India catching up fast with latest technology to tackle
disasters Dec 02, 2010 (Mint - McClatchy-Tribune Information
Services via COMTEX) -- The floods of 26 July 2005 were a wake-
up call, recalls Mahesh Narvekar, chief officer of the disaster
management cell of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai
(MCGM). "Before that, the maximum rain the city had ever seen
was 500mm, and suddenly, that year we were swamped by 944mm."
The flood claimed 445 lives and brought with it an urgent
realization that Mumbai needed to get its act together. This has
been the story of disaster management across India. A series of
crises in the 2000s--the Gujarat earthquake of 2001, the tsunami
of 2004, the terror attack on Mumbai in 2008--served to propel
disaster management in India to a higher level. The Disaster
Management Act of 2005 proposed setting up a national authority,
which, in turn, has made the use of technology in managing
emergencies widespread. "None of the technologies you need at
any stage are rocket science,"