By P. Sunderarajan

The people of the port city of Vishakhapatnam and its neighbourhood in Andhra Pradesh will never be able to forget October 12, 2014, the day they had a tryst with the very severe cyclone Hudhud.

Severe Cyclonic Storm Impact

As the storm slammed into the city with wind speeds reaching 200 km per hour and moved into the interiors it was feared that a massive disaster was on hand. There was no doubt huge loss of property. But, fortunately, the loss was life was not as high as expected for such a severe cyclonic storm. The storm had led to a loss of less than 200 lives while comparable storms in the earlier years had resulted in deaths in thousands.

Effective Evacuation Measures

The major credit for the minimal loss of live goes to the manner in which the authorities were able to evacuate people from the path of the storm well before it struck. In an unprecedented move, over 7 lakh people were evacuated and moved to relief camps in safer places.

Meteorological Department’s Timely Predictions

The authorities were able to undertake this task thanks to timely and accurate predictions of all aspects of cyclone genesis, intensity, track, land fall as well as associated rainfall, gale wind and storm surge by scientists at the India Meteorological Department under the Central Government’s Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Contributions of Science and Technology

Scientists at IMD and other segments of the science and technology sector in the country have over the years been working hard to understand nature and develop new tools and techniques to improve upon the country’s social and economic life.

Government’s Initiatives in Science and Technology

The efforts got a major boost last year with the new Government at the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, taking steps to introduce new schemes and programmes and put in place new mechanisms to ensure that developments in science and technology were utilized to the maximum extent to benefit all sections of society.

Advancements in Weather Forecasting

During the past one year, the Ministry of Earth Sciences, for instance, has provided agro-meteorological advisories through mobile phones to 7.1 million farmers in 505 districts, launched customized weather forecast service for the holy yatra to Amarnath Cave and commissioned a weather forecasting system at the heliport serving pilgrim going to Vaishnodevi.

Disaster Alert Systems and Mobile Applications

In addition, a SMS-based disaster alert system for cyclones, storms, and heavy rains was dedicated to the nation and two mobile applications for android phones and tablets called India Weather and SAFAR-Air has been launched.

Government’s Investments in Scientific Research

The Government has also sanctioned over Rs 1,050 crore for acquisition of a polar research vessel for ocean and polar research and India’s first moored observatory was deployed in the Arctic in July last year.

National Supercomputing Mission

The NDA Government has also taken an initiative to give a major boost to the super computing capabilities in the country by giving approval for a national supercomputing mission at a total cost of Rs. 4,500 crore.

Space Technology for Good Governance

Further, measures have been taken to make better use of the latest developments in space technology for providing good governance.

India’s Participation in International Projects

Among other things, the Government also gave its green signal for India’s participation in the Thirty Meter telescope project at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA at a total cost of Rs. 1,299.8 crore.

Fellowship Revisions and Initiatives for Women in Science

The NDA Government has also fulfilled a long pending demand of research scholars for revision of fellowships for various categories of scientists. A new scheme to attract women to science by bringing about gender parity was also launched during the last one year.

Technical Research Centers and Innovations

The Government is working towards setting up five technical research centers in the autonomous institutions under the Department of Science and Technology to speed up transfer and commercialization of technologies developed by them.

Advancements in Ocean Research

The first year of the new Government also saw the deployment of a drilling vessel for the first time in Arabian Sea to drill into the Indian Ocean plate to better understand the evolution of the Indian summer monsoon and the laying of the foundation stone for an ocean research facility of the National Institute of Ocean Technology near the sea front at Thupilipallam village in Vakadu Mandal near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh.

Make in India Initiatives in Scientific Research

In addition, in line with the Government’s make in India programme, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s National Aerospace Laboratories [NAL] and IMD have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly produce Drishti, a transmissometer developed by NAL.

Indigenous Developments in Healthcare

Last one year also saw the induction into the Indian Army of `Dhvani’, a state of the art marksmanship training system developed indigenously and India gaining a place in the global photonic research arena with the launch of a broad spectrum confocal microscope.

Prime Minister’s Launch of Rotavirus Vaccine

Further, the Prime Minister himself launched the first indigenously developed vaccine against Rotavirus.

Vision for the Future

Outlining the vision of the Government at the 102nd session of the Indian Science Congress earlier this year, Mr. Modi, noted that the Government was alive to the fact that though the achievements of the past were praise worthy much more was left to be done. `Our achievements give us pride, but they do not blind us to the enormous challenges that we face in India. We are at yet another moment of expectation and excitement, as were at the birth of India’.

Emphasis on Ease of Doing Research

Addressing the gathering which was made up of scientists at different levels, from Nobel laureates to junior research fellows as also school and college teachers and students, he said that his Government would lay greater emphasis on ease of doing research in the country. `When I speak of ease of doing business in India, I also want to pay equal attention to the ease of doing research and development in India’.