Dr. T. M. Balakrishnan Nair is the Director of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Hyderabad. INCOIS is a leading and unique organization in the field of operational oceanography, specializing in ocean observation, modeling, early warning systems, and marine services, functioning under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). He is one of the founder members of INCOIS, having over 30 years of experience as a researcher. He has been instrumental in establishing the real time operational ocean observing systems and developing an ocean forecast and early warning Services for India and some of the Indian Ocean rim countries. He designed, developed and sustained the ocean observation network, end-to-end multi-user, multi-parameter; ocean forecast system which is now delivering the ocean forecast, early warning and advisory services on a daily operational mode to India and other Indian Ocean Rim countries. He pioneered in developing and operationalizing ocean data and information products and services for blue-economy stakeholders such as shipping, oil, port and harbour, maritime boards, offshore energy, coastal tourism and fishing industries.
He is the chair of Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) of IOC/UNESCO, Vice Chair of IOCINDIO/UNESCO, Vice Chair of Expert Team on Met Ocean Requirements (ET-MOR) of WMO, Vice Chair of Expert Team on Marine Service (ET-MS) of RAII-WMO, the National Coordinator for Ship Observation Team (SOT) of GOOS, Coordinated Wave CLImate Program (COWCLIP) and member of Task Teams of SOT and Data Buoy Cooperation Panel (DBCP). He also played a pivotal role in establishing multilateral programs with Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) to establish coastal real-time observation systems and developing ocean forecast system for IOR countries. He is also a member of WMO’s Severe Weather Forecast Project (SWFP-South Asia).
Dr. Nair was conferred with several national and international prestigious awards/fellowships, such as National Maritime Search & Rescue Award from Ministry of Defence-2024, National Geosciences Award-2014 from the Ministry of Mines, Government of India, for his outstanding contributions in the field of Geosciences; Silver Award (2008–09) for design and development of the INCOIS website & ocean portal under the category “Best Government Website” during the National Award for e-governance 2008–09, instituted by the Government of India; Certificate of Merit (2007) for outstanding contribution from Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India; Young Scientist Award from Indian Association of Sedimentologists in 2000; Junior and Senior Research fellowships (NET) from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India; DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) fellowship, Germany, for advanced research in the University of Bremen, Germany. INCOIS has received PM’s “Subhash Chand Bose Apda Prabandhan Puraskar-2025” for its outstanding contribution in Disaster Management. Highest award in Disaster Management in the month of Jan 2025. INCOIS has also received the “National Geospatial Jury Award 2025 in July 2025. He has received Swadeshi Shastra Puraskaram-2025 by the Swadeshi Science Movement – Kerala’ (Vigyan Bharati). Also, he is listed among the World’s Top 5% Scientist in the 2025 SciRank Global Registry.
Dr. Balakrishnan Nair holds Ph.D. degree in Marine Science, and his research interests include Operational Oceanography and Ocean Services, Wave Modelling, Real-time Ocean observation systems, and Marine Biogeochemistry. He published 160 scientific articles in peer-reviewed publications with high scientific and social/industrial impacts, 2,710 citations, h-index 28; supervised six doctoral theses, in addition to many technical reports, popular articles and book chapters. He is a Fellow of the Telangana Academy of Sciences (FTASc). He is a reviewer for many national and international journals. He is also a recognized research guide in many Indian universities and guided students for attaining their Ph. D degree.
