A report on 1st Federation of Indian Geosciences Association (FIGA), The Earth System Sciences have become a truly interdisciplinary field with an increasing realization for a common platform for exchanging and sharing views and activities of Earth Sciences communities. As of now, Indian contributions and international initiatives have largely been based on the initiatives and opinions of individuals rather than that of the geosciences community as a whole. It is high time that we bring together contemporary technologies that can address either directly or indirectly the geo-scientific issues to arrive at an effective and sustainable solution to address societal challenges. It is in this context, the Federation of Indian Geosciences Associations (FIGA) has come into being with IGU, GSI, AEG, AHI, PSI, ISEPES, ISAG, TPS, ISES and IGA as constituent member associations and MoES, NCESS, AMD, IIG, KDMIPE-ONGC and CSIR-NGRI as patron members in 2014. To bring the Geosciences Associations/ Societies/ Unions on to common platform; to foster common goals benefitting the Society; and to suggest future activities at national and international levels, the 1st Triennial Congress of FIGA along with the 53rd Annual Convention of IGU and 34th Annual Convention of AHI is being held at, IIT(ISM)), Dhanbad during November 8-10, 2016.
FIGA will enable interaction between scientists on a regular and continuing basis, apart from facilitating a synergic interaction across disciplines and various geosciences associations. This will incidentally provide an incubating ground for young researchers to plan major national programmes. The common platform, created by FIGA, is also expected to work out the need and scope to initiate major facilities and programmes for the advancement of geo-scientific knowledge and their application to meet the present-day requirements. The change in natural systems and associated processes, accelerated by anthropogenic interventions, has been inducing unforeseen complexities in the process of development and sustainability. The need and scope for utility of geosciences knowledge is pervading almost all fields of life apart from the management of natural resources and maintaining the ecosystem. The role of Geosciences is getting more and more prominent not only in Earth Science disciplines, but also in Life Sciences and Environmental Sciences demanding scientific strategies towards sustainability. It is the right time to understand Geosciences with a synergic approach and transforming the elements of education and utilisation of geosciences towards sustainability of humans life and natural resources focusing on water, energy, climate, natural hazards etc. Geosciences disciplines can provide meaningful inputs as these comprehend and embed on quantifiable scientific uncertainty and extreme events. Despite many such advantages with built-in geologic reasoning for sustainable science, geoscientists have not been active participants in the development and adoption of this emerging science.
The economic transformation and development of science and technology demand a geosciences-centric multi disciplinary approach. Thus the topic ‘Geosciences for Sustainability’ chosen as the focal theme is of contemporary relevance. The focal theme on “Geosciences for Sustainability” contains several sub-themes on (i) Solid Earth Geosciences; (ii) Marine Geosciences; (iii) Space & Atmospheric Sciences; (iv) Mineral and Energy Resources; (v) Modern and Ancient Orogenic Processes; (vi) Water Resources and Water Policies; (vii) Seismic imprints from coupled systems; and (viii) Geosciences Education – Experiences and Future Perspective. We express our gratitude to Prof. K.V. Subbarao, Dr. A.K. Chaturvedi, Dr. C.D. Reddy & Dr. Gopi Seemala, Dr. V.M. Tiwari & Dr. Anand Pandey, Prof. L. Elango, Dr. R.H. Sawkar & Prof. B.C. Sarkar for their efforts in firming up the Technical Programs of FIGA by inviting distinguished speakers in different sessions.
We have received around 275 abstracts for oral and poster presentations that have been spread over several sessions during the congress. Even though there is a twohour slot for the poster presentation on 8 th November, we encourage continued display of posters during the congress to enable better projection of results and healthy interaction between the presenters and the delegates. The structure of Technical Program consists of 2 Plenary session, 24 total parallel sessions and 1 Young Researchers Program. Executive Council and General Body meetings of FIGA, IGU and AHI will also be held during the Congress.
Along with the 1st FIGA, the 53rd Annual Convention of Indian Geophysical Union (IGU) is also being organized, which creates a platform for dissemination of knowledge through oral and poster presentation, close interaction and sharing scientific thoughts/views needed for the society. Every year, IGU recognizes both the young and senior geoscientists during its annual convention through several national awards/ medals/ prizes and memorial/endowment lectures: Dr. Hari Narain Lifetime Achievement Award, Krishnan Medal, Decennial Award, Annie Talwani Memorial Prize, Prof. D. Lal Best Paper Award, Prof. K.R. Ramanathan Memorial Lecture, Dr. H.N. Siddique Memorial Lecture, Prince Mukarram Jah Endowment Lecture, L.N. Kailasam Endowment Lecture and Elektrotek & Geometrics Endowment Lecture etc. IGU also encourages the first and second rank holders of M.Sc./M.Sc.(Tech) final year students of Geophysics/Applied Geophysics from recognized university by providing them with Prof. Jagdeo Singh and Dr. S. Balakrishna Memorial Grant for their participation to the annual convention.
Recently, IGU has introduced Anni Talwani Memorial Grant to encourage Young Women Researchers to participate in its annual convention. IGU also organizes a special session for Young Researchers and students with a view to venture their scientific calibre and recognizing them through the Best Presenter Award and IGU-ONGC Best Poster Awards. The Association of Hydrologists of India (AHI) is also organizing its 34 th Annual Convention to bring together experts, young researchers and students from government & private organizations and educational institutions to deliberate upon the lessons learnt from research studies and projects implemented on various problems related to water. This will help the AHI for recommendation to foster policies onexploration, conservation and management of water resources for the benefit of society.
The convention aims to achieve this by bringing together those who are engaged in water resources management and governance to assess the possibility of formulating new policies at different levels. It is not possible to organize a congress without financial support. We acknowledge the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Limited, Oil India Limited (OIL), ESSO Indian National Center for Ocean information Services (INCOIS), ESSONational Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG), CSIR- National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Institute of Seismological Research, International Geological Congress (IGC), Porous Materials, Inc (PMI), Fugro Geotech for their financial support to FIGA and demonstrating the state of the art service or products related to API of Geo-scientific data. We profusely thank Prof. D.C. Panigrahi, Director, IIT(ISM) for extending full support and providing necessary infrastructure in organizing the 1st Congress of FIGA, 53rd convention of IGU and 34th convention of AHI at IIT(ISM), Dhanbad. Col. M.K. Singh (Registrar), Prof. Satish Sinha (PCE), Prof. P.R. Mohanthy (Chairman of Local Organizing Committee (LOC)), Prof. Rima Chatterjee (LOC Convener), Prof. Shalivahan (LOC Co-Convener) and Prof. Jairam Manam (DSW) of IIT(ISM) are acknowledged for their committed & unselfish involvement and providing logistic supports in organizing the event like this. We sincerely hope that with the full cooperation from all the Departments at IIT(ISM) and distinguished guests & delegates, we shall be able to successfully complete all the technical sessions. We are indebted to Prof. Shailesh Nayak, President of FIGA and IGU, for his unstinted support, continuous monitoring and providing valuable suggestions throughout the year. We are grateful to all EC Members of FIGA, IGU & AHI, Fellows & Members of constituent and patron members of FIGA for their support. We also thank the chair persons for accepting our request to conduct various technical sessions of the congress. Special thanks are due to Mr. Rafique Mohammad Attar, Treasurer of IGU for continued support in executing various works related to this Congress throughout the year.
The 1st Triennial Congress of FIGA along with the 53rd Annual Convention of IGU and 34th Annual Convention of AHI is being held at, IIT(ISM), Dhanbad during November 8-10, 2016.
Kalachand Sain, ASSSRS Prasad and P. Rajendra Prasad