 Good afternoon and namaste everyone. I welcome all the participants from India and others from the globe. I'm really pleased to welcome you all on behalf of the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India and Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office Government of UK. Today we are really fortunate to have with us Honourable Minister Shri Giri Raj Singhji, Minister of Rural Development, Government of India and Lord Tariq Ahmed, Minister of State for South Asia and Commonwealth in the UK Foreign Commonwealth Development Office. Their presence is an indication of the strong partnership that has been forged between the two countries for tackling climate change issues. It is indeed a major milestone that we will achieve today. With the launch of CRISPEN tool, we are fortunate to work with the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India on their flagship programme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which is not just important for India but globally. Countries around the world are acknowledging NREJS best practices and want to draw learnings from it, with the view to replicate them in their own context. I am happy that FCDO, through its technical support, were able to make contribution towards enhancing climate resilience outcome of the scheme on the ground. Climate information is widely viewed as critical for building resilience to evolving climate hazards and enabling adaptation to climate change. Whether in the form of short term weather forecast, seasonal forecast or projections of future climate change. Climate resilience information system and planning tool for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme, the CRISPEN tool as we call it, has been developed with the support from FCDO's infrastructure for climate resilient growth programme. This is delivered in partnership with the Ministry of Rural Development. Let me briefly introduce you to the ICRG Technical Assistance Program. In partnership with the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, the programme is helping improve the abilities of poor and vulnerable people to cope with climate change impacts. This is done by integrating climate-based management into national rural, national resource management, the NRM structures that are built under Mahatma Gandhi Nariga. That in turn results in improving ecological services that support livelihood of poor households. More specifically, ICRG interventions at national and sub-national levels seek to facilitate more effective investments in the NRM structures that are built under Nariga. This will help improve groundwater recharge, micro irrigation, soil and water conservation and plantation. The process adopted by ICRG programme in mainstreaming climate-based management into social protection is informed by theory on climate-risk assessment and decision-making. Vulnerability assessment and climate projection studies were undertaken as part of the technical assistance provided under ICRG. And data was used to prioritise MG and REGS work as well as the design of climate resilience work. I would now request Ritu, senior researcher within the Climate Change Research Group in IAED, to present the context of Chris Penn's tool development process. Over to you Ritu. Thank you. Thank you so much Daljeet and Namaste and a very good afternoon to all of you. As Daljeet mentioned, this is indeed a major milestone for all of us. The foundation for which was laid almost one and a half years back under the leadership of Joint Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development. During this process, we brought together those who are generating climate data to those analysing it to finally those who use it for decision-making both at the level of community as well as at the level of MG and REGS functionaries. It is in this effort that development of CRISP-M tool was taken to fruition with partnership from more than 12 government agencies including Indian Meteorological Department, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, National Institute of Hydrology, Indian Institute of Forest Management Department of Science and Technology and finally the most important, the State Rural Development Departments. And we also integrated the collaborative bottom-up approaches to realising the subjective of climate risk-informed early action and planning. So without further delay, I will now request our Honourable Minister, Sri Giriraj Singhji, the Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Government of India and Lord Tariq Ahmed, Minister of State for South Asia and Commonwealth in the UK Foreign Commonwealth Development Office to kindly officially launch the CRISP-M tool. Climate change has emerged as a major threat. In India, the rural economy bears the brunt of this global crisis as almost one-third of the country is either drought-prone or added. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is the world's largest public works-based social protection programme that provides a rights-based social safety net to India's rural poor by shorting 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to every rural household. Its core interventions, especially wage employment and rural NRM infrastructure, have the potential to build household-level climate resilience within the rural economy. The 2019 circular issued guidance to integrate climate information in MJ and RETS planning but lack of understanding and access to climate change information posed a difficult challenge. Thus, despite tremendous success, its climate resilience outcomes have been limited. To support climate-risk-informed MJ and RETS implementation, Climate Resilience Information System and Planning Tool for MJ and RETS, CRISP-M has been developed. It's a web and mobile phone-based GIS-aided tool that facilitates integration of climate-risk information in planning, implementation and monitoring of the scheme. It is an amalgamation of bottom-up and top-down approach to correlate all relevant information and make it available in a simplified format for usage by the community. CRISP-M has three key components. GIS-assisted asset planning tool integrates GIS information with historical and projected climate data and generates a plan of possible climate resilience strategies, types and