Sunday, February 20 2005 18:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: The Centre would spend Rs 120 crore in developing tsunami warning system which would be put in place within two years' time, Union Minister for science, technology and ocean development Kapil Sibal said.

Giving his valedictory speech at the fifth All India People's Technology Congress organised by FOSET in Kolkata today (Feb 20, 2005), Sibal said that Deep Ocean Assessment & Reporting Technology (DOART) would be used by installing sensors at six kilometres at the bottom of the ocean, a system which would help in getting early warning signals.

In addition to this, there was also a need for software technology for conducting bathymetric surveys along the Indian coastline, which would help in measure the speed of the tsunami and identify the coastal areas which it was going to hit.

Sibal said that the technology would be used along the Sumatra-Myanmar faultline in the east and the Kutch region in the west.

The Minister said that any earthquake measuring more than 7.5 on the Richter scale has the potential to result in a tsunami.

Sibal said that although the last recorded tsunami in the Indian Ocean was in 1883, he said that every country should have its own disaster management system for tackling this kind of natural calamity.

The Minister also put stress on the need to hike investments in science and technology, saying that India should invest eight per cent of the GDP for this purpose.

He said that solutions to the problems of hunger, poverty, and shelter could be found in the applications of science and technology.

Sibal also called for a proper water management system, more public investments in health and development of new drug molecules using biotechnology.

India would be the biggest beneficiary of WTO since the combination of low-cost economy coupled with highly skilled labour was nowhere to be found in the world, he said adding this was what attracting foreign companies into India.