Former home secretary and ex-governor of Manipur and Mizoram, Vinod Kumar Duggal has been appointed to the World Health Organisation’s advisory group to strengthen response to outbreaks and emergencies with health and humanitarian consequences.
The Advisory Group comprises of high-level experts in large-scale emergency response, disaster preparedness, disease outbreak control and crisis coordination. The members are senior officials of United Nations agencies, government and international humanitarian non-governmental organizations.
He is the only representative from WHO South-East Asia Region in the Advisory Group to WHO.
An IAS officer of 1968 batch, Duggal has extensive experience in leading and coordinating response to disasters and outbreaks such as reconstruction and rehabilitation post.
He drafted the legislation for setting up of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the apex body for disaster management in India, which was created during his tenure as the Home Secretary. His experience in handling response to disease outbreaks dates back to 1996-97 dengue epidemic in Delhi, when he was the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.