Comments
The Government of Maharashtra plans to set up over 2,000 automatic weather stations by early next year. For this, the Government has appointed the country's first weather forecast firm, Skymet, as its consulting partner.
The project, to be done through public private partnership model, is a first of its kind in the country. It will be able to give long-range forecasts thereby helping farmers, even at a remote village, to know the weather patterns and increase crop productivity.
The Government will invest close to Rs 100 crore in the project, that will benefit both the energy and agriculture sector, said a senior government official.
“We will provide weather related information and statistics to the Government and also help them in choosing the location,” said Skymet's Founder and CEO, Mr Jatin Singh.
Skymet is also helping the Government find right partners for the project. This would be finalised over the next three-four months, he said.
Skymet, started in 2003 as a weather forecast firm serving the media houses, intends to become an integrated earth science company going ahead.
“The project in Maharashtra is one more step towards that,” Mr Singh said. Omnivore Capital, an agri-tech venture fund backed by the Godrej Group, has picked up 33 per cent stake in the company for around Rs 10-15-crore, according to sources.
The 34-year-old CEO said Skymet is betting big on the energy sector and is targeting 60 per cent growth in revenues this year. The company's overall revenues stand at $1 million at present.
Client list
“The Indian economy is growing and weather is very important for sectors like agriculture and energy. We are adding more clients in these sectors. We also plan to invest around Rs 3-4 crore this year on research and development” Mr Singh added. Power Grid, ONGC, Gazprom and Reliance Energy are already in its client list.
Skymet provides data to electricity distributors on temperature, rainfall, humidity, and wind speed and direction every 15 minutes. The company has built algorithms for forecasting temperature, rainfall and humidity at the village level and is, now, able to provide daily forecasts.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.