Steps being taken to enhance IMD's dissemination of services: Earth Sciences Min to Par Panel

To enhance the outreach of IMD for providing forecast and warning services, various steps are being taken which includes proposed introduction of mobile applications and a meteorological and communication package adapted from Turkey Meteorological services, the Earth Sciences Ministry has told a parliamentary panel.

The department-related standing committee was informed about this after it said that despite claims made by the ministry on advance warning for natural calamities, the end beneficiary of the system has not benefited by it.

The panel had recommended that the ministry identify the loopholes in the system and take all necessary measures to plug the same for providing forecast and warning services to all stakeholders.

The ministry, which had given its observations regarding 'Cyclone Warning Systems - Cyclone Ockhi', should also impress upon state governments to initiate immediate action on the warnings and take all necessary action so that the benefit of advance warnings reaches the ground level, it said.

In its action taken report, the ministry said,"In order to enhance outreach of India Meteorological Department (IMD) for dissemination of services and products following steps are being taken... In collaboration with the Survey of India, dynamic web hosting of various observational and model products in geo-spatial platform is being attempted."