Union Minister releases the NCAER Report on “Estimating the economic benefits of Investment in Monsoon Mission”

News: Union Minister of Earth Sciences has released the National Council of Applied Economic Research(NCAER) report titled “Estimating the economic benefits of Investment in Monsoon Mission and High Performance Computing facilities”.

Facts:

• Aim: To use a holistic approach to estimate the incremental economic and social benefits subsequent to setting up of the “Monsoon Mission” and investments made in “High-Performance Computing systems”.

Key Takeaways:

• For every rupee spent by the government on the National Monsoon Mission and High-performance Computing programs, the country would gain economic benefits worth fifty rupees which is 50 times more benefit on the investment over the next five years period.
• 76% of the livestock owners are using weather information for making decisions on modification of shelter; vaccination against seasonal disease; and fodder management. 82% of fishermen reported using Ocean State Forecast (OSF) advisories every time before venturing into sea.

Additional Facts:

• National Monsoon Mission: It was launched by the Ministry of Earth Sciences(MoES) in 2012 with an aim to develop a state-of-the-art, dynamic monsoon prediction system for short, medium and long-range forecasts.
  • Implementation: The responsibility of execution of the mission is bestowed upon the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM),Pune.
• High Performance Computing(HPC) facilities at MoES institutes has brought in a paradigm shift in weather and climate modelling activity for operational weather forecasts.The HPC facilities established at two of the MoES institutes are:
  • “Pratyush” at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology(IITM),Pune with computing capacity of 4 peta-flops and
  • “Mihir” at National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast (NCMRWF), Noida with a computing capacity of 2.8 peta-flops.
• Agro-climatic zones: It refers to a geographical area with similar soil type, rainfall, temperature and water availability.India is divided into 15 major agro-climatic zones.