ICT for disaster risk reduction: the Indian experience
Today it is a proven fact that disasters can happen at any place irrespective of the developed, developing or the least developed status of a country. It can cause massive destruction to the lives and livelihoods of large population and hence, to the national economies. It is experienced that the least developed and developing countries are impacted more severely by large scale natural disasters. The unique geo-climatic conditions have made India highly vulnerable to natural disasters. In India, 54% of landmass is prone to earthquakes, 40 million hectares of landmass is prone to floods, 8000 km of coastline is prone to cyclones and almost 68% of total geographical area is vulnerable to droughts. The recent occurrence of massive Tsunami on 26.12.2004 has worsened the situation. Though complete prevention of natural disasters is beyond human capabilities, the adverse impact of any disaster on human lives and their livelihoods can be minimized by taking adequate early warning, preparedness and mitigation measures. The state-of-art Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems play a crucial role for implementing such preventive measures.
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