Mega Science Vision-2035 Report on Climate Research:
The Mega Science Vision-2035 (MSV) Report on Climate Research raised an alarm that India has significantly lost its ability to build indigenous scientific instruments.
- This has made the country heavily dependent on imported equipment for climate observations, which is often run uncalibrated for years, severely compromising the quality of India’s climate data.
Key Highlights of the Report Climate Research:
- India’s climate science sector has almost entirely lost its domestic instrument-manufacturing capacity.
Consequently, critical environmental data relies on imported equipment. - Because imported instruments are routinely operated without proper calibration for years, it has led to “incorrect data being reported in national and international journals.”
- This is triggering global questions regarding the credibility of Indian scientific output.
- While India is racing toward its Paris Agreement commitment of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030, the report warns that the long-term climate consequences of massive solar and wind energy installations remain “poorly understood” and require systematic, long-term environmental monitoring.
- An Earth System Model combines oceanic, land surface, and atmospheric data to simulate long-term climate trajectories.
- Currently, Indian models are primarily adapted from the US and Europe. These foreign models are highly sensitive to regional inputs that they were never designed to integrate, making them inadequate for India’s specific climatic conditions.
- The mandatory use of the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) (prioritizes the lowest-bidding India-registered vendors) for procurement created challenges for scientific institutions, as vendors often failed to supply the customized, high-precision equipment required for advanced research.
- While global tenders offered an alternative, they were frequently delayed by lengthy bureaucratic procedures.
- The Finance Ministry in June 2025 relaxed procurement norms, allowing select institutions to procure scientific instruments outside GeM for purchases up to Rs 200 crore.