design of assets. The community then modifies the plan based on their local, traditional knowledge and experiences. Community-based planning and monitoring allows remote sensing-based monitoring and crowdsourcing data on MJ and RETS asset and beneficiaries. The CRISP-M tool was piloted in 18 village Panchayats of Nivali block in Barwani, Madhya Pradesh. The objective was to understand ways in which a climate-risk-informed GIS plan could be combined with community-level processes to ensure effective, local-specific and need-based planning, decision-making and monitoring. Before, it was raining, but now it is raining. The application we had before was online. Now, it is raining in the village of Manrega, like in the water-sets, like in the voltage check-damp. The farmers in the village have the benefit of this application. If there was more water in the village, we would have known what would have happened. That would have been the benefit of the application. We used to get information about the rain. When will the water drop? When will it dry? How do we farm? How do we grow our crops? How do we save the water? The water that is flowing in the river is not being used. The CRISP-M application. How do we build dams and water-recharging pits in the village? Through this app, we can tell them how they can be recharged. According to that, we will be able to tell them which crops to plant. In which time duration, which rubbish, which crops to plant. The pilot conducted in Barwani has shown great promise. It produced a number of positive results, helping community members to make climate smart decisions. Feedback from the pilot has been used to further refine the tool, which will be deployed in two districts in the next phase of development and then across seven states in the roll-out phase. Thank you very much for the CRISP-M tool. Thanks to the Honourable Ministers for launching the CRISP-M tool. I will now request Honourable Minister Shri Giri Raj Singh Ji, Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Government of India to kindly deliver his inaugural address. Mr. Paneer, we would like to invite you to your inaugural address. Dear colleagues, partners and participants, I am pleased to officially launch the Climate Resilience Information System and Planning Tool for Mahatma Gandhi National Ruler Employment Guarantee Scheme. Lord Tarik Ahmad, Minister of the State for South Asia and the Commonwealth in the UK for a Gen. and Development Office has joined us today on the occasion of this lunch. His presence is a matter to join us. As you know, Mahatma Gandhi National Ruler Employment Guarantee Scheme is the largest and most ambitious social security and public work programme in the world. The Mahatma Gandhi NREGA programme is playing an important role in the COVID-19 Panadhyams. It is also recognised as one of the key government initiatives and delivering the climate change, adaptation, benefit and meeting goals under the nationally determined contribution and the sustainable development goal 2030 target. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change recognised Mahatma Gandhi NREGA as one of the 24K initiatives to address the problem of climate change while the simultaneously improving the livelihood of the poor. I would also like to recall that the February 2021 during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Union Government told about the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA contribution of sequestered carbon was assessed at 62 million tonnes of CO2. Equivalent in 2017-18 from the cumulative work implemented as a study Indian Institute of Science estimated that the total mean carbon at the national level through the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA the cumulative carbon sink created by Mahatma Gandhi NREGA is projected to be 281 metric CO2 in 2025 and 561 metric CO2 in 2030. This study demonstrated significant carbon sink potential of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA. Mahatma Gandhi NREGA scheme already now being used as a mechanism to deliver climate resilience of the various projects feature like geotagging and direct benefit transfer have ensured that the scheme reached the intended beneficiary. The Global Climate Risk Index 2021 ranked in India's 7th most vulnerable country climate change impact this showed that India took climate change and disaster. It is becoming the important consider to climate aspect to the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA planning delivery the implication. The CRISPM tool will help us the climate information in the GIS based planning and implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA climate change is integrated in India development strategy and India has been a fortunate in taking ambitious climate action CRISPM tool is a future step toward unlocking climate resilience potential of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA and in due course we aim to convert this scheme from world largest social protection program and also become world largest climate resilience program. We appreciate British government and all stakeholders who support our ministry in developing this tool and I hope implementation of CRISPM will open up new possibilities for our ruler communities to deal with the issue of climate change. Thank you. Jai Hind. Jai Bharat. Thank you so much sir. Honourable Minister for your very inspiring speech. I will now request Honourable Lord Tariq Ahmed Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth in the UK Foreign Commonwealth Development Office to kindly deliver his launch statement. Thank you sir. Thank you Shri Diri Raj Singh Ji for joining me as we launch this important tool which will help millions of people adapt to the impact of climate change. A challenge not for one country alone but for all of us. This crisis is growing with terrible consequences for the most vulnerable people across the world. To put it plainly and simply it is robbing them of their lives. It is robbing them of their livelihoods and wiping out critical infrastructure. Extreme weather has caused more than 11,000 disasters over the past 50 years alone, leaving damage worth $3.6 trillion. These disasters are becoming more frequent and indeed more intense. In the first seven months of this year