New Delhi: Climate scientists have raised alarm over India’s falling capacity to manufacture its own scientific instruments, warning that years of relying on uncalibrated imported equipment have generated incorrect data measurements that have made their way into national and international scientific journals, reported The Hindu. The Mega Science Vision-2035 (MSV-2035) Report on Climate Research, submitted to the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Union government and made public this week, additionally warned that long-term effects of solar and wind energy plants on climate remain deeply understudied.Dependence on borrowed modelsThe credibility failure extends beyond faulty instruments. ESG News flagged the fact that despite there being over 3,000 climate researchers in the nation, the research has not been verified against Indian conditions and routinely relies on datasets developed for climatically different regions. The country’s Earth System Models, which combine oceanic, land surface and ecological data to simulate long-term climate trajectories, have been built primarily for the United States and Europe, with outputs sensitive to regional inputs that these models were never designed to integrate. To deal with the difference in climatic contexts, the report recommended developing a model specific to India’s geographic and atmospheric conditions.Self-reliance drive at odds with findingsAs highlighted by the Hindu, the findings poorly coincide with the government’s push for Atmanirbhar (self-reliant) Bharat, promoting domestic manufacturing. Under the rules, the government e-marketplace (GeM) portal has been made compulsory for publicly funded scientific institutions, with laboratories required to source equipment from the lowest-bidding India-registered vendor. Researchers found that vendors on the platform were frequently unable to meet the technical specifications, especially when high-quality customised equipment was needed.In June 2025, the finance ministry granted select institutions the authority to procure instruments outside GeM and approved tenders up to Rs 200 crore amid rising complaints of poor-quality material, noted the report. The damage to India’s instrument manufacturing capacity, however, goes beyond procurement rules.Risk in energy transitionWhile calling for systematic inquiry into the climate consequences of large-scale renewable energy installations, the MSV report noted that although the pace of energy deployment should be maintained and built upon, it should be closely monitored. By 2025, India had surpassed the midpoint of its installed non-fossil electricity capacity, ahead of schedule under its Paris Agreement commitments. India had committed to 500 GW of non-fossil fuel power capacity by 2030.Gaps highlightedAmong other gaps the report mentioned inadequate research on carbon capture technologies, insufficient linkage between environmental monitoring and public health data, absence of a comprehensive framework for integrating climate considerations into policy and limited capacity to translate climate science into usable guidance for non-specialist decision-makers.Eight projectsThe report delineates eight large-scale scientific projects to be carried out across three five-year phases, addressing observational, field research, climate adaptation and modelling gaps.The first calls for expanding the country’s surface weather stations, ocean buoy networks and greenhouse gas monitoring to encompass blind spots. The second proposes investment in domestic production of scientific instruments and calibration technologies to reduce foreign dependence. Third, the report recommends launching dedicated satellites to track greenhouse gas concentrations, cloud behaviours and changes in glaciers and snowpack.Fourthly, the report said that India-specific climate forecasting models should be built using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to suit context-related geographic and atmospheric conditions. The fifth project emphasised India’s reliance on foreign-made Earth System Models and a shift to domestic datasets.The sixth project involves coordinated field research campaigns studying aerosol dynamics, heat accumulation in urban areas and glacial behaviours. The seventh targets research on carbon capture and clean energy integration, developing the technical pathways to meet India’s 2070 net-zero target.Lastly, the eighth project is dedicated to adaptation science, building economic frameworks to quantify climate damages while establishing national observatories that link environmental data to public health outcomes.Funding requirements are estimated around Rs 795 crore under conservative projections and nearly Rs 1359 crore under a more ambitious outline, both of which are modest compared to major national science missions, reported The Hindu. However, the report does not commit government resources and describes execution as a responsibility of the research community itself.BackgroundThe MSV exercise has previously been used for long-horizon projects in fields such as nuclear and high-energy physics. Its extension to climate research, ecology and astronomy for the first time was carried out under the guidance of professor Ajay K. Sood. The working group consulted approximately 3,200 researchers during the drafting process, with a final review by the PSA and the Ministry of Earth Sciences, reported The Hindu. The report is a community-authored roadmap and does not carry the status of government policy or funding commitment.