Tsunami Early Warning System in India --- Deciphered

• The Indian Tsunami Early Warning System has the responsibility to provide tsunami advisories to Indian Mainland and the Island regions. 
• Acting as one of the Regional Tsunami Advisory service Providers (RTSPs) for the Indian Ocean Region, ITEWS also provide tsunami advisories to the Indian Ocean rim countries along with Australia & Indonesia

Establishment of ITEWS

• The December 26, 2004 earthquake and the subsequent tsunami exposed the vulnerability of the Indian coastline to Oceanic hazards. 
• Following the event, India started its own interim tsunami warning center in the first quarter of 2005 to issue tsunami bulletins generated from seismic information. 
• The interim services were succeeded by setting up of a state-of-the-art Indian Tsunami Early Warning System (ITEWS) at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, under the Earth System Sciences Organization (ESSO), Govt. of India. 
• The system implemented in phases became full-fledged 24X7 operational early warning system in October 2007.

Components of ITEWS

The Tsunami Early Warning System comprises a 

• real-time network of seismic stations
• Bottom Pressure Recorders (BPR)
• tide gauges 
• 24 X 7 operational warning centre 

to detect tsunamigenic earthquakes, to monitor tsunamis and to provide timely advisories following the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), to vulnerable community by means of latest communication methods with back-end support of a pre-run model scenario database and Decision Support System (DSS). 

• The Warning Centre is capable of issuing Tsunami bulletins in less than 10 minutes after any major earthquake in the Indian Ocean thus leaving us with a response/lead time of about 10 to 20 minutes for near source regions in the Andaman & Nicobar and a few hours in the case of mainland.

• Currently Warning Centre disseminates tsunami bulletins to various stakeholders through multiple dissemination modes simultaneously (Fax, Phone, Emails, GTS and SMS etc.). 
• Users can also register on the website for receiving earthquake alerts and tsunami bulletins through emails and SMS.

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Recent news -----

Early Tsunami Warning System that can alert in 3 minutes installed in Rangachang 

Chief Scientist of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Vinith Kumar on 11 June 2013 announced that the Early Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) installed at Rangachang in Andaman and Nicobar Islands can predict a tsunami immediately after an earthquake. Vinith Kumar claimed that the new technology installed can predict the Tsunami within 3 minutes after the initial tremors are felt and can send alerts.