Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi (center) reviews the newly launched National Disaster Management Plan.

India’s Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi released the country’s first ever National Disaster Management Plan aiming to make India more disaster resilient and reduce loss of life due to natural disasters.

The plan draws from the four priority themes of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, specifically understanding disaster risk, improving disaster risk governance, investing in disaster risk reduction (through structural and non-structural measures) and disaster preparedness, early warning and building back better in the aftermath of a disaster.

The holistic plan outlines all phases of the disaster management cycle and integrates the roles and responsibilities of government agencies and departments from the local to national level. The national plan has a regional approach that can also be used for development planning initiatives.

The plan identifies major activities such as early warning, information dissemination, medical care, fuel, transportation, search and rescue, evacuation, and more to serve as a checklist for agencies responding to a disaster. It also provides a generalized framework for recovery and offers flexibility to assess a situation and build back better.


Government officials during the launch of the National Disaster Management Plan at the Prime Minister's office in New Delhi, India.

ADPC’s cooperation with India

Asian Disaster Preparedness Center has a longstanding partnership with India. The country is one of the 26 member countries of the Regional Consultative Committee on Disaster Management and was represented during last year’s meeting by Mr. Keshav Kumar Pathak, Joint Secretary, Disaster Management Division, Ministry of Home Affairs, India.

Since 2014, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center has been contracted for the project “Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) for India” by the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) under the Ministry of Home Affairs. The assignment supports the NIDM to build a system to assess damage and losses after a disaster and the capacity building activities to use such tools.

A Memorandum of Understanding (2011-2015) between ADPC and the Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management supported a number of training courses including Mainstreaming Disaster and Climate Risk Management into Development from 1–5 July and a Training programme on Earthquake Vulnerability Reduction Course from 29 July–2 August, 2013.

Moving forwards, ADPC welcomes opportunities to further support India in its disaster management initiatives.