Note: This article has been republished from Down To Earth.
The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) on Thursday hosted its fourth national conference on climate change—Mitigation Initiatives & Adaptation Challenges, Convergence & Action Agenda.
The event, aimed at facilitating a discussion among the government, industry and the civil society, was inaugurated by Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Y. S. Chowdary.
In his address, Chowdary said that the Narendra Modi government had been stressing on the development of green technologies since coming to power last year. The minister lamented the lack of a coordinated plan to mitigate and offset the damages caused by natural disasters and announced that the ministry was working on building fixed plans for disaster management, especially by utilising social media tools.
Chowdary added that there was a requirement for the Indianisation of mitigation strategies and put forth Prime Minister Modi’s belief on revisiting “ancient Indian technologies“. He said it was “desirable” to keep the most vulnerable communities in mind, while designing such a strategy.
‘No Need To Worry About Monsoon’
When asked about rainfall estimates, Chowdary said that it was difficult to predict rainfall-associated adversities due to the lack of accuracy in the available data.
Speaking to reporters after the conference, he said, “Monsoon is in a positive trend, there is no need to have any anxiety, (this) much I can say. I cannot give numbers because the barometer is not there to measure anything perfectly about nature; it is on the positive side and we do not need to worry at all.”
The inaugural addresses were followed by two plenary discussion sessions on mitigation and adaptation strategies and technologies that featured participants from the government, industries, NGOs and the scientific community.