Context: Recently, Union Minister of Science and Technology released the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) Report on "Estimating the economic benefits of Investment in Monsoon Mission and High Performance Computing (HPC) Facilities".
About the report

• The report analyses data for both pre and post National Monsoon Mission periods. 
• The report was prepared by NCAER based on face-to-face survey. Around 6,098 respondents were surveyed. 
• This included 757 marine fishermen and 1,376 livestock owners. Also, responses were collected from two lakh farmers through Interactive Voice Response System. 
• The IVRS allows computers to interact with humans via keyboard and use of voice input.
• India is divided into 15 major agro-climatic zones. Of these 15, ten experience all monsoon events and were covered by the NCAER study. 
• Agro-climatic zone is a geographical area with similar rainfall, soil type, temperature and water availability.

Key Highlights

• According to the report, 1000 crores of investment in High Performance computing facilities in India will bring in 50,000 crores of benefits. 
• This is to mainly get reflected in livelihood of 1.07 crores of people Below Poverty Line and 53 lakhs Below Poverty Line fisher folk households.
• 76% of the livestock owners are using weather information for taking decisions on modification of shelter; vaccination against seasonal disease; and fodder management. 
• 82% of fishermen reported using Ocean State Forecast (OSF) advisories every time before venturing into sea.
• Annual income gained by 53 Lakh BPL fisher households is estimated to be Rs. 663 Crores and the present value of benefits accruing to fisher-folk works out to be Rs. 2,391 Crores over a period of 5 years.
• With an initial investment of Rs. 1,000 Crores, NMM and HPC facilities result in a 50-fold increase in its economic benefits. Derived estimated benefits realized by the women works out to be Rs. 13,447 Crores, which is 26.6 percent of the total benefit.

About National Monsoon Mission (NMM)

• It was has launched by Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
• The Ministry has bestowed the responsibility of execution and coordination of this mission to Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune.

Mission Objective
To build an ocean atmospheric model for

• Improved prediction of monsoon rainfall on extended range to seasonal time scale of up to 16 days to about one season
• Improved prediction of rainfall, temperature as well as extreme weather events on short to medium range time scale up to 15 days.

About National Council for Applied and Economic Research (NCAER)

• Established in 1956, NCAER is India’s oldest and largest independent, non-profit, economic policy research institute.
• It is one of a handful of think tanks globally that combine rigorous analysis and policy outreach with deep data collection capabilities, especially for household surveys.

Also Read: https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/userfiles/ncaer.pdf