THE big brothers are knocking at the doors of the Indian Meteorological Department. us and China have requested India to help them study the weather phenomena over the Indian Ocean and the Tibetan plateau respectively.

India's meteorological expertise matches that of the world's best forecasting centres. Indian cyclone forecasting competes with the best in the world, the Miami cyclone station in the us. Besides, India has the technology and equipment to provide forecasts based on non-stop data from the INSAT series of satellites that is attracting countries like Japan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and even the us. The us wants to buy INSAT weather data on the Indian Ocean region, where it has a large naval base. For China, the Tibetan region is crucial in that it has a direct bearing on major floods in Chinese rivers. In fact, countries as distant as Japan and Oman depend on New Delhi which is responsible for cyclone forecasting for the entire region.