Mission Mausam gets Rs 1342 crore in Union Budget

India's efforts to enhance its weather forecasting capabilities received a significant boost with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocating Rs 1,342 crore for Mission Mausam on Sunday. The allocation for the Ministry of Earth Sciences has been set at Rs 3,789.23 crore, compared to the revised estimate of Rs 3,380 crore in the 2025-26 budget. The Deep Ocean Mission has been allocated Rs 625 crore, which is lower than the Rs 660 crore allocated in the revised estimates of the previous budget. The mission aims to explore deep-oceanic resources and develop technologies for their sustainable use. It involves mapping the floors of deep oceans and creating technologies such as a manned submersible capable of operating at depths of 6,000 metres, mining systems for deep-sea mining, the sustainable utilisation of deep-sea bioresources, and the development of engineering designs for offshore thermal energy-driven desalination plants. Mission Mausam aims to improve India's ability to accurately forecast the weather in a more timely manner. The Budget documents describe Mission Mausam as an ''ambitious initiative'' to leverage cutting-edge technologies, high-performance computing and advanced modelling techniques to revolutionise weather monitoring, prediction and data analysis. The funds allocated for capital expenditure related to the Deep Ocean Mission have been cut to Rs 175 crore, down from Rs 219.6 crore in the revised estimates of the 2025-26 budget.