G-20 working on DRR under India's presidency

New Delhi, January 12: G20 is all set in establishing a new

working group on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), under the presidency of India.

The rapid change in natural disasters related to cropping up from time to time

which is leading to global climate. 

The group will work towards achieving disaster risk

reduction goals and further enhance global preparedness against disaster.

Recently, India has raised the concern of building a resilient infrastructure

for disaster risk reduction at various international forums and has also called

for worldwide collaboration on the issue. In an exclusive interview with DD

India, the member secretary of the National Disaster Management Authority

(NDMA), Kamal Kishore, talked about the reasons behind India's achievements in

disaster management.

Kishore, further emphasised on the three elements behind

India's effort to minimise disaster's effects, India has made a progress in

improving forecast and warning systems, community-level preparedness and having

trained volunteers at the local level, helping people know what to do during

the time of a disaster warning, and the continuous improvements in the

dissemination system to provide early warnings about disasters.

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G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant while addressing mediapersons said

that a new work stream on Disaster Risk Reduction has been established under

India's presidency to encourage collective work, multidisciplinary research and

exchange of best practices on DRR.

The key priorities where India has proposed in the G20 Disaster

Risk Reduction group is the issue of financing. Every year, the country

allocates $1 bn for its disaster mitigation and wants to work in a direction

where there is more investment in risk reduction to ensure less spending on

disaster response.

India has emphasised on the importance of developing

resilient infrastructure that can withstand natural disasters. Prime Minister

Narendra Modi, in his ten-point agenda, has advocated building resilient

infrastructure.

The National Disaster Management Authority highlights six

thematic areas for action in which the central and the state governments should

function. These are mainstream and integrated DRR and institutional

strengthening, capacity development, promoting participatory approaches, work

with elected representatives, grievance redress mechanism, promoting quality

standards, certifications, and awards for disaster risk management.

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Speaking on National Disaster Management Authority earlier,

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, "It is the first national disaster

plan prepared in the country and matches all the parameters of Sendai Disaster

Risk Reduction Framework-2015 to 2030."

- ANI