alone in 2021, India experienced two cyclones, a deadly glacier collapse in the Himalayas, a sweltering heat wave and devastating floods during the monsoon season. And as we all know, tragically hundreds of people died and millions more were left homeless. Every time a disaster hits it damages our collective global efforts to reduce poverty and indeed promote shared prosperity for all. In just two weeks time the United Kingdom will host the COP26 climate summit alongside Italy in Glasgow in Scotland. The world must grasp this opportunity to take immediate action. What can it do by reducing emissions, by preventing loss and damage from disasters and of course importantly protecting the most vulnerable in society. Our collective action must include investment in early warning systems, advanced planning and early interventions. The rate of return on these investments is very high. The Global Commission on Adaptation suggested that early warning systems save lives and assets worth at least 10 times their cost. Just 24 hours warning of an approaching storm or heat wave can cut the damage by staggering 30%. Yet despite these clear winds, one in three people around the world are not covered by such early warning systems. That's why I want to recognise India's global leadership in this very important area. Thank you for putting adaptation and resilience at the centre of your climate action plans and indeed your development agenda. Let me assure you the United Kingdom is committed to working hand in hand with you on this important initiative. Furthermore I applaud India's commitment to advancing the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, the CDRI. Everyone in the world deserves access to basic services and the chance, the opportunity to work and prosper. So this work to put climate resilient infrastructure in place could not be more important or indeed more timely. As a founding member and co-chair of the Coalition we will work closely with you and other members on this important initiative. Another example of our strong partnership as we face this global challenge is our joint work through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme. Reaching right across India the scheme is having a positive, progressive, life-changing impact on those covered. It's helping poor and vulnerable people to cope with climate change and protecting them from weather-related disasters. This impressive new tool we celebrate today, the Chris Bam, is the latest example of this great work supported by the United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. This web and mobile phone-based information system will help government agencies and indeed communities themselves to make smart, lasting decisions. It will give them real-time information when droughts are coming providing early warning and boosting their ability to prepare and mitigate effectively. This tool simply put will save lives. It will protect livelihoods for millions of people across India. I therefore recognise everyone involved in developing this great initiative, this incredible tool, because this tool will ensure that people's lives are changed and it's important to recognise and indeed celebrate its launch today. Let me further assure you that the United Kingdom remains committed to continuing this valuable partnership work with India as we look forward to COP26 and of course beyond. Building on our joint progress, the United Kingdom is working towards an ambitious international campaign on adaptation and resilience. India has an immense amount of contribute to this goal through its own experience and capacity and success and it's only through working together that we can help each other but also importantly we can help the world adapt and help protect many more lives. Build livelihoods, strengthen communities. It is through working together we can, and if I may, borrow Prime Minister Narendra Modiji's words, take forward the approach of trusteeship towards the planet. We owe it to our future generations and therefore I wish today's event every success. Thank you. I would now request Mr. Sinha, Secretary-Minister of Rural Development to launch the panel discussion and share his opening comments. Over to you, sir. Honourable Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Government of India, Shigiraj Singh Ji, Honourable Minister of State in the UK's Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office Lord Ahmed, colleagues, partners and participants. As you are aware that Mahatma Gandhi Narega is among the largest public works program which combines social protection, small infrastructure development, both for livelihood as well as for common facility development and climate adaptation all rolled into one. Although Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has succeeded in reducing rural poverty and marginalisation, climate change has emerged as a new challenge. It's a global threat but impacts are localised. India is said to be the seventh most vulnerable country to climate impacts as per a global risk index. This is going to impact India in many ways but among those which will hit India the most as per an Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Model of 2021. The major ones are less precipitation, 6% less in 2011 as compared to 1951. More frequent dry spells, 27% more in 1981 to 2011 as compared to 1951 to 1980 and higher frequency of localised heavy rainfall and temperature rise which may rise by 4.4 degree centigrade more by 21, by the end of 21st century. These are going to impact rural areas and citizens the most as they impact its most productive and useful assets with topsoil, surface and groundwater availability, vegetation and other natural resources. It is therefore extremely important for public schemes for example this scheme to factor in the changing climates into its function. Else it will hit livelihoods, biodiversity and natural endowment very hard which may further degrade the natural resources. It is therefore becoming more and more important to consider the climate aspects in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme planning, delivery and implementation. This scheme by its very design of community based consultation and decision making. Priority of works of broad proofing, water harvesting and