January 23 is Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary. Each year, on the day, the central government honours the contribution and service of people and organisations in India in the field of disaster management. In 2021, the government declared Parakram Diwas will be marked to coincide with the birth anniversary of the revolutionary leader.
The Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar for 2022 will be conferred on Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management, in the institutional category, and to Professor Vinod Sharma, in the individual category.
A total of seven awards for the winners of last four years will be presented during the ceremony. The award carries a cash prize of ₹51 lakh and a certificate for an institution and ₹ 5lakh and a certificate in case of an individual.
For this year, the 2012-established Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GIDM) was chosen for its consistent studies in the state’s disaster risk reduction capacity. Through a series of strategically designed capacity-building programs, GIDM has trained more than 12,000 professionals on diverse issues concerning multi-hazard risk management and reduction during the pandemic, an official statement released by the government said.
In the individual category, Professor Vinod Sharma, a senior professor at the Indian Institute of Public Administration and vice-chairman of the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority, has been selected. He is the founder co-ordinator of the National Centre of Disaster Management, now known as the National Institute of Disaster Management.
Prof Sharma has worked tirelessly towards bringing disaster risk reduction to the forefront of the national agenda. His pioneering work in DRR in India won him international recognition. To his credit, the academic is a resource person at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) and at Administrative Training Institutes (ATIs) for disaster management.
