Government Looks To Establish Centres for Excellence at IIT-Kharagpur, IISc-Bengaluru

The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is planning to set up two Centres for Excellence (CEC) at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur and the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), Bengaluru.

These centres will be established to train young researchers in developing software and algorithms needed for monitoring specific weather events.

M Rajeevan, Secretary, MoES, said, "We have received a proposal from IIT Kharagpur and our team will be visiting the institute later this month to finalise the setting up of CEC."

"The CECs will undertake training for researchers and students, to develop hardware, software and algorithms. These will help track thunder, lightning, wind speed or similar weather phenomenon specifically, helping improve operational forecasts," Rajeevan added.

A Centre for Excellence is among the latest initiative that is undertaken by the MoES for developing human resources in the field of atmospheric sciences, both for operational and research purposes.