Shri Patel was speaking after inaugurating the 48th Central Geological Programming Board (CGPB) meeting of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) here today. The 48th CGPB is an important platform where the review of the progress of work carried out by GSI till date during the Field Season 2010-12 will be carried out. Discussions will also be held with the state governments, PSUs and other stakeholders during the two-day meet. Any mid-term corrections required in the implementation of the Field Season Programmes (FSP) by GSI or the collaborating organizations will also be discussed.

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that the Quality Management Cell created last year has added a new dimension to the quality aspects of GSI which has resulted in initiating several new steps within GSI to improve its quality of work culture and products. He said that Standard Operating Procedures on various spheres of work of GSI are being prepared and these would go a long way in Quality Management / Control of its mandated activities. The process for obtaining ISO Certification for some of the Laboratories in GSI is on the agenda and hoped that it would be achived soon.

The Secretary (Mines), Shri S. Vijay Kumar’s speech was read in absentia. He said that a significant dimension of international forays is to carve out a path and define a process for acquiring mineral deposits outside India. “We are in negotiation stage with countries such as Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Afghanistan, Chile, Mongolia, China, Canada, Australia etc in this regard”, he added. The Secretary’s speech also touched upon the debate on Climate Change and in this context mentioned that it would be interesting to see if the studies being carried out by the GSI on glaciology, marine geology and palaeo-climate can generate crucial data that could provide some clues on the emerging trends on this subject.

Shri S.K. Srivastava, Additional Secretary in the Mines Ministry said that GSI has started functioning in Mission-Region hybrid Matrix mode in a set up of six regions, each epitomizing ‘mini-GSI’ to execute the programmes while the five Missions and three Support Systems are framing policy guidelines and formulating pathways. He said the Ministry of Mines has endeavoured to make GSI an excellent geoscientific organization. He said that the strength of GSI lies in its impeccable records of field data for last 160 years and added that a fair amount of field days must be spent by the geoscientists so that maximum possible observations can be recorded.

On this occasion, the Minister also released the new and updated version of the “Seismotectonic Atlas of India and its Environment” which will now be brought in the public domain through the GSI Portal.