ICHl 2013, the two day International Conference on Humanitarian logistics organised by the Indian Institute of Management, Raipur (IIM Raipur) was inaugurated at the hands of Governor Shekhar Dutt here on Monday. In his inaugural address, the governor observed that disaster management in India needs to be more professionalised by institutionalising the lessons of preparedness, emergency response protocols and simulation exercises from our armed forces and best practices from developed countries.
The Governor appreciated the significant contribution made by agencies like the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of Indian and the Indian Meteorological Department to strengthen the early warning systems, forecasting and dissemination of early warning and alert messages to the disaster-prone communities.
He also lauded the efforts of the Indian National Ocean Observation Systems (INCOIS), Hyderabad which established the Tsunami Early Warning System with a network of bottom pressure recorders, tide gauges and buoys to monitor the tidal movements after tsunami-earthquakes in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. He emphasized upon the usage of the Doppler radars, weather monitoring satellites and automatic weather stations by the Indian Meteorological Department in improving the weather forecasting of cyclonic movements and helping in minimizing the loss of lives as illustrated by the recent experience of cyclone Phailin in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
Earlier Dr BS Sahay, Director IIM Raipur in his welcome address outlined the need for strengthening humanitarian logistics in the country based on the experiences of the devastating disasters faced by India in the recent past like the cloud burst, flood and landslides in Uttarakhand.
Dr Sahay welcomed the dignitaries from within the country and abroad and expressed the hope that the deliberations in the Conference during the Panel Discussions, Plenary Speeches and Technical Sessions will enrich the delegates and help the government agencies, business houses, humanitarian assistance agencies and other stakeholders to improve humanitarian logistics at the national, state and district levels when disasters strike. Prof. Sumeet Gupta , Associate Professor, IIM Raipur gave an overview of the Conference.
Prof Gyongyi Kovacs, Director, Humanitarian logistics and Supply Chain Research Institute, Finland in her Key Note Address explained how military and humanitarian supply chain operations are very different in the way they function. Humanitarian supply chains are very agile and flexible. She also shared that they are conducting a research to find out the gaps in the supply chain.