conservation, land development, flood control, drainage development, flexible budgeting responsive to local employment needs is ideally suited for a natural resources augmentation based development. To recap some of the key features it is mandated to spend 60% of the funds on the agriculture and allied works. Not more than 60% 40% of the work amount would be spent on material components of the work. It prioritizes 65% of funds on natural resource management works in 2129 water deficit blocks. It is estimated that from its beginning in 2006 rupees 3.5 trillion has been spent on NRM works alone. Approximately 30 million water related ecological assets have been created in which 29 billion cubic meters of water have been founded. It is playing a leading part in the national campaigns for water conservation starting from its localized avatars to large scale campaigns such as Mission Water Conservation in 2016-17, Jalsakti Avian of 2019 and 2021 apart from state specific campaigns in convergence with multiple stakeholders. It is already recognized as one of the major initiatives of the Government of India for delivering climate change adaptation benefits and meeting goals under nationally determined contributions as honorable minister stated. We have specifically mentioned that planning and design of works under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme should take into account impacts of climate change with the view to ensure resilience of vulnerable rural communities. The development of CRISP-M tool will support the community and the scheme functionality integrating climate information in the planning of NRM asset and ensuring that asset created are viable in changing climate in context as well as monitoring their impact. Here I would like to emphasize that climate resilience is not about integrating climate information. We are contributing towards climate resilience through the program by strengthening village-level processes. Aim through this program is not just to create climate resilient asset but develop climate smart villages. By its focus on local governance, the scheme takes decision regarding nature and the choice of work where each worksite selection is made in open assemblies of the village community and ratified by the village local body called the Gram Panchayat. Most of the works undertaken in the program are related to water conservation, drought-proofing and lab development that have a direct bearing on reducing vulnerability to climate change and this process has been enhanced in the last seven years that this government has been in place. A number of studies reveal that the creation of community assets have increased groundwater levels, irrigated areas, cropping intensity, crop yields and income of farmers. The soil organic carbon and water holding capacity in dry lands have also increased significantly with consequent increase in crop yields and stable returns. The most important direct benefit is employment itself during the summer months which increase household income. To that extent also it protected the people from the impact of changing climates. Most of the water conservation, drought-proofing and land development activities provide multiple environmental services. For example, farm ponds also help in ecological generation and the creation of livelihood opportunities in the village economy. The impact of grassroot planning, implementation and utilization are notable in terms of enhanced groundwater recharge, increased forest coverage, increased land productivity, higher vegetation, etc. in many impact studies of Mahatma Gandhi Narega across India. In a major study by Indian Institute of Science Researchers it was reported in 2017 that livelihood vulnerability index post-Mathma Gandhi Narega related works declined. The benefit of Mahatma Gandhi Narega activities in one village go beyond the geographical boundaries of the village. For example, afforestation and desiliting of percolation tanks have increased groundwater levels in the neighboring villages, particularly the downstream villages. The climate-informed GIS watershed planning through CRISP-M will further contribute towards this objective. In our quest to ensure it, GIS-based watershed plans have been prepared for over 170,000 gram panchayats out of about 270,000 gram panchayats on the basis of data available from various geographical and other databases. What will change from adoption of the CRISP-M tool is the ability of the communities to see the impact of different climate parameters on the natural endowments and other built-up environment and infrastructure. This will give to the village communities a huge fillip to make judicious decisions, efficient use of resources and appropriate prioritization. It will help demystify the best science in the service of the people. However, we do not stop at merely augmenting natural resources through Matma Gandhi Narega and ensure climate resilience, but we complement and augment those with investments and capacity building of the communities and farmers by establishing convergence with multiple stakeholders through different interventions. For example, zero-tillage natural farming, raised-blade plantations, system of rice intensification, system for wheat intensification, precision irrigation, stress-tolerant climate resilience, agronomy and so on. This ensures that life, livelihoods, natural resources, water resources are protected in the face of changing climate even though we live up to our commitment to the world in its fight to mitigate the impact of and adapt to the changing climate. