About India Meteorological Department (IMD):
- Established in 1875, IMD is the National Meteorological Service of the country and the principal government agency in all matters relating to meteorology and allied subjects.
- It functions under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
- It is headquartered in Delhi and operates hundreds of observation stations across India and Antarctica.
- There are 6 Regional Meteorological Centres, each under a Deputy Director General, with headquarters at Mumbai, Chennai, New Delhi, Calcutta, Nagpur, and Guwahati.
- IMD Mandate:
- To take meteorological observations and to provide current and forecast meteorological information for weather-sensitive activities like agriculture, shipping, aviation, offshore oil explorations, etc.
- To warn against severe weather phenomena like tropical cyclones, norwesters, duststorms, heavy rains and snow, cold and heat waves.
- To provide meteorological statistics required for agriculture, water resource management, industries, oil exploration, and other nation-building activities.
- To conduct and promote research in meteorology and allied disciplines.
- IMD is also one of the six Regional Specialized Meteorological Centres of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
- It is responsible for forecasting, naming, and distributing warnings for tropical cyclones in the Northern Indian Ocean region, including the Straits of Malacca, the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the Persian Gulf.
