Tirupati boy, Bengaluru techie and 'Andhra Pradesh Weatherman': Meet Sai Praneeth who earned PM Modi's praise

What began as a hobby for Sai Praneeth Burra a few years back has now earned him praises from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and an instant national recognition.

In his Mann ki Baat broadcast on Sunday, Modi mentioned the efforts of the 24 year old electrical engineer from Tirupati, who disseminates timely, easy to grasp weather information on social media in local language Telugu for public use especially the farmers.

Modi mentioned that Burra started using his keen interest in meteorology for the farmers' good, after witnessing the huge losses they suffered last year due to inclement weather conditions.

Burra is better known as “Andhra Pradesh Weatherman” on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. He also runs a YouTube channel by the same name where he posts videos providing the latest weather picture. It includes necessary warnings, useful information during climatic conditions like thunderstorms, cyclones, floods, heat waves.

Burra is a gold medalist passing out of Anna University, Chennai in 2017 and is employed with a software firm in Bengaluru. He is presently operating from home due to the pandemic.

As also mentioned by PM Modi, Burra says he has spent about Rs 1.5 lakh in the past one year for subscriptions of accurate weather updates from various agencies.

Burra uses this data to decode the useful information regionally and spreads it widely through his twitter etc handles. Many of his YouTube and Facebook followers are farmers who are said to have benefitted from his posts.

Stressing that effective communication systems to disseminate real time weather updates is crucial, especially for communities whose livelihoods depend upon weather conditions, UN Habitat noted that Sai Praneeth, the ‘Andhra Pradesh Weatherman's’ blog and website have a significant following among rural farmers who use the information to make informed decisions daily. Such cases exemplify the simple yet effective ways of knowledge transfer (at micro, regional level) and capacity development that could build resilience to climate change, UNH said in June.

“My interest in weather, meteorology began in 2013 and I started sharing the updates with the public from last year. While my YouTube and Facebook posts are in Telugu for the understanding of the locals, tweets are in English,” Burra said.

Since Sunday, Burra is flooded with congratulatory messages from friends, relatives to dignitaries like Andhra Pradesh governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan.

“I was doing it as a hobby, passion but the PM's praise has added a sense of responsibility now,” Burra told DH.