Beyond Cyclone Arnab: can India tackle the growing cost of natural disasters? | Insight India

Cyclone Arnab hit the coast of Andhra Pradesh this week. In preparation, authorities evacuated people, halted transportation services and alerted disaster response forces. This is just the first cyclone of the northeast monsoon season. As climate change threatens to bring increasingly intense cyclones and other natural disasters, will India’s current disaster management programme be able to handle the social and economic costs I?n this episode, Sonikka Loganathan speaks to Safi Ahsan Rizvi, former Adviser to the National Disaster Management Authority, about what goes into disaster management, the costs to the economy and vulnerable populations, and how India has improved its strategy since 1999. Published - October 31, 2026 09:00 pm IST