The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad is a globally recognized autonomous institution under Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India. The Centre provides free dedicated ocean information services to the Nation, using state-of-the-art technology and research, for increasing Safety and Profit. The three primary services provided are the Tsunami Early Warning Service, Ocean State Forecast Service and Potential Fishing Zone Advisory Service.
Swachhata Pakhwada was held at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services till 15 July. Several activities were conducted towards awareness generation of the mission objectives to eradicate open defecation, efficient management of solid and liquid waste, encourage cost effective and appropriate technologies for ecologically safe and sustainable sanitation, overall cleanliness etc. These included plantation of trees at ITCOocean campus (saplings arranged from the Govt. of Telangana under Haritha Haram mission ), awareness campaign and distribution of personal hygiene materials to INCOIS outsourced (housekeeping, gardening, security, electrical etc.) staff, single-use plastic avoidance pledge and campus sanitization.
Special e-contests : Drawing ( Personal Hygiene) and Essay (Household Waste Management) were held for school children. An e-poster contest of ” How does Swachhata impact oceans? ” was also held for employees. The programme was inaugurated with a webinar on ” Open Defecation Free India : A Case Study of Krishna District in Andhra Pradesh” by Ms. J Kiranmai, Registrar, Institute for Public Enterprise on 1st July 2020. Another focused webinar on “Swachch Samudra” was presented by Dr. Nimit Kumar, Scientist, INCOIS on 13th July 2020. Today a special webinar on “COVID19: Protector or Polluter to the Oceans” was presented by Shri. Sivaiah Borra, Scientist , INCOIS during the valedictory session of the Pakhwada. Contest winners were also announced.