PMINDIA

Excellencies

Honourable Minister Mr. Harbers;

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General, Ms. Mami Mizutori;

Honourable Deputy Minister Dr. Jati,

Representatives from the Coalition Members and honourable delegates from across the globe;

Ladies and Gentlemen;

Greetings!

I am delighted to be here with you at the 5^th edition of the International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. Over the last five years, ICDRI and other similar forums have sustained and amplified the conversation on disaster resilient infrastructure.

It is no longer a niche subject. It has come to the centre stage of the global and national development discourse.

Over the past few years, we have developed a better appreciation of the problem. The modern Infrastructure systems are interconnected. We need to rapidly provide infrastructure services to millions who have never had access to these services while also ensuring resilience of these systems.  This has to be achieved in the midst of rapidly changing social, economic, and natural systems.

The natural progression of this discourse would be to go beyond describing the problem to finding solutions.

I would like to congratulate CDRI for focusing this edition of their annual conference on the search for solutions.

Let me highlight five themes, that in my view, should underpin our search for solutions:

First, we must recognise that modern institutions that imbibe systemic thinking are the most important pre-requisite for success. We cannot use the institutional approaches of the 20^th century to solve the problems of the 21^st century. Let me illustrate this with an example. India’s National Master Plan for Multi-modal Connectivity (Pradhānmantrī Gatī Shaktī) is a unique conceptual and operational framework that brings together all relevant ministries and departments of Government of India and even State governments for a more holistic and integrated planning of projects.

It is not easy to interconnect ministries of roadways, railways, airways, and waterways — each with a century or more of established institutions and ways of doing business. But without the hard work of building future-ready institutions we will achieve neither efficiency nor resilience over the long term. In essence, we must focus as much, if not more, on institutional innovation as on technological innovation.

Second, we have to carefully think about optionality in our infrastructure systems. In the midst of multiple transitions, we must be able to pursue an iterative approach and respond to emerging scenarios. If the future is uncertain, then we cannot lock ourselves into only one way of doing things.

Third, modernizing our institutions and being nimble footed would require the type of capacities that the world – both in the south and in the north – presently lacks. We need professionals that are deeply steeped in their disciplines but that are comfortable to work at the intersection of multiple and diverse disciplines.

We need engineers who understand social and economic concerns and we need social scientists who appreciate the promise of technology. In this regard, the CDRI initiative to launch a multi-disciplinary academic network for resilient infrastructure can play a pivotal role.

Fourth, while we want to facilitate north-south, south-south, north-north exchange, a large part of the infrastructure services will have to be delivered in the south.  Therefore, in our search for solutions we must focus on affordability, scalability and sustainability for the emerging economies.

And finally, as is being increasingly recognized, it is important to measure outcomes in terms of reliable infrastructure services to people as opposed to only in terms of creation of hard assets.

In summary, if we focus on modernising our institutions, maintain optionality, create multi-disciplinary capacities, focus on what works for emerging economies, and put people at the centre, we will be able to develop pathways for resilient infrastructure for our future generations.

We are living through unprecedented times, marked by complex challenges and uncertainties. At the same time we have unparalleled possibilities. There is global momentum on resilience issues.

Just last week G20 countries met for the first time to discuss disaster risk reduction issues. In less than two months the UN will convene the high-level political forum to discuss progress on Sendai Framework.

This is a moment of great opportunity. Let us seize it.

Thank you!