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Sinha, for setting the stage for the panel discussion. I would now turn to Ben Webster. He is the head of Secretariat for the Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership to share his thoughts on early warning, early action and the value of climate information services. Ben. Thank you, Daljeet and Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. Namaste, good morning, good afternoon. And thank you for the invitation to take part in this event. Congratulations to the Government of India and partners on the launch of this innovative tool. I'm here to represent the Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership which was launched in 2019 at the UN Climate Action Summit in order to help take risk-informed early action to scale. We've seen progress in recent years on integrating climate information services and improved forecasting to be able to take early action. But in 2019, this partnership was formed to bring together governments, civil society, international organisations and the private sector as well to really see these approaches taken to scale. And therefore, I'm delighted to be here for the launch of CRISP-M. I come from a humanitarian background, working with the Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations and I'm therefore passionate about finding more effective and efficient ways to support people who need assistance who are impacted by hazards and disasters. And that's why I was keen to be involved in the launch of Reap, the Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership, which is trying to use these technological advancements and developments to benefit humanitarian action in particular. But what is clear to me is that humanitarian needs are vast and the system, the international system is vastly overstretched and therefore we really need to integrate these approaches into national mechanisms and systems, policies, plans, procedures and so on. And that is precisely what CRISP-M is looking to do. One of the world's largest social protection mechanisms is now being adapted in the face of the changing climate to be able to take anticipatory and early action. And this is incredibly exciting. And therefore, we would love to welcome the Government of India into the partnership to work with the UK and IED and many other partners so that we can learn from each other and really see these approaches taken to scale across the world. In India alone, millions of people will be saved from disaster. But our intention is to see one billion people safer from disasters by 2025. And therefore, we are keen to integrate this learning within the partnership and share with many other governments and actors who can benefit from these approaches. This is how we will successfully adapt to the changing climate. So congratulations today and we look forward to working with you in the months and years to come. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. I would request clear shock here, Director of Climate Change Research Group, International Institute for Environment and Development, IED, to please come in now. Honourable Ministers, esteemed Secretary, friends and colleagues, good afternoon. I'm delighted to be here with you at this Auguste gathering and to have the chance to elaborate on how the tool you just heard about was developed. I do not need to tell you that predicting the monsoon has huge importance for India, a country where a good monsoon has huge impact on national GDP. The high average annual rainfall sounds good to other countries, but there is huge variation in rainfall patterns across years, seasons and this vast country's regions. India is not alone in this. Ethiopia, for example, is exactly the same. So many countries in the developing world are. However, the monsoon is particularly tricky. Two thirds of the rainfall takes place in less than 90 days. Most water is lost and runoff, which could be stored in wetlands, lakes, aquifers or manmade reservoirs to increase resilience to drought. The high dependence on rain-fed cropping makes almost 70% of India susceptible to agricultural drought. Over exploitation of groundwater, lack of conservation efforts and low storage capacity of surface water leads to inadequate water availability, irrigation, increasing vulnerability to hydrological drought. And the global climate models do not cope with the role the Himalayas play in the weather in this subcontinent. So global climate model outputs are not particularly great for the monsoon. And yet communities need better climate information. Short-term, long-term, seasonal forecasts and early warning systems to protect and promote livelihoods with changing weather patterns. Building resilience to currents and future climate change is hampered by a lack of quality climate forecasts, but improved forecasts alone will not drive improved resilience on its own. People need to be able to access information in the form that's relevant to the decision they're making. And it needs to arrive in time for the decision and to have the resources to act upon it. Access to high quality, relevant and timely forecasts and other climate information can significantly improve the quality of decisions under social protection programs like NREGs. And this would mean the increased effectiveness of NREGs to build climate resilience among poor and vulnerable communities. In the development of CRISP-M tool, we adopted four business unusual principles for delivering climate information. The first, understand the current landscape of climate information, how it is collected and shared, who shares it and how often. In India, there's a strong history of climate data collection and monitoring, providing an excellent base for climate forecasts. Historical data can help us understand which models best represent the monsoon. In India, there is also great expertise, both individuals and institutions. The Indian Meteorological Department, the Indian Institute for Tropical Meteorology, the National Institute of Hydrology, the Indian Institute of Forest Management and Madhura Padesh Council of Science and Technology. There have been great advancements in geographic information services and in remote sensing. But like much of the world, there's still space to improve collaboration and the co-development of climate information services by experts with decision makers. So we invested in bringing together the institutions generating climate data, those undertaking climate data analysis, and the government organizations and communities responsible for decision making. So two, the second principle was to co-develop tools for drought warning, drought early warning and climate risk management tools and guidance with concerned government agencies and communities. As I say, we brought together these 12 government institutions ranging from those involved in data generation, those working on data analysis to the final users of data. We facilitated their interaction, providing more support to