TIRUPATI: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has said it was imperative of scientists and researchers to address issues of global warming, extreme weather and drought cycles that could affect the lives of the people, plants and animals.
Addressing a gathering of scientists, young researchers and students at the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL) near here on Monday, Venkaiah said, “As we all are aware, weather and climate were posing new challenges with each passing day and as a result we were experiencing global warming and its effects in the form of extreme weather, cyclonic storms, intense thunderstorms, torrential rain, and droughts.” Changing weather and climate patterns also affect agriculture and economy as well, he said. “After visiting MSR Radar, Rayleigh Doppler Lidar and High Performance Computation Facility and Data Centre on NARL premises, I got a fairly good idea on the ongoing work and the activities identified for the future,” the Vice President said.
“Also, I have been apprised of the technological developments that have taken place and the knowledge we have gained in the broad domain of atmospheric and space sciences,” he said. He termed his visit to NARL as a pilgrimage of knowledge. Venkaiah advised the students not to forget five things in life - parents, native place, mother tongue, motherland and teacher. NARL was started nearly 25 years ago as a National MST Radar Facility with high-power MST radar to uncover mysteries of the middle atmosphere. It was built indigenously.
The V-P congratulated the NARL team for establishing a new system by upgrading the original system with new technology providing new capabilities and improved sensitivity.In an indirect reference to the earlier draft education policy which proposed English and Hindi as mandatory languages, Venkaiah said, “There is an ongoing debate on learning a language. Learning more languages is good. But imposing a language on people is wrong. It should be left to people’s discretion.”
NARL Director Dr Amit Kumar Patra, in his welcome speech, said that they were planning to establish a centre on instrumentation and research in Tirupati. On academic and research front, the NARL has awarded 115 PhDs, as many as 1,000 students have completed M.Phil and 850 research papers were published in various national and international journals. Amit Kumar said that the research laboratory has been providing weather forecast for ISRO’s launch operations at SHAR. NARL in-charge director Dr TVC Sharma presented vote of thanks. District Collector PS Pradyumna, Tirupati Sub-Collector Dr Mahesh Kumar and civic chief V Vijayarama Raju were present.
Venkaiah arrives at Tirumala
TIRUMALA: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu arrived at Tirumala on Monday evening. On his arrival at Sri Padmavathi Guest House, he was accorded warm welcome by TTD executive officer Anil Kumar Singhal, District Collector PS Pradyumna and others. Venkaiah will offer prayers at Lord Venkateswara temple in the early hours of Tuesday.