Funds for IMD have been raised from Rs 469.75 crore in 2021 - 2022 to 514.03 crore for the next financial year. The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has bagged an additional budget allocation of 12 per cent in the Union Budget announced on Tuesday. For the upcoming financial year, the MoES will receive a total of Rs 2,653.51 crore, with a hike in budgets mainly for the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the multi-crore and ambitious Deep Ocean Mission.
Funds for IMD have been raised from Rs 469.75 crore in 2021 – 2022 to 514.03 crore for the next financial year.
In June last year, the Rs 4,077-crore Deep Ocean Mission was given Union Cabinet approval and it is among MoES projects to bag the highest jump in fund share this year. With this, it is expected that research works would be taken up at an accelerated pace this year. In the upcoming financial year, a sum of Rs 650 crore has been announced for this mission. A estimated Rs 2,823.4 crore will be spent during the mission’s first phase scheduled between 2021 and 2024.
The mission covers development of technologies for deep sea mining, a manned submersible, development of ocean climate change advisory services, development of technology for exploration, conservation of deep-sea biodiversity and deep ocean survey and setting up of a marine station for ocean biology.
However, the autonomous institutions operating under the aegis of the MoES have not been allotted appreciable hike in their annual budgets. From a total of Rs 183 crore in the last financial year, the five autonomous institutions will be given Rs 199.07 crore during 2022 – 2023.
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