enable them to co-develop these tools. This helped embed approaches and capabilities within their systems to ensure information emerges and flows to the right people at the right time. The third principle was effective communication of climate information. The limited usability of climate information emanates from its poor communication, the format in which it's made available, how it's made available and how well the end users, both government agencies and communities, can interpret and use it for decision making. I studied climate sciences and undergraduate and often find I have to really focus my brain to interpret many seasonal forecasts. So our efforts are directed towards bringing end users to the centre of the process, putting their decisions at the centre of how climate information is expressed. Then we can design the climate information products according to these specific requirements and ensure the products are communicated through channels that are best used to reach them and trust it by decision makers. Fourth principle, creating a climate information and decision support module. So climate change is defined as a wicked problem because of its uncertainty and complexity, but uncertainty does not mean inaction. The issue can be dealt by integrating both top-down as well as bottom-up approaches. A top-down approach includes assessing the cause-effect relationship between climate change projections and the impacts and risks, looking at the range of possible climate futures, but preparing to protect lives and livelihoods through these possible futures requires information on who is vulnerable to these climate risks and how they can be addressed. We are covering this gap by complementing the top-down approach with the bottom-up. We're integrating local information through participatory processes, allowing communities to use that local knowledge in the decision-making process. While the real experience of the CRISP-M tool and the NREGs will emerge over time, our learning so far indicates immense potential of reimagining climate data governance, data management and communication. We're supporting climate resilience amongst the four and the most vulnerable people in rural areas. Possibly the greatest value of all has been in creating climate-risk-informed early action and decision-making systems. So this is the start of a journey. Improvements will be needed as we learn, but in the country with so much talent, it's an exciting journey indeed. Many thanks and may I wish you the very best for the to share and to say celebrations. Thank you, Claire. We will now move into the panel discussion with our national discussants. I would first like to invite Mr. Kamal Kishore to share his views. Mr. Kamal Kishore is a member of the India's National Disaster Management Authority and Indian Co-Chair of the Coalition of Disaster Resilient Infrastructure's Executive Committee. We request you kindly share your views, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It's indeed very heartening that this innovative tool, which will potentially improve the lives, build the resilience of millions, is being launched on the International Disaster Risk Reduction Day and just a few weeks before the COP26. So congratulations to colleagues and friends who worked on this tool. I think I just want to highlight three things and connect back a little bit to what Ben Webster was saying about taking early warning and improving access to early warning for people. Before that, we have, if I think, three things. Number one, it shows us that how you take science to people, you know, Claire's remark she was talking about, you know, looking at climate forecast, seasonal forecast, even where scientists interpret them for application. And this is a classic example, Chris M., of taking science to the people, presenting the outputs of scientific work in a format that it is actionable, usable and understandable by people. And the second thing that it characterizes is, which is very important in the context of emerging impacts, emerging and observed impacts of climate change at the local level. So it localizes information which can be used for decision-making. So it really, in a sense, is really characterized what we've learned in this area of work. It really sort of is built on best practice that we have learned over the last two decades or so. Now, coming back to REAP, I really do hope that we can develop a strong partnership with REAP and see how we can think imaginatively to take early warning to scale, not just for a few hazards, but for many hazards, not just for one type of hazard, but many hazards, not just one type of user groups, but many types of user groups. In India, we've made great progress in improving cyclone early warning, particularly on the east coast. I think we have some issues with Mr. Kamal's connection, but thank you, Mr. Kamal. I would now like to invite Mr. Shahan Mitra. He is the head of the infrastructure and urban development at the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office, Government of UK. Although he's speaking as a national discussant, but he brings a very wide international and regional experience. He led the design and implementation of a wide portfolio of programs specifically aimed at enhancing climate resilience in a wide range of sectors. So, Shahan, over to you. Thank you very much, Ritu, and greetings to all the participants and honourable ministers. I'm honoured to be speaking on this panel and delighted that the UK FCDO have been able to partner with the Ministry of Rural Development on such a landmark initiative. Climate adaptation is quite central. We know it's central to India's climate and development plans and goals. It's also central, as we've heard, to the UK's COP objectives. So, for these reasons, it's an important focus area under the UK's India bilateral partnership. We've heard, I think, from Honourable Secretary how India's vulnerability to climate impacts and the fact that it's ranked seventh in the Global Climate Risk Index. I don't think I need to labour that point. Everybody will understand the range of impacts that India's affected by. And I think we heard a very good example from Lord Ahmed about the landslides and flooding in the Himalayan region recently, and the glacier breach in