241. Strengthening role as ‘first responder’ for disaster relief; partnership for disaster resilient infrastructure
Status: Key measures taken in the past five years steps as a ‘first responder’ for disaster relief and humanitarian assistance include providing vaccines and covid-related medical supplies to over 150 countries, evacuation of 1.1 lakh foreign nationals from different parts of India to 123 nations during Covid Pandemic, emergency relief assistance to Afghanistan in the wake of earthquake, and assistance of specialised technical equipment cum response team to Mauritius in dealing with environmental crisis due to oil spill, operation Vanilla to assist people of Madagascar affected by cyclone, operation Dost to aid Syria and Turkey following an earthquake, and deploying Indian Navy’s P81 aircraft to locate the sunken Chinese fishing vessel with 39 crew members onboard. PM Modi launched the International Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) in New York in September 2019. The CDRI aims to reduce losses caused by disasters through knowledge exchange and investment in disaster and climate-resilient infrastructure. At present, the coalition has 39 member countries from across the world. i ii iii iv v vi vii viii