RAS question
The Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) was launched by:
Correct answer: (C) Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
The Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment was launched by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, then the Ministry of Environment and Forests, in 2009 to assess climate-change impacts for India.
Explanation
INCCA belongs to the Environment Ministry, not to a science-funding or planning body. The PIB release states that the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment was launched by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on 14 October 2009 at a national workshop. Its core purpose was to assess the impact of climate change on India through a countrywide network of more than 120 research institutions. INCCA was also a network-based scientific programme for assessing the drivers and implications of climate change, vulnerabilities and adaptation, decision-support systems, and capacity for managing climate-related risks and opportunities. That institutional ownership makes option C the only correct choice.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) The Ministry of Earth Sciences works in climate monitoring and related earth-system science, but the PIB release identifies the Environment Ministry as the body that launched INCCA.
- (B) The Department of Science and Technology runs science programmes, but INCCA is specifically described by PIB as having been launched under the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
- (D) NITI Aayog is a policy think tank, whereas INCCA was launched in 2009 by the Environment Ministry as a scientific assessment network.
Concept
This tests institutional mapping in Environment and Ecology: which ministry owns a national climate-change assessment initiative. RAS repeatedly asks such questions because environmental schemes and networks often sound technical, but the answer depends on their administrative home.