Uttarakhand, which I understand has swept away two hydropower projects, as well as reportedly leading to the deaths of 200 people. So, just a very specific example of how these disasters can affect infrastructure and lives and livelihoods. Clearly, as we've heard, early warning systems and advance planning have great potential to mitigate and reduce these losses through the provision of accurate short-term, seasonal and long-term information to communities and government agencies. But I would stress the fact that the word can mitigate. I think, as we've already heard, there have been significant shortcomings in the way that climate science is currently used in adaptation practice. And this has resulted in quite low uptake in many cases of such information due to one factor being the disconnect between producers of information and users, and secondly, the way in which information is packaged and communicated. So, that's just by way of background. Just to say a little bit more about the UK's response and how we want to work in this area with India, in particular and globally. I would identify perhaps three principles. One is that in working on climate adaptation and resilience, we want to ensure that our work really makes a difference to strengthen the livelihoods and resilience of the poorest, the poor and the most vulnerable. Secondly, we want to make sure that we have an impact on a large scale, not isolated projects. So, some of the ways in which we do that are through, for example, working on what we have in the past and continue to work with and support state governments and cities on integrating and embedding climate resilience and adaptation to their overall development, planning and budgeting. We also work with private investors, financial institutions and regulators on integrating climate risk into financial decision-making. The third principle I'd like to highlight is green recovery from COVID. So, I think the interesting and attractive thing about this work that we've been doing for a number of years now with MORD on NREGS has been that it really meets all of these criteria in a very, very clear way. Clearly, NREGS targets the most vulnerable households and communities. As we've heard also, NREGS is one of the, if not the largest public works programs in the world, so it clearly offers potential for impact on a very large scale. And I think as we also heard from the minister, it's been a very important tool in COVID recovery. So, working with NREGS to incorporate more sustainable and green practices is very much in line with green recovery from COVID objectives as well. Now, turning to CRISP-M, the CRISP-M tool as part of our work with NREGS, I think one of the attractions of that is that it really addresses these needs that have been alluded to and which I alluded to earlier. The need for better information to enable communities and households to better prepare for and respond to climate impacts. What I would also say is that taking all that into account, investment in early warning and in climate information services is one of the most attractive investments that governments can make in adaptation and indeed is a crucial public good and we should see it in that light. This is quite well documented. So, FCDO and the UK government ourselves have conducted quite a comprehensive evidence review of investments in climate and it's clear from that that investments in early warning and information can offer some of the most, some of the highest benefit cost ratios of all climate adaptation investments. They can also offer very high positive impacts on poverty and gender, provided these users are actively considered and involved in the communication and use. This evidence review also highlighted that there is an important caveat to this. We shouldn't automatically assume there will be high benefits. It does require that investment takes place across the whole climate information chain. So, from forecasting through to users. So, taking into account the need to invest in the provision of information, but also how it reaches users and how it's then used by those users. It also requires institutional capacity and government ownership. And I think as we've heard, CRISP-M has very strong features that I think provide very strong confidence that these caveats, that these conditions will be fulfilled. The co-development approach that we've heard about from Claire Shakia means that we've got a very strong assurance that what comes out will be embedded into government systems and it will also meet the needs and be embedded in the way that information is used by the end users, so that the knowledge will flow to those people in ways that meet their needs. We've heard also about the communication tools that are being invested in. So, I think very strong reasons to believe that these caveats, these conditions that are needed to be fulfilled will be fulfilled and this will be a very high impact investment. What I would like to see though, and I'm sure this will happen as the work is rolled out and piloted, important to continue to invest in the monitoring and evaluation of this. So, to ensure that we can track how the information is used, the uptake, and how this information is then leads to decisions. One of the decisions, the new decisions that are made on the basis of this information and are those leading to better resilience? I think it's a very exciting opportunity to actually generate knowledge and learning which will be of value not just with India but globally. So, for these reasons, I think we're really, really very excited to be part of this. And in closing, I'd just like to again congratulate the government of India, all the many state government agencies and central agencies which have been involved and IID for their technical work on this. And we're very much looking forward to sharing this journey with you and helping to share through REAP and other platforms the lessons from this with other countries internationally. So, let me stop there. Thank you. Thank you so much, Shan. Well said. You know, we do have a provision for undertaking monitoring and as evaluation of the stool as we move forward. So, a good suggestion and we will take that on board. I would now like to invite Dr. Alok Chaudhary. He is the principal, senior principal scientist