Every natural disaster creates havoc and brings huge losses to the economy. With global warming, disasters seem to be getting more common, necessitating the need for Disaster Management, which helps create a structured plan to cope with the event and bring about normalcy. Because of its increasing importance, today Disaster Management is being offered as an MBA degree as well.
Students who pursue an MBA degree in Disaster Management learn skills, both in research and technical fields, as well as get management expertise to handle such situations effectively. While Disaster Management helps cope with a disaster, it involves strategizing and implementing plans and strategies before any impending disaster, such that losses can be prevented or made minimal as well. So, this degree creates sharp-minded professionals who develop the eye to spot impending failures or calamities and they are thus well-trained to handle such situations with their organizational skills.
Some of the topics that students cover in this MBA course are,
Strategic Management
Human Resource Management
Disaster Management
Risk Assessment
Financial Statement Analysis
Marketing Management
Research Methods
Business Continuity Management
Management of Urban Disasters
Students of this course will generally learn about how Disaster Management is hugely dependent on factors such as the climate of a place, local economic conditions, and the population of a place or those being/likely to be affected by the disaster, as well as whether the disaster is man-made or natural.
Career opportunities for disaster management professionals mainly exist in government sector with emergency services, relief groups, law enforcement department, and local authorities. Opportunities also exist with private agencies and non profit organizations dealing with disaster management services. International agencies like United Nations also appoint disaster management professionals. These professionals are appointed in different capacities, viz, trainees, assistants, experts, researchers, analysts, engineers, medical health experts, environmental experts, rehabilitation workers etc.Â
In the past, it was mostly been military personnel or first responders who had handled disasters and managed them. But today, professionals, especially those interested in areas such as social welfare or community development, pursue this field. These MBA students can find employment in various fields such as fire departments, law enforcement, drought management departments, and so on. They can also begin their own consultancies as a career. Sometimes, certain organizations may have their own disaster management units. Examples include insurance companies, petroleum industry, chemical industry, and mining industry.Â
Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University - New Delhi
Anna University - Chennai
IASE University - Rajasthan
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) - New Delhi
The Global Open University - Nagaland
Tata Institute of Social Sciences - Mumbai
MS University - Vadodara
Devi Ahilya University - Indore
Indian Institute of Ecology and Environment (IIEE) - New Delhi
Sikkim Manipal University - Gangtok
Nalanda Open University - Patna
National Institute of Disaster Management - New Delhi
Disaster Management Institute - Bhopal
Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre - Dehradun
Geological Survey of India - Kolkata
National Civil Defence College - Nagpur
National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering IIT Kanpur
Alagappa University - Chennai