Centre has invited officials from neighbouring 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 be part of the celebrations.
Besides Pakistan and Bangladesh, the country's weather agency has also invited officials from Myanmar, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Afghanistan. Representatives from the Middle East and Southwest Asia have also been invited for the celebrations, reported PTI.
"We wanted officials from all countries which were part of undivided India at the time of IMD's establishment to be part of the celebrations," said a senior IMD official.
The IMD has received confirmation from Pakistan while still waiting to hear from Bangladesh.
To make the celebrations memorable, the Ministry of Finance has approved a special Rs 150 commemorative coin. The festivities for the event are expected to be as vibrant as India's weather with marathons exhibitions and workshops to olympiads.
For the first time, IMD will also showcase its own tableau in the Republic Day Parade, as per the PTI report.
Established in 1875 during the British era, IMD will reach the 150th-year milestone on January 15. It was created after a cyclone devastated Calcutta in 1864 and back-to-back monsoon failures in 1866 and 1871.
In its initial years, the IMD used to send out weather warnings over telegrams. Over the years, it introduced cutting-edge technology, introducing India's first message-switching computer for global data exchange and one of the earliest electronic computers for meteorological research.
India also marked its place as the first developing country to launch its own geostationary satellite, INSAT, for round-the-clock weather monitoring and cyclone alerts.