“You take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves,” is a popular quote attributed to the Earl of Chesterfield.

A scarce resource, time is indeed well spent when it not only guided by the circumstances but also by the relative priority one attaches to work and leisure.

Small team, big work

A small team at the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science and Technology, working on climate research, seemed to know only too well the value of investing in time.

Only this can explain what observers have come to acknowledge as the ‘astonishing’ trail of work done by the team over the last few years.

Not exactly known for its work on the subject until recently, India is now publishing papers in this field in some of most prestigious journals of the world.

At least 600 research publications have come out of the programme so far, of which more than half have been featured in international journals.

Story of success

More than 60 new techniques have been developed as part of the projects supported under the DST programme. A thousand scientists, experts and students and 200 institutions are associated with it. Another 35,000 have been trained as part of the activities under the State Climate Change Cells.

This is a story of success managed by a few unusually dedicated science managers, says Himalayan ecologist SP Singh, a former Vice-Chancellor of Garhwal University. And the team was inspired by the ‘never-say-die’ attitude of the lead scientist, Akhilesh Gupta, who had to fight an aggressive ‘stage four’ oral cancer mid-way.

Top weather forecaster

Currently an Adviser to DST, heading the Climate Change programme, Gupta has been the country’s leading operational weather forecaster, having worked in the past with the India Meteorological Department.

Gupta also led the forecasting team at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting. He is best known for his an exceptionally high accuracy in weather forecasts for the the Mount Everest region.

Suffice it to say that the commendable work on climate research in India is also a tribute to his commitment and leadership qualities, Singh told BusinessLine .

Specific talents

Undaunted by cancer, a series of surgeries and the aggressive treatment, Gupta returned to work with rare zeal, organising research in climate change and Himalayan ecosystems.

He works on with every DST team and committee member to raise his/her level of commitment to managing the research programmes, said Singh. The DST provided inputs on important research questions, possible collaborators and scope of networking in relation to each research area.

These research initiatives under the National Action Plan on Climate Change cover programmes in all the three areas of science, adaptation and mitigation.

Gupta developed knowledge not only on climate change but has also focussed the specific talents of scientists to best address national goals, said Singh.

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