New Delhi: The Department of Space (DOS) of the Ministry of Science and Technology has proposed to setup a "National Institute for Climate and Environmental Studies (NICES)" with the involvement of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).

According to an official press release, the institute will initially be located and nucleated at the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), Gadanki near Tirupati, which is an autonomous laboratory involved in monitoring the Earth's atmosphere, and functions under DOS.

A time frame for setting up the institute has not yet been formulated. The mandate of the institute includes, inter alia, monitoring and measuring the impact of global warming on the Himalayan Glaciers and long term studies on the impacts of climate change.