NEW DELHI: The government on Friday approved ‘Prithvi Vigyan’, an overarching initiative that would give it the flexibility to pursue research and use funds allocated to five different sub-schemes related to earth sciences over a five-year period.
The total funds at the disposal of the Ministry of Earth Sciences is Rs 4,797 crore which collates allocations to the sub-schemes.
The sub-schemes are ‘Atmosphere and Climate Research-Modelling Observing Systems and Services’, ‘Ocean Services, Modelling Application, Resources and Technology’, ‘Polar Science and Cryosphere Research’, ‘Seismology and Geosciences’ and ‘Research, Education, Training and Outreach’.
The new initiative, which was approved by the Union Cabinet at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be called ‘PRITHVI’ and it would allow the ministry to award research projects to overseas institutes.
“With the PRITHVI initiative, we are looking at earth system sciences as one unit, instead of separate verticals such as atmosphere, cryosphere, geosphere, ocean science. This will allow us to take up cross-disciplinary projects and even use funds allocated for the separate verticals together,” a senior official said.
“The scheme will also facilitate ease of doing research,” the official added.
“The overarching scheme of ‘Prithvi Vigyan’ (PRITHVI) will enable development of integrated multi-disciplinary earth science research and innovative programmes across different MoES institutes,” an official statement said.
It said these integrated research and development efforts will help in addressing the grand challenges of weather and climate, ocean, cryosphere, seismological science and services and explore the living and non-living resources for their sustainable harnessing.
The objectives of the overarching “PRITHVI” scheme include augmentation and sustenance of long-term observations of the atmosphere, ocean, geosphere, cryosphere and solid earth to record vital signs of the earth system and change, development of modelling systems for understanding and predicting weather, ocean and climate hazards, and understanding the science of climate change
It also includes exploration of polar and high seas regions of the earth towards discovery of new phenomena and resources, development of technology for exploration and sustainable harnessing of oceanic resources for societal applications, and translation of knowledge and insights from earth systems science into services for societal, environmental and economic benefit.
“Various components of the PRITHVI scheme are interdependent and are carried out in an integrated manner through combined efforts of institutes under the Ministry of Earth Sciences,” the statement said.
The ministry has 10 research institutes — India Meteorological Department, National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology, National Centre for Coastal Research, National Centre for Seismology, National Institute of Ocean Technology, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Service- Hyderabad, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research-Goa, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology-Pune and National Centre for Earth Science Studies.
The statement said a fleet of oceanographic and coastal research vessels of the ministry will provide required research support for the scheme. (PTI)
