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Integrating Earth System Science and Public Policy Research: The Indian Perspective

Integrating Earth System Science and Public Policy Research: The Indian Perspective

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Event Title
Integrating Earth System Science and Public Policy Research: The Indian Perspective
Event Details
<strong>Centre for Studies in Science Policy School of Social Sciences, JNU </strong> a Talk on <strong>Integrating Earth System Science and Public Policy Research: The Indian Perspective</strong> By <strong>Dr Shailesh Nayak</strong> Earth System Science Organisation, Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi Date: <strong>Wednesday, 21st October 2015</strong> <strong>Abstract:</strong> The Earth behaves as a single, interlinked and self-regulating system. Its components, atmosphere, ocean, geosphere, cryosphere and biosphere, function together and interactions related to transfer of energy and material are complex. The earth system processes helps to understand prediction of weather, climate and hazards and sustainable use of resources. The public policy should be guided towards providing new perspective of earth system and discovery of new phenomena, understanding of earth processes as well as their interaction with human system, and application of this knowledge to develop services for societal, environmental and economic benefits. The policy priorities should focus on the following aspects: (i) Earth observations, including in situ, satellite as well as indirect measurement of earth properties, and data policy. (ii) Understanding of processes, through modelling and investment in necessary infrastructure, computing resources and networking. (iii) Development of services to build resilience to hazards and climate change; clean energy and sustainable use of resources. (iv) Innovation and business development. (v) International cooperation. (vi) Education, research and development of human resources. (vii) Financial resources, essentially investments towards basic research, education and building infrastructure. The above mentioned aspects will be discussed in the Indian context. About the Speaker: Dr. Shailesh Nayak currently is 'Distinguished Scientist' in the Ministry of Earth Sciences. He was the Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, during August 2008-2015, and provided leadership for programs related to earth system sciences. He obtained PhD degree in Geology from the M.S University of Baroda in 1980. He has been credited with launching many research programs related to monsoon, air-sea interaction, changing water cycle, atmospheric chemistry, coastal vulnerability, climate services, etc. with US, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, Norway, South Korea. He had set up HPC system having 1.1 Peta flops capacity for weather and climate research and operations. He had restructured meteorological activities in the country and thus improved weather and hazard related services. He had set up the state-of-the-art tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean in 2007 in just two years time, and providing tsunami advisories to the Indian Ocean rim countries. He pioneered in development of algorithms and methodologies for application of remote sensing to coastal and marine environment, and generated baseline database of the Indian coast, and developed services for fishery and ocean state forecast. He is Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru, He has been awarded Honorary Doctor of Science by the Andhra University in 2011, Assam University in 2013 and Amity University in 2015. He was conferred the prestigious ISC Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Award 2012 as well as Bhaskara Award for 2009, Fellowship of the International Society of Photogrammetry &amp; Remote Sensing (ISPRS) and Elected Member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) for his outstanding contributions in remote sensing and GIS. He has published about 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.