and the head of the GIS and the IID division at the Madhya Pradesh Council for Science and Technology under the government of Madhya Pradesh. Over to you, Dr. Alok. Well, thank you, Rituji. Mahane Mantri, G. G. Gov. Vikas, Ema Panchayati Raj on rebel lord Tariq Ahmed G, minister of state government of UK and respected secretaries, all my colleagues and other friends. See, I'll start my talk with the prime minister's direction which was given during the national meet on space technology on 7th November 2015 very directed to use space technology, especially the contours generated by satellite images to be used for watershed management and planning. MPCST, especially the GIS wing of MPCST is working hard since past 20 years in this particular field and we are generating various maps which are being populated down to the panchayat level and that is probably one of the reasons why agriculture in the state has grown up at a past level, one of the reasons, not the exact reason as such. But the experience which we have gained in the last various years on the watershed management, planning, monitoring and evaluation that has helped us in making this CRISP-M a good tool to be used at the field level to have a bottom-up approach. I wouldn't take much of the time but I feel that as many of the major institutions which are involved in this particular project will make this project a very good success. Thank you so much. Thank you, Dr. Chaudhry. I would now request Mr. Rohit Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development to share his closing remarks. Thank you, sir. Over to you. Honourable Union Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Government of India, Shreya Girraj Singh Ji, Lord Tariq Ahmad, Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth in the UK region, Commonwealth and Development Office, Respected Secretary Rural Development Shree Naginath Singh Ji, and all Steamed Panelists and Dignitaries and Participants. I am extremely delighted to share that our ministry under the programme of Mahatma Gandhi and REGS have already developed GIS-based plans for 182,000 cluster of villages, that is we call Gram Panchayat, out of total of 269,000 Gram Panchayats, that is around 68%. And that we have prepared with the help of remote sensing technology based on Ridge to Valley approach. And recently our Honourable Minister has also launched a new portal called Yukdhara with the help of Department of Space Science and Technology which will enable us further to strengthen the GIS planning for rural areas. Now the launch of CRISP-M tool which have been developed by joint collaboration of FCDO and Ministry of Rural Development Government of India, which will definitely help providing important climate information, climate information in the GIS-based planning and implementation of this Mahatma Gandhi and REGS. It is a further step towards unlocking climate resilience potential of Mahatma Gandhi and REGS and in due course it will aim to convert this scheme from the world's largest social protection scheme to world's largest climate resilience scheme. At this moment, I would like to thank our Honourable Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Government of India, Shri Girraj Singh Ji and Lord Tarik Ahmad, Minister of State for South Asia and Commonwealth in the UK region, Commonwealth and Development Office for jointly launching the CRISP-M tool. I would also like to thank Shri Naginath Sinha Ji our Rural Development Secretary, Government of India, for putting up opening remarks and context for the panel discussion. Sir, your guidance during the launch was very helpful, as always. On this occasion, I take the opportunity to thank Mr. Ben Webster, Head of Secretariat for the risk-informed early action partnership hosted at International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society's IFRC. Ms. Claire Sakia, Director of Climate Change Research Group, International Institute for Environment and Development, IIED. Mr. Kamal Kishore, Member, National Disaster Management Authority, NDMA, Government of India. Mr. Shantanu Mitra, Head Infrastructure and Urban Development, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, FCDO, India and Dr. Alok Chaudhary, Senior Principal Scientist and Head GIS and IP Division, Madhya Pradesh, Council of Science and Technology, MPCST for giving their valuable time and taking part in such an interactive panel discussion. Last but not the least, I also thank Ms. Daljeet Kaur, Climate and Environment Advisor, FCDO, Ms. Ritu Bharadwaj, Senior Researcher, Climate Change Research Group, IIED, Mr. Dharambir Jaha, Director, M.O.R.D, Mr. Amrinder Singh, Joint Director and Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Deputy Secretary, M.O.R.D for coordinating the whole launch along with my team from ministry and making this event a success. Thank you very much to all of you. Thank you so much, sir. And really from on behalf of both FCDO and IIED and on behalf of M.O.R.D, we would like to sincerely thank Honorable Minister Shreya Giraraj Singhji, Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Government of India and Lord Tarik Ahmed, Minister of State for South Asia and Commonwealth from UK Government for joining us today and launching the CRISP-M tool. Thank you also to Psychiatry Ministry of Rural Development and all our panelists and speakers. And in the end, I would just like to mention that the realization of this vision of CRISP-M tool would not have been possible without the continued guidance and the advice that we received from Shree Rohit Kumar, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Rural Development. Sir, your strategic input and direction really helped us in realization of this vision for CRISP-M. We would also like to thank and extend our sincere thanks and gratitude to Mr. Dharambi Ichha, Director of M.O.R.D. His constant support and input was instrumental in development of this tool. We would also like to thank our partner organization in particular Dr. T. Thomas, National Institute of Hydrology and Mr. Lokain Thakkar. He is the Senior Scientist from EPCO and finally all our team members at M.P. Coast and I.I.D. particularly Rashi Abilashi, Mohan Reddy, Inshah Amit Abhishek and from our team Ali Renton. Thank you all so much and namaskar.