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The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Government of India, has been actively enhancing mobile-enabled disaster communication systems across the country to provide timely information to citizens.
NDMA has successfully operationalised the Integrated Alert System (SACHET), developed by the Centre of Development of Telematics (C-DOT), which is based on the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) recommended by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This system is already operational in all 36 States and Union Territories (UTs) of India and sends various disaster or emergency-related alerts through SMS to the mobiles of citizens affected in a particular geo-targeted area. This system has been extensively used by disaster management authorities to issue over 6,899 crore SMS alerts in more than 19 Indian languages during various natural disasters, weather warnings, and cyclonic events, according to an official statement from the Ministry of Communications. To further strengthen alert dissemination in time-critical disaster situations such as tsunamis, earthquakes, lightning strikes, and man-made emergencies like gas leaks or chemical hazards, Cell Broadcast (CB) technology is being implemented in addition to SMS. In the Cell Broadcast System, the alerts are sent to mobile phones in the affected area in a broadcast mode, and hence the dissemination of alerts happens in near real time. The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the premier R&D centre of the Department of Telecom, has been entrusted with the indigenous development and implementation of the Cell Broadcast-based public emergency alerting system, the statement added. According to the Ministry, as part of the Pan-India rollout, testing of the CB system is being conducted to ascertain the efficacy and proper functioning of the system before it is rolled out. This testing will last for 2-4 weeks, covering the entire country. During this period, test messages in English and Hindi may be received by the public on their mobile handsets. These "test messages" will be received only by mobile handsets that have CB test channels enabled. During the testing phase, these messages may also be received multiple times, through the test channel, to test the proper functioning of the system in the entire network of mobile towers (Base Station Trans receivers-BTS). These test messages are part of a planned nationwide testing exercise and require no action from recipients. The content of the test message will be as follows: This is a TEST Cell Broadcast message sent by the National Disaster Management Authority in coordination with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Government of India, as part of testing the Cell Broadcast solution for disseminating alerts. During the testing of the Cell Broadcast solution, you may receive this message multiple times on your mobile handset. Please ignore these messages; no action is required on your end. Once successfully tested and operationalized, the CB system will be used to disseminate alerts in multiple Indian languages across all mobile handsets, regardless of test channel settings, ensuring a wide and inclusive public reach during actual emergencies. DoT requests the co-operation of the public during this important testing phase and reiterates that all test messages during this period are purely for system validation purposes and no action is required from the recipient side. (ANI)
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