Remembering Anna Mani, the pioneering scientist who shaped India's weather forecasting

Anna Modayil Mani was born in Peermade in the Idukki district of Kerala in 1918 into a prosperous Syrian Christian family. She grew up as a voracious reader with a deep passion for science, choosing a set of Encyclopedias over diamond earrings traditionally gifted by her family. When Mahatma Gandhi visited Kerala in 1925, seven-year-old Anna was so moved by his words on self-reliance that she vowed to wear only khadi clothes for the rest of her life. She completed her B.Sc. Honours in physics and chemistry from Presidency College in Madras in 1939.

Research and Studies

In 1940, she began research at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru under Nobel Laureate Sir C.V. Raman, focusing on the spectroscopy of diamonds and rubies. Because she did not hold a master's degree, a formal PhD was out of reach at the time, but she received a government scholarship in 1945 to study in England. Although she wanted to study physics, the only available internship was in meteorological instrumentation at Imperial College London, which shaped her future career.

Weather Instruments

Anna returned to India in 1948 and joined the India Meteorological Department in Pune to help the country build its own weather instruments instead of importing them. By 1953, she became the head of the instruments division and oversaw the design, standardisation, and manufacture of over a hundred weather devices in India, including recording rain gauges, barometers, and anemographs. She also created the ozonesonde, a balloon-borne tool to measure atmospheric ozone, and joined the International Ozone Commission.

Later Years

She ventured into solar energy and wind power, setting up monitoring stations, conducting wind speed surveys, and publishing key reference books on solar radiation data for India. She retired in 1976 as the Deputy Director-General of the IMD after serving in the position for close to seven years. Later, she worked at the Raman Research Institute and headed a solar and wind energy assessment project for the Department of Science and Technology until near the end of her life. She passed away in Thiruvananthapuram in 2001 after suffering a stroke.

Context

Anna Mani's work laid the critical foundation for modern meteorological services and renewable energy exploration in India decades before solar and wind power became mainstream. Her career demonstrates how early post-independence scientific institutions in India worked toward national self-reliance in technical fields. Today, weather instruments and atmospheric monitoring systems remain essential for agriculture, disaster management, and climate research across the country.