INDO-US SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FORUM

Indo-US Science and Technology Forum is established on March 21, 2000 to facilitate and promote the interaction, in India and the United States, of government, academia, and industry in science and technology. The Forum will focus on issues of common concern and activities of mutual benefit while exploring trends in science and technology. It shall promote research and development, the transfer of technology, the creation of a comprehensive electronic reference source for Indo-U.S. science and technology cooperation, and the electronic exchange and dissemination of information on Indo-US science and technology cooperation.

The Forum will commission studies, reports and papers and would assist in facilitating and promoting joint collaboration projects. It will seek recognition and affiliation with other international scientific societies deemed beneficial to promoting the goals of the Forum.

The Forum is registered as a non-profit Society under the Indian Societies Act. To ensure that the activities undertaken by the Forum conform to the highest standards of excellence, a Governing Body of eminent persons is in the process of establishment with equal number of highly respected representatives from India and the USA having genuine interest in encouraging Indo-U.S. science and technology collaboration. It will be composed of seven members from India and seven from the United States. Of  these, four members will come from government and the remaining from industry, academia and private organizations. The members of the Governing Body will monitor present activities and trends in bilateral science and technology cooperation and make recommendations and identify priorities for future cooperation

To provide official linkage to the Government of India, the Secretary of DST will be one of the seven Indian members of the Governing Body. 

In the interim period, however, to initiate the functioning of the forum, a seven member interim governing body for the forum has been constituted with the members including ambassador  Richard S Celeste of the USA, Prof V S Ramamurthy, Dr. R A Mashelkar and Dr. (Mrs) Manju Sharma, Secretaries to Government of India in the scientific departments.

To support the operations of the Forum an endowment will be created using the funds, which have remained unutilized from the earlier US India Fund. The Forum will manage this endowment and use the annual interest earnings to support its operations and activities. The Government of India will provide the Forum each year with matching funds that are equal to the annual interest earnings from the endowment. The Forum, in its capacity as an Indian Society, may also seek to raise funds from industry and private sources, in India and the United States, to support its activities.

Interim Governing Body
S. No.	Name	Designation
1.	Prof. V. S. Ramamurthy	Secretary, DST, Government of India
2.	Mr. Richard Celeste	US Ambassador
3.	Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, FRS	Secretary, DSIR, GOI and Director General, CSIR
4.	Dr. (Smt) Manju Sharma	Secretary, DBT, Government of India
5.	Prof. K. A. Padmanabhan	Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
6.	Ms. Alice Dress	US Diplomat
7.	Dr. A. P. Kulshreshtha	Advisor, DST, Government of India

Financing the Forum
An endowment fund consisting of Rs. 31,98,24,000 received from the US Government forms the corpus for the Forum. The Forum manages this endowment and uses the annual interest from this endowment to support its activities. Each year the Government of India, through the Department of Science and Technology, provides matching funds equal to the annual interest earning from the endowment to the Forum. The Forum is an autonomous body established under Indian Societies Registration Act, 1860 and in this capacity it can receive / raise funds from industry, private sources, individuals etc. both in India and United States. It is anticipated that in near future contributions to the Forum Will be tax exempt. INTER-AGENCY MEET MAY’97
	Since USIF was scheduled to end in January 1998, alternative arrangements to continue and strengthen the Indo-US S&T cooperation were deliberated during an official level meeting of Indian and US scientific agencies in New Delhi during May 19-21, 1997.

INDO US WORKSHOP ON WEATHER AND CLIMATE MODELLING

7-9^th February 2002 at Hotel Samrat, Kautilya Marg, New Delhi at 9:30 A.M.

(Sponsored by Indo-Us Science and Technology Forum)

(Organised by National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting)

Department of Science and Technology

Govt. of India

Along with improvement in the understanding of the atmospheric-oceanic processes considerable developments have taken place in the recent times in the availability of high power computers, communication facilities and observing techniques. It is time to make concerted efforts to transfer these developments to real life for the benefit of the society.

Weather and Climate Modelling has been perceived as a priority area of collaboration under the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum. With the focus of this program on the use of current knowledge of applications on real time forecasting of disastrous weather events and utilisation of new satellite data, the specific items of mutual interest between the Indian and the US scientists need to be identified. With this in view, a preliminary discussion on this subject was held at NCMRWF on 16^th March 2001. Three scientists from the US side, Prof. J. Shukla (COLA), Dr. S. Thurston (NOAA) and Dr. Stan Wilson (NOAA) participated in this meeting. Scientists from IITM, IMD, SAC, IITD, IISc. and DST represented the Indian side. It was recognised that at present no model is able to correctly simulate the space and time variability of monsoon and an urgent need of coordinated and concerted effort to work on the area of ‘Weather and Climate Modelling’ was felt.

In this connection a three-day workshop will be organized for bringing the Indian and US scientists together for finalizing the specific topics for collaborative work of mutual interest and benefit on real time forecasting. 13 scientists from USA belonging to various organizations and institutes/universities and about 50 scientists from various institutes of India would participate in this three-day workshop. During the workshop the PIs and co-PIs for the various projects evolving in the area of ‘Weather and Climate Modelling for real time application’ would be finalized. It is expected that the prospective PI’s will make a brief presentation on the proposed work at the workshop.

