India Celebrates the 150th Foundation Day of India Meteorological Department (IMD)

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To mark the occasion, the Prime Minister inaugurated Mission Mausam, which had previously received Cabinet approval in September 2024.

Overview of IMD

Established: In 1875, the IMD is the National Meteorological Service of India.
Ministry: operating under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
Headquarter: New Delhi. IMD has 6 Regional Meteorological Centres: Mumbai, Chennai, New Delhi, Calcutta, Nagpur and Guwahati.
- IMD is also one of the six Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres of the World Meteorological Organisation.
IMD’s Role: It provides critical weather and climate services, playing a vital role in disaster management, agriculture, aviation, and public safety.

Cyclone Predictions: Reduced cyclone-related deaths from 10,000 in 1999 to zero in 2020-2024 & successfully predicted cyclones like Phailin (2013), Hudhud (2014), Fani (2019), etc.
- Numerical Weather Prediction: Improved forecast accuracy by 40% since 2014.
IMD in Public Outreach and Services
- Early Warning for All: Weather alerts and forecasts now reach over 90% of India’s population.
- 10-Day Weather Forecasts: People can access weather information for the past 10 days and the next 10 days at any time.
- Farmer Outreach: Weather-related advice usage by farmers and livestock farmers increased from 10% to over 50% in the last decade.

Mission Mausam is envisaged to be a multi-faceted initiative to tremendously boost India's weather and climate-related science, research, and services
Key Features:
- Establish a wide network of radars and satellites, wind profilers, radiometers, High-Performance Computers (HPC) and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) based models for multi-faceted weather observation and prediction.
- Setting up a 'cloud-simulation chamber' at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) to be used for testing weather interventions like cloud seeding.
Implementing Ministry: Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES)