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Jawaharlal Nehru University has signed an MoU with the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) for establishing a Centre for Excellence in Disaster Research and Resilience Building at the varsity. "The memorandum of understanding was signed on Thursday between Santosh Kumar, executive director, NIDM and SK Sopory, JNU vice chancellor in the presence of minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju," an official statement said.

Santosh Kumar said that the collaboration of both the institutions will provide opening to the students into a new emerging research area and positions in administration from district to higher levels and will have the potential of generating a new breed of disaster management professionals.

NIDM will be providing financial assistance amounting to Rs 4.14 crore to JNU over a three- year period from 2015-16 to 2017-18 to start M.Phil and Ph.D programmes in disaster management for the first time in India. The statement said that,"The objective of this MoU is to initiate research, teaching, capacity and manpower development within a trans-disciplinary framework which brings science to communities in a manner that it is made usable and understandable to communities in fragile ecosystems."

This MoU outlines activities which will help to build community resilience through better preparedness, legal and governance reforms, enhanced capacity for early detection and warning systems, absorption of indigenous wisdom in administrative systems, resonating vulnerabilities of various kinds, remote sensing and GIS (Geographical Information System) based mitigation efforts and environmental capacity enhancement of local governance.

It added that, "Academically the collaborative nature of this programme would bring focus down to local communities and resource conservation at the grassroot level. NIDM will move a step forward towards its goal of becoming a deemed university with this collaboration."