Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India’s Post

Scientific Secretary at the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Dr (Mrs.) Parvinder Maini, today participated as a Distinguished Guest in the inaugural session of a workshop to commemorate 30 years of operational Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) and 150 years of India Meteorological Department (IMD), organised by National Centre For Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) in association with IMD. During her address, Dr Maini recalled, as one of the early scientists at NCMRWF, the pivotal role played by NWP models in providing accurate weather forecasts. She highlighted the collaboration with the US National Centers for Environmental Predictions (NCEP), National Weather Service and the UK Met Office in setting up a seamless NWP system in India. Despite the challenges of climate change and the rising expectations of the common man that have put tremendous pressure on national weather agencies to provide reliable predictions while facing competition from other forecast providers, Dr. Maini congratulated the entire meteorological community for delivery of increasingly more accurate forecasts including extreme weather events. Other dignitaries who participated in the event include Dr. M. Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences ; Dr. Michael Farrar, Director, NCEP; and Dr. David Walters, Associate Director, UK Met Office; and Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology, IMD.