An international team of astronomers led by professor Neeraj Gupta from India released a comprehensive catalogue of cold hydrogen gas in the Milky Way galaxy as part of the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS) project. The project utilized data from the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa to map the 21-cm line emission, tracing both warm and cold components of neutral hydrogen gas. The lead investigator, Professor Gupta, highlighted the importance of this catalogue in understanding the distribution of cold gas in the Milky Way's halo and the processes of gas conversion into stars over cosmic time. The project detected around 3500 cold hydrogen gas structures, offering valuable insights into the complex microphysics and thermal components of the gas. By combining multi-wavelength data, including optical and far-infrared radiation, the team was able to disentangle the distribution of interwoven atomic gas phases within the galaxy. This detailed exploration was made possible by the sophisticated processing pipeline and data storage facility set up at IUCAA (Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics) to analyze vast volumes of MeerKAT data. The simultaneous detection of the 21-cm line in emission and absorption enabled researchers to unravel the distribution of various thermal components and understand the formation of cold gas structures in the Milky Way. Scientists from different countries, including Germany and Russia, emphasized the significance of these detections in exploring gas physics with unprecedented detail. By studying the relationships between thermal components of atomic gas and local conditions like radiation and turbulence, the team aims to deepen our understanding of star formation conditions and the evolution of galaxies.