Govt plans ₹10,000-crore push to modernise India’s weather forecasting
The Ministry of Earth Sciences has proposed a ₹10,000-crore initiative to modernise India's weather forecasting infrastructure
The finance ministry is vetting the fiscal impact of the proposal and is expected to decide shortly
The proposal aims to build the ecosystem needed to strengthen prediction models and set up a more robust early-warning system
The push is understood to build on the existing Mission Mausam framework for weather and climate observation
Mission Mausam
Mission Mausam is a Union Cabinet-approved scheme under the Ministry of Earth Sciences aimed at making India "weather-ready" and "climate-smart" by strengthening observation networks, prediction models and forecasting capability. It was approved with an initial two-year outlay, and the proposal referenced in this news represents a much larger follow-on push to scale the mission's infrastructure.
Key Details
- Approved by the Union Cabinet in September 2024, with an initial outlay of ₹2,000 crore over two years
- Implementing institutions: India Meteorological Department (IMD), National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), and Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM)
- Planned infrastructure under the mission includes about 50 Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs), 60 Radiosonde/Radio Wind stations, 100 disdrometers, 10 wind profilers, and 25 radiometers, along with urban and ocean testbeds
- Objective: improve accuracy of weather and climate predictions and expand very-high-resolution, city-scale forecasting
The ₹10,000-crore proposal being vetted by the finance ministry is a scaled-up continuation of the Mission Mausam approach, aiming to deepen the observation and prediction infrastructure first funded in 2024.
Institutional Architecture: Ministry of Earth Sciences
The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), established in 2006, is the nodal ministry for atmospheric, oceanic, and related earth-system sciences in India. It oversees weather, climate, ocean and seismology-related agencies and issues official forecasts and warnings for cyclones, floods, and other weather hazards.
Key Details
- Key institutions under MoES: IMD (est. 1875, national weather forecasting agency), IITM Pune (atmospheric research), NCMRWF (numerical weather prediction), INCOIS (ocean information and tsunami warning), and NCPOR (polar research)
- IMD is the nodal agency for issuing cyclone warnings, monsoon forecasts, and severe weather alerts under the National Disaster Management framework
- MoES-funded infrastructure upgrades directly feed into India's Nationally Determined Contributions-linked climate resilience and disaster preparedness commitments
The proposed ₹10,000-crore fiscal push would primarily strengthen MoES-run institutions like IMD, IITM and NCMRWF, which run the numerical models and observation networks behind daily and extreme-weather forecasts.
Early Warning Systems and Disaster Management
Robust early-warning systems are a key pillar of India's disaster management framework, which is coordinated by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. Improved weather prediction feeds directly into cyclone, flood, and extreme-heat early warnings that trigger evacuation and mitigation protocols.
Key Details
- The Disaster Management Act, 2005 established the NDMA (chaired by the Prime Minister) and State/District Disaster Management Authorities for a coordinated disaster response framework
- IMD's Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)-based warnings and colour-coded (green/yellow/orange/red) alerts are used to communicate weather risk to district administrations
- India has committed, under global frameworks such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030), to strengthen multi-hazard early warning systems
The proposal's stated aim of a "robust early-warning system" ties directly into India's broader disaster-risk-reduction commitments and the operational chain from IMD forecasts to NDMA-coordinated response.
Numerical Weather Prediction and Monsoon Forecasting
Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) uses mathematical models of atmospheric physics, run on high-performance computers, to generate forecasts. India's monsoon forecast accuracy has direct economic significance because agriculture, reservoir management, and disaster preparedness depend on it.
Key Details
- NCMRWF is India's dedicated agency for NWP model development and operational forecasting support to IMD
- IMD issues the Long Range Forecast (LRF) for the southwest monsoon in two stages (April and May/June) each year
- High-resolution modelling and denser observation networks (radars, radiosondes) are inputs that directly improve NWP model accuracy
The proposed modernisation is aimed precisely at strengthening the observational data and computing capacity that feed India's NWP models, which underpin monsoon and extreme-weather forecasts relevant to agriculture and disaster management.
- Proposed new weather-modernisation outlay under vetting: ₹10,000 crore
- Mission Mausam (2024) original outlay: ₹2,000 crore over two years, approved by Union Cabinet in September 2024
- Implementing agencies: IMD, NCMRWF, IITM (all under Ministry of Earth Sciences)
- Planned Mission Mausam infrastructure: ~50 Doppler Weather Radars, 60 Radiosonde/Radio Wind stations, 100 disdrometers, 10 wind profilers, 25 radiometers
- Ministry of Earth Sciences established: 2006
- India Meteorological Department (IMD) established: 1875
- Relevant global framework: Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2015-2030