HYDERABAD, NOVEMBER 05, 2025: The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is pleased to announce that it will host the fourth triennial Congress of the Federation of Indian Geosciences Associations (FIGA) – FIGA 2025 – from 6 to 8 November 2025. This landmark event will bring together geoscientists, oceanographers, fisheries professionals, policymakers, and stakeholders from across India, along with several international experts for three days of dialogue, collaboration and innovation.
FIGA is a unique, interdisciplinary forum established to foster collaboration among geoscience and Earth‑system science associations, bringing together expertise in oceanography, geophysics, hydrology, fisheries and resource management. Founded to create synergies across the Earth‑science community, FIGA provides a platform to exchange ideas, build partnerships and address challenges of national and international relevance. At FIGA 2025, the focus is on the theme: “Geosciences for Blue Economy – Potential of Indian Ocean.”
Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Secretary to the Government of India will grace the occasion as the chief guest for the event and Dr. M. Ravichandran, Secretary MoES will be the guest of honor.
INCOIS is the nation’s premier operational ocean‑information and advisory services institution, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. It monitors, analyses and forecasts ocean state, supports fisheries advisory services, and provides early‑warning for marine hazards including tsunamis and storm surges. Hosting FIGA 2025 gives INCOIS the opportunity to showcase its core competences and to further align with the Congress themes:
– Coastal and Ocean Processes – covering coastline changes, sediment transport, ocean circulation, marine geodynamics, and climate‑change impacts such as sea‑level rise and marine heatwaves.
– Coastal and Ocean Resources – focusing on mineral and biological resources (fisheries, drugs from the ocean, mangroves), coastal aquifers, submarine groundwater, and energy resources such as gas hydrates, wave, tide and wind energy.
– Natural Hazards – including earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, cyclones, storm surges, and space‑based observations relevant to hazard monitoring.
– Recent Advances and Emerging Trends – addressing AI/ML applications, new observation technologies, modelling and early‑warning systems.
FIGA 2025 provides INCOIS an ideal platform to underscore how geoscience, ocean‑monitoring, advisory services and technology can converge to support a sustainable blue economy, resilient coastal communities and scientific frontiers in the Indian Ocean region.
The Congress will feature plenary keynote talks, technical sessions across the above themes, poster sessions, a Young Scientist Conclave, a Popularisation of Ocean Sciences programme for school children, and field visits. Participants will engage in topics such as ocean circulation and fisheries, resource exploration, hazard resilience, and the use of AI and data systems in ocean sciences.
“By hosting FIGA 2025, INCOIS is not just hosting a Congress – we are hosting a moment to connect science, technology, policy and practice,” said Dr. Balakrishnan Nair, Director, INCOIS. “Together with our partners, we will look at how the Indian Ocean – its processes, its resources, its hazards – can be better understood and managed for sustainable development.”
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