Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the premier R&D centre of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, Government of India and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Government of India jointly conducted an All-India Workshop centered on Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) based Integrated Alert System today here today.
The workshop aimed to provide a platform to all the stake holders including Alert Generating Agencies, Alert Authorising Agencies and Alert Disseminating Agencies across India to discuss their underlying concerns and challenges and evolve the technology-based solutions to address these in an effective manner amid insightful discussions by a galaxy of experts and technologists.
The Inaugural Session was chaired by Shri K Rajaraman, Chairman, Digital Communications Commission (DCC) and Secretary (Telecom), DOT. He exhorted that all forms of technology should be used collaboratively and appreciated the indigenous initiatives of C-DOT and NDMA in operationalising the Integrated Alert System. He said that saving lives is the fundamental responsibility of the Government and the country has marched very well in this direction. Substantial investment has been done in the recent years in telecom sector and all corners are connected now, so there should not be any remote area without alert mechanism. He emphasised the need of cell broadcast in the current network as well as the upcoming 5G NSA solutions.
Smt. B. V. Umadevi, Additional Secretary (DM), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India said that bringing all stakeholders in one platform will be very important in bringing synergy of efforts. She congratulated C-DOT on successfully completing the Phase-I of the CAP project.
Dr. Rajkumar Upadhyay, Executive Director, C-DOT said that CAP based Integrated Alert System has been implemented as per ITU Standards and it is in sync with Hon’ble Prime Ministers 10-point agenda. Dr. Upadhyay said that with the implementation, India has become 6th such country to have nation-wide alert system. He emphasised the myriad capabilities of the indigenous Integrated System driven by synergy amongst relevant stakeholders and discussed the future roadmap.
Sh. Kamal Kishore, Member Secretary, NDMA said that disasters give no lead time and events are highly localized so warning should be location specific, timely, efficient, actionable, and people-centric.
States like AP, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka appreciated CAP and said that they have been using this to disseminate alerts at the time of crises and it has helped us save lives and take timely action .
Various eminent dignitaries and speakers from various Government departments including NDMA, DoT, Indian Railways, Indian Metrological Department (IMD), Central Water Commission (CWC), Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment (DGRE), Forest Survey of India (FSI), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) of 36 States and Union Territories attended the workshop and deliberated on various contemporary issues related to Disaster Management and Preparedness.
NDMA’s Integrated Public Alert System has been developed by C-DOT and provides a converged platform for dissemination of targeted alerts and advisories to people living in disaster-prone areas in vernacular languages over all available communication media including SMS, Cell Broadcast, Radio, TV, Siren, Social Media, Web Portals and Mobile Applications. This one-stop solution is a concrete step towards realizing Hon’ble Prime Minister’s 10 point Agenda for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The system is already operational in 34 States and UTs. More than 75 Crores SMSes have already been sent by the system for various disasters like Cyclones (Asani,Yass, Nivar, Amphan), Floods (Assam, Gujarat), Lightning (Bihar), etc. The system has also been used to facilitate the pilgrims during Amarnath Ji Yatra.