Showing posts with label Disaster Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disaster Management. Show all posts

Monday, 9 October 2017

Mexico Earthquake-Lessons for Indian Authorities and Indian Telecoms


On the afternoon of September 19, 2017 Mexico City was struck by an earthquake of 7.1 magnitude that injured thousands, rendered thousands homeless and killed more than 200 people in and around the city. This earthquake was preceded by one in Chiapas, Mexico, twelve days earlier, that killed 100 people. Ironically the city had in fact commemorated at 11 AM on September 19, 2017 the terrible 8.1 magnitude earthquake of 1985 that also occurred on September 19, and killed 5000 people apart from causing widespread damage to property.  

As luck would have it, I was flying towards Mexico City on 19.9.2017 when the earthquake struck. As the Benito Juárez Airport was temporarily shut down, our airplane was diverted to Houston, Texas till it got clearance to land in Mexico City. By that time, about 7 hours had past post the occurrence of the earthquake. My colleague and I had some difficulty finding a hotel as the one we had a booking in had been evacuated. My first night there was disturbed by evacuation drills which the authorities had ordered and there was no air-conditioning. I could hear sirens throughout the night. However, even so, I was amazed at the calm I saw around me. The electricity was up as were the telephone lines and internet. 

The next morning, we visited the venue of the conference we had traveled to attend and as expected under the circumstances, we found that it had been cancelled. The Government had declared a national emergency. A tour of the city revealed that while there were relatively few cars and pedestrians to be seen, the city was quietly gearing up for rescue / relief work. I saw many volunteers walking, moving in cars and aggregated in and around the Zocalo or Main Square, where water and other rations were being organised. Even as the television relayed videos of the desperate ongoing efforts to rescue people trapped under collapsed buildings, in general, for a capital that had just been struck by a major earthquake I found that people were calm and there was no sense of panic or chaos, at least in the areas I had visited.

Reportedly,  as per preliminary estimates the cost of the damages may be around USD 2 billion. Its going to be a long haul for Mexico as far as reconstruction and recovery go, but it is well prepared. The government has already started making electronic transfers to the victims. I had in fact studied Mexico’s Disaster Funding as a part of my work at the National Disaster Management Authority of India.   India has statutory funds created for disaster relief and immediate rehabilitation (The National and State Disaster Response Funds (NDRF & SDRFs)), and has a statutory provision for a National Disaster Mitigation Fund (that has not been created), but unlike Mexico, India lacks a dedicated funding mechanism for post disaster asset reconstruction. Thus, in India, reconstruction would invariably come at the expense of forgoing other committed expenditure, including that earmarked for developmental activities. Further, the Indian Government does not tap into risk transfer through insurance of public assets or through reinsurance mechanisms. India is vulnerable to both water and climate related disasters as well as geologically related disasters. As indicated in the below mentioned Discussion Paper, a Lloyds study (2004-11) finds that 85% of disaster related losses are uninsured in India. The overall low penetration on non-life insurance generally implies dependence on government funding /subsidies in the aftermath of disasters and eventually, this translates into a burden on tax payers.

In contrast, Mexico has a comprehensive ex ante mechanism for funding post disaster relief and reconstruction by way of the FONDEN, apart from a funding mechanism for mitigation through FORPDEN.

FONDEN’s operation relies on a clear framework for damage and loss assessments, resource allocation, funding channels and implementation timelines between federal and state government agencies after a disaster. This allows the Government of Mexico to manage emergency response and reconstruction funds with efficiency and transparency, while generating trust and discipline…..[b]y Law, FONDEN and its related funds (FOPREDEN and CADENA, a vehicle for agricultural insurance) must receive no less than 0.4 percent of the annual budget (around US$800 million in 2011), including any uncommitted funds in the Trust from the previous fiscal year. 

As funding requirements can vary, apart from risk retention by way of above mentioned budgetary allocations, FONDEN is also allowed to pay risk premiums towards insurance as a means of risk transfer. The Mexican Government has also issued multi-catastrophe bonds and has an indemnity-based insurance for FONDEN losses. All government infrastructure is compulsorily insured.(source GFDRR)

In India, the post disaster relief expenditure of states is often more than funding available through SDRF and NDRF. Further as stated above, the Government meets reconstruction expenditure from the general budget. In the event of a major disaster this would be supplemented by aid or external borrowing. As suggested in a Discussion Paper on Disaster Relief and Risk Transfer  that I had co-authored while at NDMA, we could allow the states to use a portion of the SDRF to buy insurance  towards relief and rehabilitation (over and above that available through the SDRF scheme) and towards reconstruction of damaged infrastructure. Further, the National Government could buy parametric insurance to safeguard against rarer, high impact disasters by using a dedicated portion of NDRF funds for insurance premium. (For further information, please read my article on the subject Reference: Gulati, Archana G., Financing Disaster Risk Reduction - The Indian Context (November 1, 2013). Presentation to the Expert Group Meeting on Effective Strategies for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, 26-28 November 2013. )

This paper had also suggested other funding mechanisms such as compulsory disaster insurance for private homes, government property and revenue generating public utilities and extension of the scope of the existing public liability insurance to include public places such as hotels, cinema halls and other places where people congregate at events. Incentives by way of tax deduction for premiums could be provided. As the quantum of premiums would be linked to risk, compulsory insurance would also provide an incentive for disaster risk reduction or mitigation activities. This would also ensure that relief / reconstruction costs do not get passed on to the government in their entirety and that development related funds are not diverted for reconstruction activities.

