RAS question
The National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change aims to:
Correct answer: (A) Build a dynamic climate change knowledge base.
The National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change aims to build a dynamic climate change knowledge base that supports India's climate actions.
Explanation
The National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change is meant to strengthen India's knowledge system for climate action, not to run a narrow operational service. Its core aim is building a vibrant and dynamic knowledge system through research, data collection and institutional capacity. The Department of Science and Technology page supports this by stating that NMSKCC focuses on building human and institutional S&T capacities in climate change and developing strategic knowledge in climate science, adaptation and mitigation. Its listed objectives include knowledge networks among climate-science institutions, data sharing, regional impact modelling, research networks on sectoral impacts, and better understanding of climate risks. That is why option A captures the mission's purpose best.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Weather forecasting is too narrow because the mission covers climate-change research, data sharing, institutional capacity, regional modelling and adaptation-mitigation knowledge.
- (C) The mission develops knowledge and capacity for climate-change response, while direct control of climate is not its aim.
- (D) The DST source refers to national knowledge institutions, domestic S&T capacity and research networks, so the mission is not limited to funding foreign research.
Concept
This tests India's National Action Plan on Climate Change and the role of its missions, especially how knowledge, institutions and research support climate policy. It recurs in RAS because environment questions often ask the functional objective of a mission rather than just its name.