The Hindu Business Line : EU keen on tie-up with India on disaster studies

THE European Commission (EC) is keen to have on board key Indian scientists, who would participate in the multi-country, multi-institute, research studies underway on global issues such as earthquakes, landslides, floods, forest fires and climate change.

Given the expertise and capability of Indian researchers, their participation could accelerate the progress in major EC-funded projects. Already 32 institutes from the European Union (EU) countries are collaborating, according to Dr Anver Ghazi, Head of Unit of Global Change of EC's Research Directorate-General, Brussels.

The EC has a research budget of euros 17.5 billion. The Global Change Unithas a support of euro 700 million.

"My focus is on earthquake and floods and climate modelling at regional levels", the India-born scientist, known for his studies on ozone layer, told Business Line.

"We have organised three major EC-Japan workshops on earthquakes in Japan in the recent past. The idea is to develop a joint programme to understand the science of earthquakes and effective steps to minimise the disaster. Japan is among the most vulnerable countries to earthquakes," said Dr Ghazi, who was in Hyderabad recently to attend an India-EC conference on climate change organised by the University of Hyderabad and the Union Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Among the European countries, the UK, France and Germany have developed considerable strengths in understanding these global change issues.

India and China are the two important countries with which the EC is trying to forge joint collaborations to improve the overall understanding, since earthquakes, monsoons, floods etc. are globally interlinked events and need international efforts, he said.

The monsoons for example are influenced by global changes. Therefore, to understand and forecast monsoons at the more regional and local level of say the Indian monsoon system, one needs international co-operation and data exchange.

The EC is keen to develop collaboration with the Indian Meteorological Department. A similar initiative has been put in place in Africa, to understand the monsoon and climate change at the regional level, Dr Ghazi said.

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