Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh stresses the need to devise mitigation strategies to minimise human consequences of natural disasters
New delhi : While inaugurating the 2-day Indo-UK Workshop on “Earth Hazards” here today, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh stressed the need to devise mitigation strategies to minimize human consequences of natural disasters.
Dr Jitendra Singh made these remarks at the Joint Indo-UK Academic Workshop in Delhi, where the UK Delegation was led by Ms Christina Scott, British Deputy High Commissioner to India at the British High Commission in New Delhi.
Ms Scott was joined by Ms. Wendy Matcham, Head of Resilient Environment, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Ms Sukanya Kumar, Acting Director, UK Research and Innovation India, while from Indian Side, Dr. M. Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Dr. O. P. Mishra, Director, National Center for Seismology, Ministry of Earth Sciences and Ms. Sukanya Kumar, Acting Director, UK Research and Innovation India took part in the deliberations.
It is a providential coincidence, said Dr Jitendra Singh that the Joint Geoscience Workshop on “Earth Hazards” is happening at a time when India is dealing with Joshimath incident in Uttarakhand, where the Ministry of Earth Sciences is involved in addressing the issue along with other agencies.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, taking a cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Earth Sciences has adopted Pro-active stance and established 37 New Seismological Centers (Observatories) in the last two years and now India has 152 such centers for extensive observation facilities generating huge data base for outcome-oriented analytics. He informed that in next 5 years, 100 more such seismological centers will be opened across the country for improving the real time data monitoring and data collection. India is moving closer to playing a critical role in seismological advancement and understanding, the Minister added.
