India’s membership of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program approved

The Union Cabinet on 15 June 2016 gave its approval for Indian membership of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) consortium.

The approval clears the path for signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the GFZ - Helmholtz Centre Potsdam (German Research Centre for geosciences). The GFZ is a government-funded, Public Law Foundation of the State of Brandenburg, Germany.

How India will benefit from the ICDP membership?

• The MoU, which will be in force for 5 years, will enable India in engaging internationally renowned experts with profound expertise in different aspects of scientific drilling.

• The deep drilling and associated investigations will be conducted in Koyna region in Maharashtra.

• As a part of the membership agreement, India will get a seat on two ICDP panels - Executive Committee (EC) and Assembly of Governors (AOG).

• ICDP will provide technical / operational support, facilitate capacity building in terms of manpower training in key scientific areas, sample and data management

• The ICDP will also support workshops for the Koyna scientific deep drilling project undertaken by Ministry of Earth Sciences.

• As a member of ICDP, scientists/engineers from India would have right to submit proposals, to participate in all ICDP co-funded workshops and drilling projects.

• They will get access to all data results from ICDP projects. This will shed new light on the genesis of seismicity and better understanding of earthquake processes.

About International Continental Scientific Drilling Program

• It was founded in February 1996 in the German Embassy in Tokyo as a result of the German Continental Deep Drilling Program.

• It is a multinational program to further and fund geosciences in the field of Continental Scientific Drilling.

• The research findings will provide direct insight into Earth processes by testing geological models.

• The GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences serves as the headquarters for the ICDP.

• Members of ICDP: Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the UK, the USA and UNESCO.

Now get latest Current Affairs on mobile, Download # 1  Current Affairs App