Varsha Ashok Aglawe Becomes First Woman Director General of Geological Survey of India
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Why in News
- Varsha Ashok Aglawe has taken charge as the 54th Director General of the Geological Survey of India (GSI), becoming the first woman to lead the organisation in its 176-year history. She replaces Asit Saha, who completed his two-year term in office.
Career and Expertise of Varsha Ashok Aglawe
- She joined GSI in 1992 after working with the Indian Bureau of Mines, bringing more than 30 years of scientific and administrative experience to the role.
- As a specialist in palaeontology and palynology, her research covers Late Cretaceous-Palaeocene sediments, the K-T boundary, and the Satpura-Gondwana basins.
- Her notable scientific work includes discovering a new dinosaur nesting site in the Salbardi-Ghorpend area of Central India and joining international research projects with the University of Michigan.
- Under her leadership, GSI will focus on finding critical and strategic minerals, exploring deep and hidden mineral deposits, conducting advanced geophysical surveys, carrying out offshore mineral exploration, and upgrading laboratory facilities.
Geological Survey of India (GSI)
- Founded in 1851 to find coal deposits for the railways, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) currently operates as an attached office under the Ministry of Mines.
- The organisation has its headquarters in Kolkata along with 6 regional offices in Kolkata, Lucknow, Jaipur, Nagpur, Hyderabad, and Shillong, plus state units across the country.
- GSI carries out geological mapping, mineral resource assessments, geophysical, airborne and marine surveys, natural hazard studies, glaciology, seismotectonics, geoinformatics, and basic geoscientific research, while maintaining the national geoscientific database.