<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><b><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>CONTEXT</span></span></span></b> </span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>The NCAER report was released by the Union Minister of Science and Technology, Health and Family Welfare and Earth Sciences</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><b><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>NCAER (National Council of Applied Economic Research)</span></span></span></b><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”> -It is an independent, not for profit, economic policy research and think tank based in New Delhi.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><b><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>Highlights of the report</span></span></span></b></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>• India’s investment of nearly 1,000 Crores in the National Monsoon Mission and High-Performance Computing (HPC) facilities would provide benefits worth rupees 50 thousand Crores to nearly 1.07 Crore below poverty line (BPL) agricultural households and 53 Lakh BPL fisher-folk households in the country</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>• A total of 173 districts (of the total 732 districts in India) across 16 states (of the total 29) were considered for the study to appropriately represent agro-climatic zones, rain-fed areas, coverage of major crops, and incidence of extreme weather events in the country.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>• It also assessed economic benefits to the agriculture-related womenfolk of the country. Women play an important role in various agriculture activities, for example, in the fisheries sector, they support finance, supplies and sourcing, staff management, and marketing.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>• They handle the customer base and enhance it, keep track of prices, nets, and other fishing assets.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>• Realizing the importance of weather predictions to women, NCAER estimated benefits of nearly 13 thousand Crore rupees to women alone, which is 26 percent of the total benefit provided by the national monsoon mission and high-performance computing facilities.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>• The survey also revealed that every woman from a fishing household included in the survey wanted to know the ocean state forecast provided by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) through messaging services on an everyday basis.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><b><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>NATIONAL MONSOON MISSION</span></span></span></b></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>• The National Monsoon Mission was launched by MoES in 2012 with an aim to develop a state-of-the-art, dynamic monsoon prediction system for short, medium, and long-range forecasts.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>• The augmentation of the National Monsoon Mission with High-performance Computing facilities has helped the country in achieving a paradigm shift in weather and climate modeling for operational weather forecasts. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”> </p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><b><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:"Cambria","serif"”>SOURCE – PIB</span></span></span></b></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”> </p>