The award consists of a citation, a medal and a five hundred-dollar cash reward, sources said.

This award was introduced to encourage young talented scientists of South Asia to make outstanding contributions in the field of science, particularly in environment and meteorology.

While handing over the award, the foreign secretary expressed the hope that the Saarc Meteorological Research Centre (SMRC) in Dhaka would benefit from his work.

He also noted that this scientific storm prediction model assumes special importance in the context of recent natural disasters in the region.

Sujit Kumar Debsarma is an assistant director at the Storm Warning Centre under the Bangladesh Meteorological Department. He has been conferred the Award for his research paper titled Storm Track Prediction (STP) Model.