As a prelude to this workshop, a preparatory meeting of the prospective Indian participants from various leading Organizations and Academic Institutions was held on 19^th November 2001 at NCMRWF for working out and crystallizing the themes/topics for the workshop on which joint work could be pursued. A general consensus was arrived at for the following themes.

1. Meso-Scale NWP Model Development

2. Improvement of Global atmospheric circulation model for Medium Range forecast and regional climate studies.

3. Assimilation of Satellite Data for medium range, regional and meso-scale models.

4. Dynamical Seasonal Prediction / Simulation using global AGCM and regional climate(nested) models.

5. Studies related to Indian Ocean SST Dipole and Intra-seasonal Oscillation

6. Weekly , Monthly and seasonal forecast of Snow and temperature for mountain region of northern India.

7. Location specific forecast by interpretation of outputs from global and meso-scale NWP models.

8. Disaster Management for water related weather and climate phenomena

A second preparatory meeting for the February workshop is going to be held on 21^st January 2002 at NCMRWF. In this second and final preparatory meeting, further deliberations and detailed discussions would be carried out on each topic and scientific program for the workshop will be finalised. Scientists/Groups working in the related areas are welcome to provide suggestions/inputs for the forthcoming workshop at the following address.

Dr. S.V. Singh

Head, NCMRWF and Indian Coordinator

NCMRWF, INSAT Building,

Mausam Bhawan Complex

Lodhi Road; New Delhi 110003. India

Ph 91-11-4620904;4694639

FAX: 91-11-4690108

E mail: svsingh@ncmrwf.gov.in

List of US Participants for the Workshop

1. BHAKTA B. RATH
   Naval Research Laboratory Phone: 202-767-2538
   Code 6000 Fax: 202-404-1207
   Washington DC 20375-5341 ;Tel: 202-767-3566

E mail : rath@utopia.nrl.navy.mil

2. PROF. T.N. KRISHNAMURTI

Department of Meteorology,Florida State University,

Tallahassee; FL 32306-3034

Ph: 904-644-2210; FAX 904-644-2210

E mail: tnk@io.met.fsu.edu

3. HUA-LU PAN

CHIEF, GLOBAL MODELING BRANCH

W/NP23, RM 204 WWBG

NOAA; 5200 Auth Road; Camp Spring, MD 20746-4304

Tel: 301-763-8000x7234

FAX: 301-763-8545; E mail :hualu.pan@noaa.gov

4. DR. SUMANT NIGAM

Dept. of Meteorology ;University of Maryland College Park,

MD 20742-2425. U.S.A.; FAX: 301 314 9482

E-mail: nigam@atmos.umd.edu

5. DR. C.-S. LIOU

Naval Research Laboratory; Marine Meteorology Division,

7, Grace Hopper Avenue STOP 2

Monterey; CA 93943-5502 ;Ph: 831-656-4721/4758

E mail: liou@nrlmry.navy.mil

6. DR. P. KRISHNA RAO 
NESDIS EXEC Route: E ;Bldg: SSMC1 RM: 8212 
1335 East West HWY ;Silver Spring MD 20910-3284
 Tel: (301)713-9200 x120 ; FAX:(301)713-1249; 
	E mail: P.Krishna.Rao@noaa.gov

7. DR. RICHARD GALL,

Director, MMM

National Center for Atmospheric Research
PO Box # 3000; Boulder, Colorado 80307
USA; Tel: 303-497-8160 

E mail : gall@ucar.edu

 8. WEI-KUO TAO                                   

  Mesoscale Modeling and Dynamic Group           
 Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes Branch, Code 912  
 Laboratory for Atmospheres                        
 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center ;Greenbelt, MD  20771                             
 Phone: (301) 614-6269    ; FAX: (301) 614-5492    
 E mail :tao@agnes.gsfc.nasa.gov 
 

9. DEVDUTTA S. NIYOGI
219 Research III Building, Centennial Campus
Box 7236, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7236 
Telephone : 919-513-2101
Email : dev_niyogi@ncsu.edu

10. PROF. SETHU RAMAN

Director and State Climatologist

Professor of Atmospheric & Marine Sciences,

213, Research III Building, Centennial Campus, Raleigh,

NC 27695-7236; Tel: 919-515-1440

 E-mail : sethu_raman@ncsu.edu 
 
 11. DR. JIMY DUDHIA,

Scientist
National Center for Atmospheric Research
PO Box # 3000; Boulder, Colorado 80307; USA

Tel: 303-497-8950

 E mail : dudhia@ucar.edu
 
12. Dr. Mitch Moncrieff, 
     NCAR/MMM Division 
 P. O. Box 3000 
 Boulder, CO 80307 
 E mail :moncrief @ucar.edu  
 

13. Dr. Jon Ahlquist
Associate Professor
Department of Meteorology
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida 32306-4520
 Email: ahlquist @ met.fsu.edu