How start-ups can help IMD provide accurate weather forecast, on your WhastApp

What if people could get more accurate weather forecasts well in advance? That will soon be a possibility with India Meteorology Department (IMD) opening its doors to tech wizards in the buzzing start-up community.The effort will be like having an AI-assisted local meteorologist for your city sending timely information on WhatsApp and SMSes in the local language.Last month, the department issued a tender inviting start-ups to provide support in the development of various meteorological applications and services.At least 15 start-ups in weather intelligence, forecasting and related space have already submitted their proposals to IMD which extended the last date to June 7 to encourage wider participation.The department may meet shortlisted members by late June to discuss their proposals before finalising the memoranda of understanding.Some start-ups are taking weather forecasts and applying a layer of “actionability” to them by working on how the weather will impact crop yields, impact energy demand for utilities and what actions can farmers or energy workers take given that these forecasts are more effective.“IMD models are physics-based models that have not yet leveraged the power of machine learning into integrating satellite images, radar stations and understanding the oceanic and atmospheric patterns that result in extreme weather events such as the flash floods in Kedarnath a few years ago,” Himanshu Gupta, co-founder & CEO of ClimateAi, a climate resilience platform, said.The support sought from start-ups is in four key areas -- development of sensors or instruments, software and application tools, AI/ML applications and warning dissemination tools.DS Pai, head of Environment Monitoring and Research Centre and Numerical Weather Prediction, said that technologically advanced tools and devices developed by start-ups could help improve the observation network and monitoring of weather and climate, create robust prediction models and generate tailormade weather and climate information for various users, enable efficient dissemination of information and early warning.“It will help reduce reliance on imported devices for weather monitoring and they were looking forward to more make-in-India devices to improve weather predictions,” he added.IMD will provide the selected start-ups with historical, scientific data and capacity development support as well as minimum financial support in the initial stages. “There could be a handful of start-ups specialising in different fields that could be on-boarded for this exercise. The quantum of financial support will be decided,” a government source said.The weather bureau wants support from start-ups on the development of low-cost sensors for the air meteorological observation system, air quality monitoring sensors and aviation meteorological instruments. Such superior tools could benefit health, aviation, travel and tourism sectors.Better weather forecasting tools could also help the farming community and IMD is seeking support on “precision farming by combining meteorology and data science to develop customized weather services for farmers and agronomists,” the tender said.Development of robust weather monitoring systems could help extend extreme weather monitoring and forecast services to the public, stakeholders and disaster managers for risk reduction and natural resource management.Audio production: Prateek Kapoor