ACTIVITY REPORT ( Dr S D Attri, Secretary IMS)

1. International recognition for IMS

A meeting of world’s 20 Meteorological Societies was held on 13^th January, 2009 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, to consider establishing an International Forum of Meteorological Societies (IFMS) that would address issues of common concern. The meeting was attended by President IMS as founder members. One mechanism for achieving the Forum’s goals would be a series of occasional meetings of representatives of the world’s national and regional meteorological societies. Those participating in the planning meeting indicated broad and enthusiastic support for the Forum concept. 2^nd meeting of IFMS would be held in USA during 19-20 January 2010 and National Council (NC), IMS has decided to participate.

2. INTROMET 2009

(i) Indian Meteorological Society organized an International Conference (INTROMET 2009) on “Challenges and Opportunities in Agrometeorology” during 23-25 February 2009 in New Delhi. The conference was participated by about 300 experts from India and 20 from abroad (USA, Korea, Egypt, Ukraine, Italy, Philippines, South Africa, China and Switzerland) including International organization like WMO.

The scientific programme was deliberated through eight sub-themes viz.

· Weather Forecasting (Oral presentation: 5)

· Monsoon Variability and Crop Production (Oral presentation: 6)

· Operational Agrometeorology (Oral presentation: 6)

· Agromet. Information System (Oral presentation: 6)

· Adaptation to Climate Change (Oral presentation: 7)

· Risk Evaluation and Management (Oral presentation: 7)

· Crop Weather Relationship (Oral presentation: 5)

· Extreme Weather Events (Oral presentation: 3)

In addition to above, 63 short oral presentations were made on above themes along with poster display. A special session was also organized to share the wisdom of Veteran Scientists on “Role of IMS in addressing challenges in Weather and Climate services”. Recommendations of Conference were presented and finalized.

(ii)The Abstract Volume of INTROMET 2009 and “ Sovenir” containing details of activities of IMS, and sponsoring agencies like IMD, WMO, MoES, DST, DOS, NCMRWF and ICAR were brought out. The participation of industries was a step forward in this important arena of Agrometeorology.

(iii) IMS has also entered in an agreement with Springer, USA for publication of papers presented in INTROMET 2009 in Book entitled “Challenges and Opportunities in Agrometeorology” and the papers are presently under evaluation.

(iv) IMS organized ICT meeting of the World Meteorological Organization during 26-28 February, 2009 in New Delhi.

3. IMS Publication: Vayu Mandal

IMS has initiated publication of Vayu Mandal again from 2006 onwards after a gap of 4 years. Fours issues (2006 and 2007) have been brought out and sent to the members. January 2008 issue is in press. July 2008 issue is being finalized.

4. Publication of IMS Brochure

IMS Brochure containing detailed information on IMS activities, publications, National/ International Conferences/ seminars, Honorary Fellows/ Fellows, / Life Membership and future plans was brought and sent to the members.

5. New Website of IMS

New Website of IMS (http://www.indianmetsoc.com ) has been developed and maintained which contains details of IMS activities, plans, reports, publications etc.

6 Tax Issue

IMS pursued the tax issue with all its chapters and concerned authorities of the Government of India . Records of all chapters have been compiled by IMS. PAN Number has been allotted to the Society. IMS has also refunded the interest income to all the chapters as per IMS constitution.

7. New Members:

156 and 45 personnel have applied for IMS Life Membership and Annual Membership respectively. GB may kindly induct them into IMS.

8. Honorary Fellowship

NC, IMS has recommended the conferring of Honorary fellowship to Dr Madhavan Nair, Ex Chairman, ISRO for his significant contribution to space and atmospheric sciences. GB is requested for formal approval.

9. IMS Election

Elections for National Council for the period 2009-11 has been conducted. The formal announcement of results of election will be made by the Returning Officer.

10. Seminars/ Conferences/ Scientific Talks by Local chapters:

· IMS Pune organized “ MONSOON-2009” Workshop during December 2009.

· IMS Chennai organized National Conference on “Recent advances in Agro- meteorology and Space Technology for sustainable food security in Tamil Nadu” during 08-09 October 2009 which was participated by more than 55 delegates. IMS, HQ provided Rs 50,000/- as seed money to the chapter for successful organization of the Conference.

· IMS Kolkata organized International Colloquium on “ Global warming”, and National Colloquium on “ Solar Eclipse and Other Astronomical Events’” during 2009.

· IMS Hyderabad organized International Conference on Food Security.

· Popular talks on Meteorology were regularly organized by different chapters.

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