The first national-level advanced training programme in earth system sciences and climate will kick off on August 8 at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune. It will be inaugurated by the secretary, ministry of earth sciences (MoES), Shailesh Nayak. A brainchild of the MoES, the 18-month residential training programme will see 20 post-graduate science and engineering students joining the first batch from all over India. Speaking to DNA on Tuesday, executive director (advanced training centre for earth system sciences and climate) at IITM, M Baba, said the programme had been devised to train young scientists to make state-of-the-art weather and climate forecasts with focus on the Indian monsoon. About 500 trained and dedicated climate and earth system modelers are proposed to be created through this programme in the next 10 years. “MoES is, therefore, keen to gradually increase the number of trainees every year from 20 to 60, so that we can meet the target of 500 trained weather scientists in a decade,’’ Baba said. The trainees would be offered a stipend of Rs25,000 per month. “They will be exposed to the latest observational systems and the latest models for earth and climate systems,’’ Baba said. After training they will be assured appointments as scientists in any of MoES institutes: IITM, India meteorology department, National centre for medium range weather forecasting, Indian national centre for ocean information services, National institute of ocean technology and the National centre of Antarctic and ocean research.