India’s newly developed Bharat Forecast System (BharatFS) has enhanced the country’s capability to predict extreme rainfall events, improving accuracy by 30% compared to the previous operational model, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Dr. Jitendra Singh informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
BharatFS, developed indigenously by Indian scientists, is powered by the advanced Triangular Cubic Octahedral (TCo) dynamical grid, enabling real-time weather forecasts at an unprecedented 6 km horizontal resolution. This marks a leap from its predecessor, the GFS T1534 model (~12 km resolution), and even surpasses most global operational models that work at 9–14 km.
The system’s efficiency has been further boosted by India’s latest supercomputing facilities – Arka at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, and Arunika at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Noida – reducing forecast runtimes from nearly 12 hours to just 3–6 hours.
According to Singh, BharatFS is designed to deliver forecasts at the panchayat cluster level, enabling targeted advisories for farmers and local authorities. “Localized forecasts will help farmers plan crop cycles, irrigation, and harvesting more effectively. Water managers can better regulate reservoirs during the monsoon, mitigating flood risks,” he noted.
The model’s higher resolution allows it to capture local weather features more accurately, proving especially valuable in complex terrains like the Himalayas and Western Ghats. In research mode, BharatFS has shown notable improvement in rainfall forecasts over India’s core monsoon region and a 30% improvement in extreme rainfall event prediction.
Developed by teams from IITM-Pune, with support from NCMRWF-Noida and the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the system is a product of India’s “Make in India” initiative and aligns with the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. Its indigenous design also enables India to extend meteorological support to neighboring countries, strengthening regional leadership in climate science.
“This achievement not only advances India’s scientific capabilities but also reinforces our strategic and economic independence in weather and climate prediction,” Singh stated.
The BharatFS is now operational, positioning India as the only country in the world running a global weather prediction model at such a high resolution in real time.