The National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) is a financial mechanism, managed by the Central Government under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). It is constituted under Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and is a reserve fund placed in the "Public Account of India".
The NDRF's origin traces back to the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF), which was established based on the recommendations of the 11th Finance Commission in 2000. The problem it solved was providing a structured, legally backed mechanism to supplement state resources during emergencies. The NCCF was merged into the NDRF following the enactment of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission.
The NDRF works by supplementing the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), which is the primary fund available to State Governments under Section 48(1)(a) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. The NDRF is activated when a disaster is of a "severe nature" and the State's SDRF has inadequate funds to meet the expenditure for immediate relief, response, and rehabilitation. Funding for the NDRF is primarily through a cess on certain items, such as the National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD), and is approved yearly through the Finance Bill. The mechanism involves the affected State submitting a memorandum to the Central Government, followed by an assessment by an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) before additional funds are granted.
The NDRF is closely connected to the Disaster Management Act, 2005, which also mandates the creation of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the National Executive Committee (NEC), which oversees the NDRF's utilisation. A significant recent change, based on the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission, is the creation of the National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) under Section 47 of the Act, alongside the NDRF. The NDRF and NDMF are now part of the larger framework called the National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF), with the NDRF portion allocated 80% of the total NDRMF funds for the period 2021-2026.