New Delhi: When the Union Ministry of Earth Science launched the high-tech, made-in-India ‘Bharat Forecast System’ this week, it credited a team of all-women scientists from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Pune.
However, they were not behind the innovation, or at least that is what another group of scientists from the same institute has claimed.
Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay, a now-retired scientist from the institute, has claimed that he began working on the ‘Bharat Forecast System’ in 2017 to improve forecasts of extreme rainfall, as well as other climate change-induced events, which are trickier to predict.
However, during the ‘Bharat Forecast System’ launch in Delhi on 26 May, Mukhopadhyay received no credit.
“This was my dream project,” Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay told ThePrint, adding, “As developers of this system, we feel demotivated and demoralised by such propagation of misinformation.”
Of the four women scientists felicitated by the government, only one co-authored the weather monitoring system paper published this year—which names Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay as the lead author.
The government credited a different group of scientists, Mukhopadhyay said.
During the launch, Union Minister of Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh announced that four women scientists spearheaded the project, reflecting the ‘nari shakti (women power)’ vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In his address at the 26 May event, Jitendra Singh said, “Science ministries no longer empower women. They empower us.”
IITM Pune director Suryachandra Rao, Ministry of Earth Sciences Secretary M. Ravichandran, and other IITM senior scientists and officials, along with the India Meteorological Department and ministry officials, attended the launch.
Later, in a post on X, Jitendra Singh recognised the team once again.
“The all-women-led team behind the first-of-its-kind, state-of-the-art indigenous ‘Bharat Forecast System’ #BharatFS, launched by the India Meteorological Department under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. A brilliant reflection of PM Sh @narendramodi’s push for greater women’s contribution in the making of #ViksitBharat. Dr Suvarna Fadnavis, Scientist F. Dr Swapna Panickal, Scientist F. Dr Susmitha Joseph, Scientist F. Dr Medha Deshpande, Scientist E,” the minister said in his post.
Ministry officials who spoke to ThePrint on the condition of anonymity said the fiasco might have happened due to some miscommunication by the IITM management.
“There probably was a communication error from IITM Pune. The women scientists are also a part of the team,” a senior official said, without specifying how or from which side the omission happened.
Suryachandra Rao and the women scientists involved did not respond to queries posed by ThePrint regarding the confusion.
Also Read: 4 western disturbances this month made it wettest since 1901. Delhi rains in May isn’t all good news
The credit war
When the ‘original’ team contested the government claim on the team behind the ‘Bharat Forecast System’ Friday, their colleagues from IITM Pune also came out in support. Among them was Roxy Koll, a senior climate scientist at the institute.
“I have immense respect for the women mentioned here—they have done outstanding research in their respective fields. That said, I would like to clarify that the forecast system referred to was developed by a different team of scientists at IITM,” Koll posted on X.
He also shared the link to the original paper that names the key contributors.
I have immense respect for the women mentioned here—they have done outstanding research in their respective fields. That said, I would like to clarify that the forecast system being referred to was developed by a different team of scientists at IITM. The core development, over… https://t.co/pJlSu7KCgE pic.twitter.com/pi8JSVWvDY
— Roxy Koll ⛈ (@RockSea) May 30, 2025
Along with Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay, who led the project, R. Phani Murali Krishna, Siddharth Kumar, A. Gopinathan Prajeesh, Peter Bechtold, Nils Wedi, Kumar Roy, Malay Ganai, B Revanth Reddy, Snehlata Tirkey, Tanmoy Goswami, Radhika Kanase, Sahadat Sarkar, and Medha Deshpande are the authors of the paper, titled ‘Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) High-Resolution Global Forecast Model version 1: an attempt to resolve monsoon prediction deadlock’.
Deshpande was one of the women felicitated by the government this week.
BFS model & technology
The paper highlightS the technology behind the new model and how it will improve forecasting in tricky conditions. During the trials, the authors noted a 30 percent improvement in forecasting extreme rainfall events and a 64 percent improvement in forecasts for core monsoon regions. The system also showed improved outcomes for forecasting cyclone track and intensity, according to the paper.
“This higher resolution represents a substantial leap from the existing Gaussian linear (GFS T1534), which maintains a resolution of 12.5 km across the globe,” the paper read.
Several scientists from IITM Pune confirmed to ThePrint that Mukhopadhyay, as the lead scientist, formally presented the pilot version of the model before the secretary of the Ministry of Earth Science during an event at the institute in 2022.
“Everyone knows that the man behind the system is Dr Mukhopadhyay. There is no confusion about that,” an IITM scientist said. However, he said it was unclear why those who organised the launch did not credit him for his work.
On the 26 May launch day, Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay was in China for a conference. So far, there is no confirmation on whether he received an official invite to the event.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)