The Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan today said India was actively pursing its goals on science and technology fronts through tie-ups with international scientific communities.
“We recently had the Indo-US technology summit, which was followed by the setting up of the Einstein-Bhabha joint fund. India is also part of the five-nation group developing the world’s biggest telescope, which will be installed at Hawaii by 2023. Most of the software and hardware works for the telescope were being done in India,” he said, while addressing a workshop here to mark the tenth anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami.
The 30-meter telescope is being developed at a cost of $ 1.4 billion.
The Minister said the department was also setting up a GIS-based 3D protocol for more effective early warning system for tsunamis. “The protocol is initially being development for Cuddalore and Nagapattnam areas, but will eventually be expanded for other coastal areas. Today 26 per cent of the country’s population reside along the coast, facing the potential threat of cyclones and tsunamis,” he said.
On the tsunami warning centre at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services in Hyderabad, Vardhan said the centre was today the world’s best tsunami warning systems. “It has so far never given any false alerts that had to be retracted. Even advanced nations such as Japan had given out false (tsunami) alerts,” he said.
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