The Guidelines on the Incident Response System (IRS) are issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under Section 6 of the DM Act, 2005 for effective, efficient and comprehensive management of disasters in India. The vision is to minimize loss of life and property by
strengthening and standardising the disaster response mechanism in the country.
 
Though India has been successfully managing disasters in the past, there are still a number of shortcomings which need to be addressed. The response today has to be far more comprehensive, effective, swift and well planned based on a well conceived response mechanism. Realisation of certain shortcomings in our response system and a desire to address the critical gaps led the Government of India (GoI) to look at the world's best practices. The GoI found that the system evolved for fire-fighting in California is very comprehensive and thus decided to adopt Incident Command System (ICS).
 
In view of the provisions of the DMAct,2005, NDMA felt that authoritative Guidelines on the subject, with necessary modifications to suit the Indian administrative setup, were essential.  To meet this need, a core group of experts was constituted and four regional consultation workshops were conducted. It was ensured that representatives of the State Governments and MHA participate and their views given due consideration.  Training Institutes like the LBSNAA, NIDM and various RTIs / ATIs along with National core trainers also participated. The adaptation of ICS by other countries was also examined. The draft prepared was again sent to all States, UTs and their final comments were obtained and incorporated. A comprehensive set of Guidelines has thus been prepared and is called the Incident Response System (IRS).