Coming back to telecommunications, apart from the fact that in today's world, telecoms  are the lifeblood of economic and social activity, the government is also investing huge amounts in creation of public assets by way of Digital India and the National Optic Fibre Network. However, as per usual practice these assets are not insured. The Department of Telecommunication’s Crisis Management SOP 2017 and other disaster related documentation too are silent on funding for rehabilitation and reconstruction. Needless to say, disaster resilience of telecoms infrastructure is absolutely critical as disaster alerts, rescue efforts electronic funds transfers etc. all rely proximately on the unhindered continuation of telecoms connectivity. However, given the important role of telecoms and especially broadband in economic activity, we also need to evolve a comprehensive strategy for ex ante funding of damaged assets to avoid the adverse consequences of slow and expensive economic recovery, post disasters. This should invariably include a combination of risk retention (budgetary allotments) and risk transfer through insurance.

A presentation on the above can be viewed here.

Sunday, 11 August 2013

Rapidly Deployable Disaster Resilient Communications-EU's ABSOLUTE Project

The ABSOLUTE project supported by EU's CORDIS programme promises to be capable of "Guaranteeing Communication Coverage In Event Of Disaster"

It is reported that,

ABSOLUTE, which kicked off in October 2012, aims to design and validate a network capable of providing flexible, secure and resilient broadband services. Telecommunication infrastructures play a key role in recovery operations in the aftermath of an emergency. In most cases, however, terrestrial infrastructure cannot guarantee reliable services for citizens and rescue teams, while current public safety networks simply cannot provide sufficient capacity for broadband applications.

This is what ABSOLUTE seeks to address. By using rapidly deployable flexible aerial platforms with embedded 4G EnodeBs (hardware connected to the mobile phone network that communicates directly with mobile handsets), this industry-driven project aims to show that resilient communication networks can be quickly assembled to provide secure and reliable broadband service over areas affected by large-scale unexpected events, such as natural disasters.

Please see previous posts on Disaster Communications and Emergency services including a post about a similar Google project called Loon.

Perhaps the Ministry of Communications & Technology, India could take a leaf out of EU's book to create a programme like CORDIS to support such innovative industry-government collaborations.


Saturday, 3 August 2013

Need for Innovative Regulation-Indian Telecom Sector

On the occasion of the Confederation of Indian Industries National Telecom Summit 2013, The Hon'ble Minister of Communications & IT, the Chief of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the Telecom Secretary have all highlighted important elements of the way forward to achieve the goals of universal digital inclusion and to boost the health of the flagging telecom sector in India. 

I am focusing more on the issues affecting the Market efficiency Gap in this blog post.

The need to concentrate of local R&D and design capabilities in manufacturing, the need to improve regulatory certainty including issues like M&A and spectrum and unified licensing were highlighted.  

The TRAI chief  stressed  "on  the critical need to use telecom infrastructure for public service in the fields of disaster management, financial inclusion and digital transactions, in the long term." (source: http://www.ciol.com/ciol/news/192836/government-committed-boost-telecom-sector)

Most importantly the telecom secretary stated that, "[i]nnovation in regulation is also important though legacy issues are there,..... there were complex legacy issues involved in order to fix unpredictability and ambiguity in the regulatory regime." (source: http://www.ciol.com/ciol/news/192860/innovation-regulation-farooqui)

In my view, taking stock of past mistakes, resolving legacy issues and creating a simple but  clearly refined regulatory framework for telecommunications can go a long way to rectify past problems and create a conducive environment for growth of Indian Telecommunications. Please see my earlier posts on Telecom Regulation.

Of course the legal framework of the  telecommunications sector is a part of the overall legal/regulatory framework of the economy which too needs looking at. One of these areas lies in the realm of competition policy. An overarching competition policy framework would prevent many a poor policy /programme from being accepted and would strengthen the ability of regulators and policy makers to make economically wiser decisions. I have written about this is an article titled "Airwaves, Incumbents and Good Governance - The Urgent Need for a Robust Competition Policy Framework" Also, please see my previous posts on Competition.

Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Universal Access to Emergency Services

A very important aspect of Universal Service is accessibility of services to persons with disabilities (PwDs), the aged and the illiterate. This is essential not only for day to day communications which can help in mainstreaming and empowering people with special needs but also for emergency communications. The majority of  countries include free access to emergency at least vis-a-vis payphones in their UA/US related regulations.
However, while ensuring access to  emergency numbers is critical the reverse communication by way of accessible emergency alerts can also help save many lives in disaster situations. Needless to say these sections of the population are extremely vulnerable during disasters. In this regard it is interesting to read a FEMA report on  Alerting the Whole Community: Removing Barriers to  Alerting Accessibility at http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=7599. This report also has an interesting observation to the effect that in the U.S text messaging is second the most preferred means of receiving emergency alerts for PwDs. Given the huge contrast between mobile and land line teledensities in India  this trend is a thought provoking one for policy makers and regulators in the area of disaster management and telecommunications.

Also of interest may be the recent Telecom Regulatory Authority of India consultation paper on Universal Single Number Based Integrated Emergency Communication and Response System which asks stakeholders whether SMS may be used for emergency access. The vast majority of stakeholders have agreed that this is important for the disabled.