24th Foundation Day of INCOIS
Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India commemorated its 24th Foundation Day today. The ‘INCOIS Foundation Day Lecture’ was delivered by Dr. Pierre Bahurel, Director General, Mercator Ocean, France on “Ocean Prediction and the UN Decade opportunity”.
In this talk, Dr. Bahurel drew several parallels with the important activities of Mercator Ocean and INCOIS and highlighted the need for larger intergovernmental collaboration among global ocean forecasting centers under the umbrella of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-30).
Dr. M. Ravichandran, Secretary, MoES and Chairman, INCOIS Governing Council graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Ravichandran highlighted that INCOIS is pursuing a focussed mandate on Ocean Observations, Modelling, Information and Advisory Services for the benefit of the country.
He also stressed the important role of INCOIS in development of Ocean Climate Change Advisories under the Deep Ocean Mission and the importance of its ocean information services to the Blue Economy of India. Former Directors of INCOIS Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, Dr. Shailesh Nayak and Dr. Satheesh Shenoi spoke on the occasion highlighting the importance of INCOIS activities for the safety of lives and livelihoods of coastal communities, and for sustainable development of our oceans and coasts.
Dr. T. Srinivasa Kumar, Director, INCOIS highlighted that since its establishment on 3rd February 1999, this vibrant organization has grown as one of the leading institutes world-over in the field of Operational Oceanography. The services provided by INCOIS, such as the Tsunami and Storm Surge Early Warnings, Ocean State Forecasts, Potential Fishing Zone advisories and Ocean Data Services are proved to have immense socio-economic benefits for a wide range of stakeholders and enhance the lives and livelihoods of coastal communities. The Tsunami early warning centre of INCOIS is identified as a Tsunami Service Provider (TSP) for the Indian Ocean region, and it’s International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean) is recognized as a Category-2 Centre (C2C) of UNESCO for training young researchers and professionals from all over the world in different branches of Oceanography.