Lok Sabha Question No. 1943 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-03-09
Subject: R&D in Earth Sciences
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: SUSHIL KUMAR SINGH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1943

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, March 09, 2016

## R&D in Earth Sciences

## 1943.  SHRI SUSHIL KUMAR SINGH:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  increase  the  allocation  of fund for Research and Development (R&D) in earth sciences and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the percentage of GDP incurred on R&D initiatives in earth sciences during the last three years;
- (c) the other plans of the Government to attract students for research in earth sciences and give fruitful results; and
- (d) whether  scientists  are  given  world  class  facilities,  equipments, resources, packages to carry on their research, etc. and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

(SHRI Y. S. CHOWDARY)

- (a) Yes, Madam. There has been a gradual increase in the allocation of funds  for  Research  and  development  in  the  earth  sciences.    The year-wise total allocation including plan and non-plan for the last 3 years are as follows:

(Rs. in crores)

| Year    |   Budget Estimate (BE) |   Revised Estimate(RE) |
|---------|------------------------|------------------------|
| 2012-13 |                1678.39 |                1198.67 |
| 2013-14 |                1693.6  |                1311.12 |
| 2014-15 |                1699    |                1333.6  |

- (b) The  percentage  of  expenditure  incurred  with  respect  to  GDP  for R&D  initiatives  of  earth  sciences  during  the  3  years  are  0.0096, 0.013 and 0.0126 for 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15, respectively.
- (c) Towards attracting the students for conducting research in the field of earth sciences, the Ministry of Earth Sciences had established a Center for Advanced Training in 2011 at Indian Institute of Tropical Management, Pune, as a world class job linked   programme with an objective to create a pool of trained scientists in the field of earth sciences.  So far, three batches of trainees have been inducted in various centres of the Ministry.  Besides, an International Training Centre for  Operational  Oceanography has been setup in Hyderabad

for  development of skills to conduct front ranking research in the field  of  Ocean  Science.  The  Ministry  has  set  up  Earth  System Science Cells in various universities for conducting research in the field of earth sciences. A  set of four Project Appraisal  and Monitoring Committees (PAMCs) and a Technology Research Board have been constituted for appraisal, review and monitoring of the various projects for consideration for funding. An Apex committee chaired  by  the  Secretary  has  also  been  constituted  to  consider specific proposals recommended by these committees. As of now, 27  projects  are  funded  under  the    theme  of  Atmospheric  Science including  Climate  Change;  33  projects  under    Geosciences;  10 projects  under  Hydrology  &  Cryosphere  etc.  All  these  initiatives are  expected  to  enhance  the  skill  of  the  operational  weather, climate,  ocean    state  and  multi-hazard  services  incrementally  for accruing the societal benefits  in terms of minimizing the loss of life and property. The details are given at annexure-1.

- (d) Yes,  Madam.    Scientists  are  being  given  world  class  facilities, equipment  and  resources  to  carry  out  the  research  in  earth sciences.    The  major  initiative  for  creation  of  facilities  viz.,    (i) geochronology  laboratory  to  support  contemporary  cutting-edge research in isotope geochemistry and geochronology pertaining to earth, atmospheric, oceanic and planetary sciences at international level of a facility for Geochronology at Inter-University Accelerator Centre  (IUAC), New Delhi (ii) Scientific deep drilling in Koyna Intraplate  Seismic  Zone  of  Maharashtra  is    aimed  at  setting  up  of borehole observatories at depth for directly measuring the  in-situ physical  properties  of  the  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,  leading to a better understanding of the mechanics of faulting, physics of  reservoir triggered earthquakes and preparing a predictive model (iii) provide logistic and scientific support to conduct front ranking research in the polar regions ie., Antarctic and Arctic (iv) provide state of the art computing facility, real-time data of various atmospheric and oceanographic parameters, high resolution models

Annexure-I

The  details  of    various  capacity  building  programs  to  attract  students  for research in earth sciences including providing world class facilities, equipment, resources, packages to carry on their research:

