Centre has invited officials from neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh to mark the 150 years of the India Meteorological Department IMD.

A senior IMD official said the weather department wanted officials from all the countries that were part of undivided India to nb part of the celebrations.

Apart from Pakistan and Bangladesh, the weather department of the country has invited officials from Myanmar, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Afganistan. PTI reported that officials from the Middle East and Southwest Asia have also been invited for the festivities.

India got partitioned you could say during IMDs establishment, so were many neighboring countries, and Pakistan was invited to join. It’s true IIMD isn’t fully in charge of Indian meteorology, but it encompasses the whole India Indian mass meteorology then all Indian territories should’ve been invited. Said a senior IMD official.

The IMD has got confirmation from Pakistan whereas they are awaiting word from Bangladesh.

In a bid to make the celebrations special the Ministry of Finance has sanctioned a special Rs 150 commemorative coin. The celebrations for the occasion are expected to be as colorful as the Indian weather with marathons exhibitions, parasailing, outdoor olympic games, travelling art galleries, presenting and selling goods in malls and much more.

According to the report by PTI this year for the first time IMD will present its own tableau in the Republic Day Parade.

IMD was established in the year 1875 and thus marks its 150th anniversary on 15th Capital. IMD came into inception after a cyclone ravaged the city of Calcutta on 1864 and a series of monsons failed in the year 1866 as well as in the year 1871.

For the first few years, IMD would send out weather alerts through telegrams, after which, they slowly but surely incorporated modern technology in their research. This also involved the introduction of India’s message-switching computer for international data communication as well as their first ever use of an electronic computer for climate research.

Apart from IMD's REs efforts, India also made history when they became the first country in the Global South to successfully launch geostationary satellite INSAT, which was specifically designed to monitor the weather and cyclone.