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Joshi to inaugurate polar science research centre

ndia's premier polar science research organisation, the national Centre for Antartic and Ocean Research will be formally inaugurated here on Wednesday by human resources development minister Murli Manohar Joshi.

The Rs 14-crore centre takes over from the department of ocean development the coordination of India's annual expeditions to Antartica. It will now act as the nodal agency for in-house research and development in polar sciences, besides establishing and maintaining a research base on the remote continent itself.

Since India's first scientific expedition to Antartica in 1981, more than 1,500 scientists from 50 national research labs and universities have collected data and conducted research in 19 expeditions so far.

Programmes have been conducted in atmospheric sciences, meteorology, earth sciences, glaciology, biology and environmental sciences, medicine, human physiology, engineering and communication.

"NCAOR will develop a complete database inventory and repository for Antartic and Arctic science and logistics which will include a polar museum and library," centre director P.C. Pandey told The Asian Age.

Science a governmental evaluation of the Antartic programme, the centre will plan and optimise logistical and scientific programmes, and coordinate joint activities with South Africa, Peru, Iran, Italy, Argentina, Germany, Russia, Scandinavia and the USA.

For the first time the recent expedition left from Cape Town, South Africa, instead of its usual departure point of Goa, resulting in reducing ship charter costs and travel days. On average expeditions cost Rs. 10 crores, Mr Pandey said.

The current team will focus on two new ares - paleaoclimate studies using organic matter from lake sediments and ice-cores, and setting up an environmental monitoring laboratory at the Indian station Maitri.

The Asian Age, Ahmedabad
April 5, 2000