NDMA starts testing emergency cell broadcast tech

Subject: Geography

Section: Physical geography

Context:

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has started testing the emergency cell broadcast technology developed by C-DOT that will alert people at the time of natural disaster.

About the Emergency cell broadcast technology:

It aims to enhance public safety and provide timely alerts during emergencies.
The messages were sent in both Hindi and English languages.
The technology is currently available only with a foreign vendor and hence C-DOT is developing it in house.
The cell broadcast technology is under development. It will be implemented by NDMA for sending out alerts at the time of disaster directly on the mobile phone screens. It is currently being tested on the Jio and BSNL network.
The sample test message with the title, ‘Emergency alert: Severe’, was sent to subscribers on Jio and BSNL networks.

C-DOT:

Headquarters: New Delhi, India.
Ministry: Department of telecommunications (DOT), Ministry of communication.
The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) is an Indian Government owned telecommunications technology development centre.
It was established in 1984 with the initial mandate of designing and developing digital exchanges.
Sam Pitroda started the C-DOT as an autonomous telecom R&D organisation.
C-DOT has expanded to develop intelligent computer software applications.
It has offices in Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata.
It is one of the few government organisations in India which have been appraised at Maturity Level 5 of CMMI-DEV v1.3.

NDMA:

Parent body: Ministry of Home Affairs.
Primary Objective: To coordinate response to natural or man-made disasters and for capacity-building in disaster resiliency and crisis response.
Origin: NDMA was established through the Disaster Management Act enacted by the Government of India in 2005.
Organisation setup:
- The Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairperson of the NDMA, who chairs a 9-member board.
- The remainder of the board consists of members nominated based on their expertise in areas such as, planning, infrastructure management, communications, meteorology etc.
- The day-to-day management of the agency is overseen by the office of the Vice Chair.