- Why in news
- On 12 February 2026, the Minister of State for Earth Sciences told Rajya Sabha that ITEWC has met all UNESCO-IOC performance indicators. It monitored 145 earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 or more in five years.
- What it is
- ITEWC is India's national tsunami warning centre, housed at INCOIS, Hyderabad, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. It was set up after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. It detects tsunami-causing earthquakes and issues advisories to disaster managers.
- Location and parent body
- ITEWC sits at INCOIS, Hyderabad, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, and has been operational since 15 October 2007.
- Key performance indicators
- UNESCO-IOC KPIs are assessed yearly. They include detection within 10 minutes, monitoring all earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 or more, magnitude difference within 0.3, and location and depth accuracy within 30 km.
- Four advisory categories
- Warning means move to higher ground, Alert means avoid beaches and low-lying areas, Watch means no immediate action, and No Threat means safe.
- Who orders evacuation
- INCOIS issues advisories, but evacuation orders come from state and local authorities.
- HPC Tarang
- INCOIS has commissioned HPC-Tarang, a computing system dedicated to tsunami forecasting and operational ocean services.
- Mock drills
- Eight drills were held in five years, two of them regional: IOWave23 and IOWave25.
Don’t confuse with INCOIS vs ITEWC: INCOIS is the wider ocean information agency, providing storm-surge, wave and current advisories. ITEWC is its tsunami warning centre.
Don’t confuse with Advisory vs evacuation: The centre issues advisories. States and local bodies order evacuation.
Science and technology: 57 Prelims questions since 2013; most test the concept behind the news, not the news itself. In Mains, 12 news-triggered questions.
Why it matters
- Timely warnings protect India's long, densely populated coastline and support disaster risk reduction.
- As a regional service provider, India's centre supports Indian Ocean preparedness.
Problems
- Warnings must reach the last mile in coastal communities quickly, and evacuation is the responsibility of states and local bodies.
- Near-source tsunamis leave very little time to respond.
Way forward
- Expand the Tsunami Ready programme and regular mock drills in coastal communities.
- Keep upgrading models, computing and multi-channel dissemination, including for volcanic tsunamis.
Put in your answer
Performance data: In five years ITEWC monitored 145 earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 or more, eight of them in the Indian Ocean, and met all KPIs.
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: The December 2004 tsunami led India to set up ITEWC.
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UPSC’s own questions that come close to this issue, from our Prelims and Mains banks.
No practice question for this one; the card may still help an answer. Why: Lasting body at INCOIS with a 2007 start and UNESCO-IOC links; disaster early warning is asked rarely, and the item has few new facts.
Worth revising until Prelims 2027: most news questions come within two years of the event.