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It should be noted that the humanitarian supply chain is very different from corporate supply chain system in the sense that it is more complex and sometimes adhoc mechanisms will have to be implemented. Because instead of the stockholders in corporate scenario who will deal only in financial matters, the donors will take that place in the humanitarian system who will provide financial as well as physical help.

But the major issue that comes up here is the information mismatch. The donor will be able to participate in the process effectively only if proper dissemination of ground realities takes place.

Another thing to consider in the supply chain management during disaster is the coordination factor, which will decide the proper implementation of the strategies decided upon during planning process. The coordination should be based from a disaster station and should be hierarchy based and the information should flow from local station to regional station to national coordination station.

Disaster Management is an important topic to the Indian scenario because, about 60% of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of various intensities; over 40 million hectares is prone to floods; about 8% of the total area is prone to cyclones and 68% of the area is susceptible to drought and about 30 million people are affected by disasters every year. It is like almost every third year is a drought year.

Natural hazards are of the following types: -

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* Contributed by: -
Anshuman Harjai & Ibin Issac Abraham,
Management Development Institute, Gurgaon.