Lok Sabha Question No. 1844 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-02-11
Subject: Studies to Assess the Impact of Extreme Weather Conditions
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Shri Naveen Jindal

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA LOK SABHA

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1844

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 11 TH  FEBRUARY, 2026

## STUDIES TO ASSESS THE IMPACT OF EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS

## 1844.   SHRI NAVEEN JINDAL:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has conducted any studies and research to assess the impact of extreme weather conditions caused by climate change and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the details of programmes and schemes launched by the Government for mitigation of the impact of these extreme weather conditions based on the results of the above studies and research along with the targets and outlay earmarked for each of these programmes and schemes during each of the last five years and the current year and the actual achievements and expenditure incurred, year-wise; and
- (c) whether  Indian  Council  of  Agricultural  Research  (ICAR),  Council  of  Scientific  & Industrial Research (CSIR) and  Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and their institutions are also being involved in the studies and research for synergy and convergence of efforts and for development of holistic migration strategies and policies since food crops and agri-produce along with human health are also getting impacted due to these extreme weather conditions and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) Yes.  The  Ministry  of  Earth  Sciences  (MoES)  has  published  a  Climate  Change  report entitled "Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region", which covers all aspects of regional climate change, including the climatic extreme conditions across India. The report  is  available  at  https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-15-4327-2.  The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has developed a web-based "Climate Hazard and Vulnerability Atlas of India", which covers 13 major hazardous meteorological events that cause significant human, animal, and economic losses. The web Atlas is depicted using Geographic  Information  System  (GIS)  tools  and  is  made  available  on  the  IMD,  Pune website (https://www.imdpune.gov.in/hazardatlas/index.html). Further, IMD also studied changing rainfall patterns in the country and extremes in the recent 30 years at different spatial scales (States and Districts). A total of 29 reports on "Observed Rainfall Variability and  Changes"  for  various  States/UTs  were  published,  and  they  are  available  at  the following (https://www.imdpune.gov.in/Reports/rainfall%20variability% 20page/raintrend%20new.html).
- (b) To enhance the early warning capability of IMD and improve warning for extreme weather incidents,  the  Government  has  taken  various  steps  during  2021-26  under  the  umbrella scheme  "Atmosphere  &  Climate  Research-Modelling  Observing  Systems  &  Services (ACROSS)" of the MoES. Subsequently, the scheme  ACROSS was merged  as  a subscheme under the overarching Scheme "Prithvi Vigyan (PRITHVI)" of MoES in 2024. To further enhance weather monitoring and forecasting across India and surrounding regions by leveraging advanced observational and computing technologies for greater precision and resolution, the Union Cabinet approved the central sector scheme Mission Mausam in 2024, with a budget outlay of 2,000 crore over two years (2024-25 to 2025-26). The scheme seeks to exponentially enhance the country's weather and climate observations, understanding, modeling,  and  forecasting,  leading  to  better,  more  useful,  accurate,  and timely services. The ACROSS sub-scheme under the PRITHVI scheme was merged into the Mission Mausam scheme.

Within these projects, two global forecast systems, such as GFS 12 km and NCUM 12 km, are  operationalised  in  real-time.  It  has  also  launched  the  Bharat  Forecasting  System (BharatFS), operational since May 2025, at a very high resolution of up to 6 km to cater to block-level and, further, panchayat-level needs. Further, to support such high-resolution models running regularly, the Computing facilities have also been substantially increased to integrate voluminous data and to run meso-scale, regional, and global models at higher resolution.  Recently,  with  the  implementation  of  the  High  Power  Computing  Systems "Arunika" and "Arka", the Ministry of Earth Sciences has enhanced its total computing power to 28 Peta FLOPS in 2025, a substantial increase from the previous capacity of 6.8 Peta FLOPS in 2014.

For effective utilization of observational and NWP products and for providing timely early warning against all types of severe weather, IMD has developed an end-to-end GIS-based Decision Support System (DSS), which serves as the front end of the early warning systems for the timely detection and monitoring of all-weather hazards. It is supported by specific severe  weather  modules  to  provide  timely,  impact-based  early  warnings  for  extreme weather  events  such  as  cyclones,  Heavy  rainfall,  Thunderstorms,  lightning,  Fog,  and heatwaves, which have devastating impacts on human lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure. This system uses all historical data, their extremes, as well as real-time surface and upperair meteorological observations available to it for the Indian region and neighbourhood. It also includes radar observations available every 10 minutes and Satellite products available every 15 minutes. It also uses Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) products from a suite of models run in MoES. The models include mesoscale (including hyperlocal), regional, and global models. Various models are currently operational in real time at the IMD and other centres of MoES at the hyperlocal and mesoscale. To provide impact-based forecasts and warnings, the DSS integrates exposure data with hazard data within the system.

- (c) Yes. IMD is collaborating with organisations such as ICAR, ICMR, etc., to develop sectorspecific weather and climate services.

*****