1. Fellowship support for academic programme such as  M.Tech/Ph.D along with  laboratory  set-up.  The  details  of  such  projects/programmes  being supported by the ministry are as follows:
-  Under  international  collaboration  with  Norwegian  Polar  Institute (NPI),  Norway,  a  Ph.D.  fellowship  programme  has  been  initiated. Presently two Indian students have been sponsored by the ministry for doing Ph.D. in Glaciology at NPI.
-  5  M.Tech  students/scientists  and  5  Ph.D.  students  are  being sponsored under an MoU with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.   The ministry also supported establishment of M.Tech Lab in the Centre for Atmospheric Studies, IIT Delhi.
-    Similarly Ministry is also sponsoring 10 M.Tech students in Ocean Technology and Engineering at IIT Madras
5. -Six basic labs including advanced analytical facility lab, a Museum/library have been established at IISc Bangalore for augmenting  the  research  in  the  earth  sciences  Department.  This has led to the initiation of M.Tech programme in the field of earth science with intake of 5 students per year.
6. -Supported initiation of 2 year M.Sc. course in Ocean and Atmospheric  Science  at  Centre  for  Earth  &  Space  Sciences, University of Hyderabad.
2. Establishment of  Chair  Professorship  in  premier  institutes  wherein  the students benefit through credit courses/research programs initiated by the Chairs who are generally eminent scientists from abroad. This also exposes the students/researchers in the academic institutes to pioneers in the field of earth Sciences,  and thereby help in development of human resources.  In  addition  the  MoES  also  supports  outstanding  Young Faculty Fellowships granted to young faculty to encourage them to carry out research in the Earth System Sciencc. Presently the following Chairs exist in 4 IITs
3. The Ministry supports Establishment of National Facilities, wherein once the facility is established the researchers/students from various academic/research  institutes  submit  their  research  proposals/science plan and as per the merit of the proposal the student is allocated time to use  the  National  facility,  generally  free  of  cost  for  undertaking  the research work.
- (4)  Under  bilateral  and  multilateral  international  agreements  with  various Government agencies in the field of Earth system science, the Ministry supports research proposals, joint observational campaigns, joint development  work, exchange  of resources personnel and training abroad, workshops etc. Projects been implemented under these collaboration  provide  excellent  opportunity  to  students  to  work  and interact with foreign researchers, visit their labs etc.
-  Under  a  MoU  with  Belmont  Forum  countries,  Indian  Scientists  are supported for international collaborative research through joint calls in societal relevant global environmental change challenges.
-  Under  an  MoU  with  the  Natural  Environmental  Research  Council (NERC), the students are participating in joint observational campaigns for  studying  the  various  processes  involved  in  understanding  the monsoonal behavior.
- Under the MoU with Research Council of Norway, the students are part of  the  various  projects  being  funded  by  the  Ministry  for  undertaking research in Polar Research and Geo-Hazards.
-  Mission  mode  programs:  The  Ministry  has  launched  various  flag  ship and  mission  mode  programs  such  as  Monsoon  Mission,  Metro  Air Quality,  Climate  Change  Research  including  atmospheric  Chemistry where the students working in these projects  get hands-on experience on the sophisticated equipment's through participation in field campaigns, laboratory experiments and data analysis /modeling techniques etc. The experience gained increases the job opportunities of the students.

|   S.No | Institute       | Name of the Chair                                                                               |
|--------|-----------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|      1 | IIT Delhi       | Sir Gilbert Walker MoES Chair in Atmospheric Science & Sudhanshu Kumar Outstanding Young Fellow |
|      2 | IIT Kanpur      | D.N.Wadia MoES Chair in Climate Change                                                          |
|      3 | IIT Kharagpur   | Samudragupta MoES Chair in Ocean Science & James Rennell MoES Young Fellow                      |
|      4 | IIT Gandhinagar | Varhamihira MoES Chair in Earth System Science & Engineering & Varhamihira Young Fellows        |

|    | S.NoName of the facility                                         | Name of the Institute                                                 | Aim of the facility                                                                                                                                                                       |
|----|------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  1 | Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) Measurement facility for 14C | Inter-University Accelerator (IUAC), New Delhi                        | A dedicated AMS facility for the measurement of 14Carbon and to measure ultra-low concentrations of the isotopes of carbon- 14 for applications in radiocarbon dating and earth sciences. |
|  2 | Laser Raman Spectrometer                                         | National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS), Thiruvananthapuram | The facility will be used to study the application of fluid inclusion technique for oil exploration by using the drill core/cutting samples from ONGC.                                    |
|  3 | Laser Diamond Anvil Cell at IISER Kolkata                        | Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata   | To be used by researchers to simulate conditions of the core and lower mantle of the Earth.                                                                                               |