Earth Sciences Secretary urges stakeholders to utilise various missions to double India’s Blue Economy

Union Ministry of Earth Sciences Secretary urges stakeholders to utilize opportunities in Meteorology and Oceanography through key government missions.

Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) Secretary M. Ravichandran urged the stakeholders in the field of Meteorology and Oceanography to utilise the opportunities provided by the Union Government through ‘Monsoon Mission’, ‘Mission Mausam’ and ‘Deep Ocean Mission’.

He was in Visakhapatnam to address the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of the Department of Meteorology & Oceanography of Andhra University on Wednesday (September 18, 2024).

Addressing the gathering, Mr. Ravichandran said MoES is the nodal body to implement the three Missions to strengthen infrastructure, technology and human capital in the field of Meteorology and Oceanography to double the current 4% Blue Economy GDP to 8-10%, and increase current agriculture’s current 20% of GDP further through better forecasting of weather conditions.

He urged the AU Meteorology department and other stakeholders in the event to come up with proper proposals to tap the funds under the MoES’s key Missions for better results, and assured them that the MoES is always supportive in all possible ways.

Briefing the Missions, he said that Mission Mausam is aimed at research and development and capacity building in meteorological sciences, weather monitoring, modelling, forecasting and management. It integrates advanced observing systems, high-performance computing and cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, and also sets a new benchmark for high-precision weather forecasting.

The Deep Ocean Mission is aimed at developing technologies to harness living and non-living resources from the deep oceans. The mission focuses on thematic areas such as deep sea mining, development of technologies for manned submersible and underwater robotics, development of ocean climate change advisory services, technological innovations for exploration and conservation of deep sea biodiversity, deep ocean survey and exploration, energy and freshwater from the Ocean & Advanced Marine Station for Ocean Biology.

On the occasion, he also emphasised the need to strengthen the department in AU and promised to provide all possible support from the ministry.