In the near future, the common man will be able to receive SMS alerts on weather forecast and cyclones from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The system was launched on Thursday as part of Good Governance Day and the Modi Government’s flagship programme of Digital India.
This round-the-clock web-based operational system would send SMS to individuals who register themselves at the weather forecaster’s official website — www.imd.gov.in. However, the whole process would take almost a year to get operational since it is required to collate the data. For this IMD is working closely with the Ministry of Home Affairs and agencies like National Information Centre and NDMA.
“The information should be provided from the national to village level,” said the Minister for Earth Sciences Dr. Harshvardhan, adding that principals of schools should also be provided this information as they can disseminate it to a large number of children.IMD is also taking assistance from Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, for the project.
The Director General of the IMD lS Rathore informed that the meteorological department has taken the leverage of Digital India Programme to utilize ‘Mobile Seva’ of department of electronics and information technology (DeitY) for SMS based cyclone alerts/warnings for wide range of Users’, including disaster managers, targeted users and general public.
This is a part of the IMD’s initiatives, taken in recent years, for improvement in weather forecast and warning services based on latest tools and technologies including information and communication technology, he added. The upgradation in cyclone warning systems has resulted in significant reduction in loss of life and property, in recent times. This for instance was observed when Phailin and Hudhud Odisha coast near Gopalpur and Andhra Pradesh coast near Visakhapatnam in October 2013 and 2014 respectively when loss of life and resources was minimised.