Afghanistan Argentina Australia Bangladesh Bhutan Brazil Canada Chile Dominican Republic Fiji France Germany Ghana Haiti India Italy Jamaica Japan Madagascar Maldives Mauritius Mongolia Nepal Netherlands Peru South Sudan Sri Lanka Tajikistan Turkey United Kingdom United States 8 member organizations
Invited members
Algeria Egypt Malaysia Mexico Norway Pakistan Republic of Korea Spain Switzerland
CDRI's initial focus is on developing disaster-resilience in ecological, social, and economic infrastructure. It aims to achieve substantial changes in member countries' policy frameworks and future infrastructure investments, along with a major decrease in the economic losses suffered due to disasters.[4]
PM Modi approved the proposal for CDRI on 13 August 2019, after which it was approved by the union cabinet on 28 August 2019.[9] The Government of India also pledged financial support of ₹480 crore (equivalent to ₹596 crore or US$71 million in 2023) towards the CDRI corpus.[9][10] It also specified that the financial resources required for research purposes will be met through the existing budget of Ministry of AYUSH's National Medicinal Plants Board.[11] The NDMA Headquarters at Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi was decided as the site for the interim secretariat of the CDRI.[5][12] NDMA was also given the task of preparing CDRI's memorandum and by-laws.[11] Design competitions for the CDRI logo and tagline were also organized on the MyGov.in portal with cash prizes of ₹1 lakh (equivalent to ₹1.2 lakh or US$1,500 in 2023) and ₹50,000 (equivalent to ₹62,000 or US$740 in 2023) respectively.[13][14]
Members
As of 2023, 39 members, consisting of 31 national governments and eight organizations, are CDRI members.
Modi officially launched the CDRI at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit in New York, United States on 23 September 2019.[3] He termed it as a "practical approach and roadmap" towards climate change mitigation, adding that "an ounce of practice is worth more than a ton of preaching."[17] Twelve countries participated in the launch event alongside India: namely Australia, Bhutan, Fiji, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Maldives, Mexico, Mongolia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom.[18] The World Bank and the Green Climate Fund also supported the launch.[18]
Whenever there is a cataclysmic climate event, infrastructure gets undermined and overwhelmed very quickly, and it becomes very difficult for developing countries or countries who do not have [the] economic wherewithal to address these.[17]
Syed Akbaruddin, Permanent Representative of India to the UN
The Indian Government and the UNDRR co-hosted an event called "Resilient Infrastructure: Key to the Success of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", where the Indian Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, said that the CDRI is an "initiative that brings together developed and the developing countries, small island states, landlocked countries, countries with advanced infrastructure systems, and countries with large infrastructure deficits."[18]
Diplomatic significance
The CDRI is the second major coalition launched by India outside of the UN, the first being the International Solar Alliance.[20] Both of them are seen as India's attempts to obtain a global leadership role in climate change matters,[21] and were termed as part of India's stronger branding by India's Minister of External Affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, at the fourth Ramnath Goenka Lecture in November 2019.[22] While giving an interview to the India Today, he cited them to prove India's "much greater willingness to engage multiple players" under Modi's leadership.[23]
Sreeram Chaulia, dean of the Jindal School of International Affairs at the O. P. Jindal Global University, said that India and Japan, with their joint experience in disaster management, can use the CDRI to provide a safer alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).[24] However BRI is an infrastructure creation and funding initiative unlike the CDRI, which is an international knowledge platform.[21]
