PK Mishra analyses role of institutions, legislations, regulation in changing disaster management system

Bengaluru: Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, P K Mishra says investments in financing mechanisms, institutional development, and capacity-building are intended to deliver measurable outcomes. Mishra asserted that one of the most significant achievements of India’s evolving disaster risk management system is the reduction in disaster-related mortality.

Mishra was addressing during the Silver Jubilee Foundation Day of the Centre for Public Policy (CPP) at Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru. He explained how the Gujarat earthquake recovery programme with a comprehensive approach helped transform the disaster management system of the country.

PK Mishra emphasised that the combined effect of improved early warning systems, strengthened institutions, better planning, and more responsive financing, Mortality rates have shown a consistent decline across both rapid-onset and slow-onset hazards. This is in line with the core commitment under the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, to which India is a signatory, Mishra added.

Delving on the theme of his lecture on “From Gujarat to Myanmar: Evolution of India’s Disaster Management Policy and Practice during the last 25 Years”, PK Mishra drew inspiration from PM Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Viksit Bharat’. He reflected on how India’s disaster management policies and practices have evolved over the last two or three decades.

Mishra said that the practice of disaster risk management in India had multiple transitions. Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister referenced in his deliberation, the 1991 Odisha Super Cyclone, the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which resulted in several lessons. Mishra said that there were also other events, such as the Latur earthquake of 1993 and the Kashmir earthquake of 2005. In addition, global policy processes such as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) 1990-1999, the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2000-2015 and the Sendai Framework 2015-2030 had greatly influenced our thinking and practice, he further said.