The Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology has been entrusted with the responsibility of coordinating two out of eight national missions launched under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). These are:
i. National Mission for Sustaining Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE)
ii. National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change (NMSKCC)
The broad objectives of NMSHE include – understanding of the complex processes affecting the Himalayan Ecosystem and evolve suitable management and policy measures for sustaining and safeguarding the Himalayan eco-system, creating and building capacities in different domains, networking of knowledge institutions engaged in research and development of a coherent data base on Himalayan ecosystem, detecting and decoupling natural and anthropogenic induced signals of global environmental changes in mountain ecosystems, studying traditional knowledge systems for community participation in adaptation, mitigation and coping mechanisms inclusive of farming and traditional health care systems and developing regional cooperation with neighboring countries, to generate a strong data base through monitoring and analysis, to eventually create a knowledge base for policy interventions.
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The NMSKCC has been launched with the broad objectives of mapping of the knowledge and data resources relevant to climate change and positioning of a data sharing policy framework for building strategic knowledge among the various arms of the Government, Identification of knowledge gaps, and Formation of global technology watch groups to help accomplish the task of technology selection and prioritization, Networking of knowledge institutions after investing critical mass of physical, intellectual and policy infrastructure resources, creation of new dedicated centers within the existing institutional framework, building international cooperation on S&T for climate change agenda through strategic alliances and assistance to the formulation of policies for a sustained developmental agenda within a responsive climate change framework and inputs to the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Ministry of External Affairs.