and  their  participation  to collectively work towards the development of a well-defined NFCS in India to better support decision-making in climate-sensitive sectors.
-  To  assess  the  baseline  capacities  at  the  national  level  in  both  providers  and users  of  climate  services,  across  all  five  Global  Framework  for  Climate Services  (GFCS)  pillars  and  their  priority  areas  (agriculture,  energy,  health, water sector, and disaster management);
-  To prepare a comprehensive mapping of the existing capacities, draw up a list of key stakeholders, and outline their potential contributions to the NFCS;
-  To  identify the needs  and  priorities, as well as current and  projected capabilities  for  developing  climate  information  and  products  tailored  to  the decision-making for different users in the country;
-  To bring the core agencies together to consider developing a joint action plan to begin the establishment of NFCS-India.
- (b) Under  Mission  Mausam,  initiatives  have  been  taken  to  increase  the  observational network  and  improve  the  weather  and  climate  predictions  and  projections.  These initiatives  are  expected  to  significantly  enhance  the  country's  capability  in  climate forecasting,  disaster  management,  and  early  warning  systems  by  advancing  highresolution  weather  and  climate  models  and  delivering  tailored  climate  services  to vulnerable sectors.

Mission  Mausam is  envisaged  to  be  a  multi-faceted  and  transformative  initiative  to boost India's weather and climate-related science, research, and services. It will help better  equip  stakeholders,  including  citizens  and  last-mile  users,  to  tackle  extreme weather  events  and  the  impacts  of  climate  change.  Mission  Mausam  is  expected  to enhance weather monitoring and provide accurate forecasts across various timescales. This will be achieved through the deployment of next-generation observation systems, high-performance computing infrastructure, and advanced Earth system models. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies will further  improve  the  precision  of  predictions  by  enhancing  model  accuracy  and prediction resolution.

In 2021, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) adopted a new strategy based on a  Multi-Model Ensemble (MME) approach to enhance the accuracy of monthly and seasonal forecasts for rainfall and temperature (both maximum and minimum). This approach also enables the issuance of spatially distributed outlooks for heat waves and cold waves on a monthly and seasonal scale.

As  part of efforts to strengthen climate monitoring, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has been issuing State-wise Annual Climate Statements in addition to the National Annual Climate Summary since 2021. (https://imdpune.gov.in/Reports/Statewise%20annual%20climate/statewise\_annual\_cli mate.html)

Recently, IMD has unveiled the Bharat Forecasting System (BharatFS)-the world's highest-resolution operational weather model, operating on a 6-kilometre grid. This is a major leap forward in India's weather prediction capabilities, especially for localized forecasts.  Previously,  IMD  operated  numerical  models  with  a  resolution  of  9  km, which provided district-level forecasts. While effective, these models had limitations in capturing small-scale weather variations that significantly affect local communities, agriculture,  and  disaster  response.  The  BharatFS,  developed  with  support  from  the Ministry of Earth Sciences, enables weather forecasts at a much finer scale, enhancing IMD's ability to deliver predictions at the block and panchayat levels. With this sixkilometre  resolution,  the  model  can  capture  localized  weather  phenomena  such  as thunderstorms, heavy rain spells, lightning, hailstorms, and intense heatwaves, which often  vary  sharply  even  within  a  district.  This  is  especially  useful  for  agriculture planning,  disaster  management  and  early  warning  systems.  The  launch  of  BharatFS aligns  with  IMD's  broader  goal  to  strengthen  the  last-mile  connectivity  of  weather services,  ensuring  that  the  benefits  of  advanced  forecasting  reach  every  village  and household.  With  BharatFS,  India  now  joins  the  ranks  of  global  leaders  in  highresolution weather modeling, supporting a more climate-resilient future.

- (c)-(d) Initiatives  to  foster  such  collaborations  are  currently  underway.  Collaboration  with international agencies and the private sector is expected to facilitate the exchange of ideas, expertise, and technology, thereby  advancing  emerging innovations and enhancing  climate  preparedness.  In  order  to  enhance  communication  and  public outreach, an assessment of climate change over the Indian region was carried out using observations  and  climate  model  projections  by  the  Ministry  of  Earth  Sciences.  The report is published as an open-access book "Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region", and is publicly available under the following link: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-15-4327-2.

Additionally, outreach activities and public data dissemination through dedicated tools and data dissemination systems are undertaken by the Ministry of Earth Sciences at the  Indian  Institute  of  Tropical  Meteorology  (IITM)  and  the  India  Meteorological Department (IMD) for advancing climate preparedness.

- (e) Yes. The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has launched the Deep Ocean Mission (DoM).  This  mission  is  exploring  the  underwater  wealth  (mineral  resources)  in  the deep seabed  area beyond  national jurisdiction by having two seabed mineral exploration  contracts  with  the  International  Seabed  Authority  (ISA)  in  the  Indian Ocean. The first  seabed  exploration  contract  signed  during  2002  is  for  Polymetallic nodules in an allocated area of 75000 sq. km in the Central Indian Ocean Basin, and another contract signed during 2016 is for Polymetallic Sulphides (PMS) exploration in the Indian Ocean Ridge in 2016 in an allocated area of 10,000 sq. km. Polymetallic nodules contain precious metals like copper, nickel, and cobalt. PMS sulphides contain valuable  metals  like  copper,  zinc,  lead,  iron,  silver,  gold,  etc.  The  seabed  mineral exploration activities are executed following an approved plan of work by ISA under the signed contracts, covering survey & exploration, environmental impact assessment, technology development for mining, and metallurgical extraction process. Presently,  the  seabed  mineral  activities  regulated  by  the  ISA  are  limited  to  the exploration stage only.

The latest findings include the development of technologies for manned submersible, demonstration of the  collection  of  over  100  kg of  Cobalt-rich deep-sea polymetallic nodules from a depth of 1173m in the Andaman Sea in 2024, identification of two active  hydrothermal  vent  fields  in  the  Central  Indian  Ocean,  and  development  of vulnerability maps for coastal areas to due to climate change.

The Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (Kochi), under the MoES, has conducted six cruises  surveying  underwater  biodiversity  across  19  seamounts  in  the Arabian  Sea  and  Bay  of  Bengal.  Several  (~1300)  deep-sea  organisms  have  been collected, studied, and vouchered, including conducting in-depth genomic analysis for select organisms and the discovery of nearly 23 species that are new to science.

The National Centre of Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Goa, under the MoES, has  conducted  deep-ocean  surveys  in  the  Central  and  Southwest  Indian  Ridges, leading to the discovery of four active hydrothermal vent fields and two mineralised zones of polymetallic sulphides.

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