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Prime Minister Narendra Modi today commended the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for its exceptional services to the nation, saying it has been instrumental in safeguarding lives and advancing climate research.
The IMD started its 150th anniversary celebrations on Monday with the launch of 'Panchayat Mausam Seva' that aims to give weather forecasts to every farmer in every village.
It also rolled out the National Framework for Climate Services to mainstream climate information in every sector and activity.
Earlier in the day, addressing the programme organised to celebrate 150 years of the IMD, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar said the IMD's impact transcended mere weather forecasts and has emerged as a safety net, protecting national interests and shielding citizens from the wrath of nature.
Dhankhar said there was a time when rainfall forecasts issued by the weather office proved to be incorrect, due to lack of scientific progress, but now the predictions were precise, 'down to seconds'.
'I could see inputs made available by the IMD and the Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force acting in tandem with disaster management agencies and ensuring not a single mortality on high seas, hardly any damage to vessels, coastal areas were cleared,' Dhankhar said, referring to the cyclone tracking services of the weather office.
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Also, addressing the gathering, Union Minister for Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju said India aims to detect and predict all small-scale severe weather events through the augmentation of its weather observation network and the procurement of more powerful computing systems.
He said that although the IMD's forecast accuracy has improved by 40 per cent in the last five years compared to the preceding five years, challenges persist in predicting small-scale severe weather events such as cloudbursts.
To address this challenge, Rijiju highlighted the importance of augmenting the network of Doppler radars and automatic weather stations.
Citing a survey by the National Council of Applied Economic Research, Rijiju said that the IMD's warnings and advisories are assisting farmers and the fishing community in improving their financial status.
