Fourth World Disaster Management Congress based on the concept of – ‘Future we want — Bridging the gap between promises and action’ is organized at Mumbai IIT for discussion and research on disaster prevention. The conference is organized from 29th January to 1st February 2019. The Maharashtra State Government is the main organizer for the event. The conference will be attended by 1500 representatives from more than a hundred countries in the world.
The first meeting of the steering committee constituted for the conference was chaired by the Minister of Finance and Relief Mr. Chandrakant Patil. Other attendees of the meeting were Chief Secretary Dinesh Kumar Jain, Additional Chief Secretary of the department of Relief And Rehabilitation Medha Gadgil, Director Of Disaster Management wing Daulat Desai, Disaster Management Project and Advisor Of Disaster Management Initiative and Convergence Society and Former Union Secretary, P.G. Dhar Chakravarti, etc.
Apart from the government of Maharashtra, Indian Institute of technology Mumbai IIT, DMICS, The Tata Social Institution are the organizers for this conference. This world conference will be attended by representatives of various state governments, local government organizations, UNICEF World Health Organization, United Nations representative, NGOs related to disaster relief, representatives of universities, academic institutions, researchers and experts. There will be an exhibition related to disaster relief programs in the conference.
The conference will be inaugurated on 29 January 2019. The seminar will include a discussion on the challenges of implementation of the global structure of disaster prevention. There will be eight seminars on different topics in various sessions at the conference. A global expert will deliver the lectures at the conference. Various researchers can present the research paper at the conference. Research papers will be published in global publications afterward. Prizes will be distributed for research, essays and innovative startups presented in the conference. Short essays are invited from 10 September to 31st October for the conference. The conference will also include people’s representatives, various city mayors, officials participating in disaster management activities.
The first disaster management campaign by DMICS was held in Hyderabad in 2008. The second conference was organized in 2015 and the third conference was held in 2017 in Visakhapatnam. The representatives of 56 countries were present at the third global conference.
The concept of the 4th conference is disaster risk management and disaster management in agriculture, health, education, industry, and sustainable development. There will be discussions on various topics like the seriousness of the disaster, the innovative research work done to reduce the risk of disaster and immediate help in disaster relief. For the organization of this conference 12 different committees are formed and the steering committee is headed by the Relief and Rehabilitation Department.
Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Mr. Patil said that Maharashtra state is performing very well for disaster management and calamity preventions. This conference will be useful to increase the reach of this work worldwide. The exchange of thoughts and opinions of different representatives of different countries regarding the work and activities of disaster management is expected. Also, the conference should aim at reducing the dangers of disaster. Maharashtra government will provide all help for this conference.
Mr. Jain said different states should participate in the disaster management conference. Also, the information on ongoing emergency measures for disaster management applied in different states should be provided at the conference. At present, climate change has become a very important factor. There should be a discussion on the effect of climate change on the agriculture sector and planning required for the same.
The steering committee meeting was attended by Mr Yusuf Kabir, representative of UNICEF Maharashtra state, Mr. Mahesh Narvekar – Chief Officer of Disaster Management committee of Mumbai Municipal Corporation, and NGO of state disaster management authority and professor Ravi Sinha, professor of Social Sciences Institute of Tata Institute of Technology Jacqueline Joseph, environmental expert Mr Atul Deulgaonkar, national disaster management training institute’s member Anil Gupta, member of Maharashtra chamber Arvind Joshi and Sagar Nagare.