NEW DELHI: India today reaffirmed its commitment to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) to provide weather forecast to South and Southeast Asian region to mitigate loss to life and property due to natural calamities.
Secretary General, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Geneva Petteri Taalas, today called on Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, and assured full support of WMO and hoped that India will continue to play leading role in meteorological observations, services and capacity building of developing countries.
Vardhan assured WMO that India would continue to play a vital role in implementation of its programmes in India and would provide forecast services/advisories to the South East Asian region to mitigate loss to life and property due to natural calamities.
India provides weather forecast/ advisories warning related to cyclone and tsunami to South and Southeast Asian countries and the Indian Ocean Rim Nations.
This is the first visit of Taalas to any National Meteorological Services in the world after taking over charge of Secretary General of WMO on January 1.
During his visit, he also met Secretary, MoES M Rajeevan, India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General L S Rathore, and seniors officers of IMD.
A presentation on the activities of IMD and contribution to WMO activities through Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre, Regional Training Centre and Regional telecommunication Centres of WMO functioning at IMD was also made.