Future Leaders Competition 2026: Runner-Up – Ravi Prakash Mishra

Emergency Preparedness: Are Existing Resilience Frameworks Sufficient for Tomorrow’s Risks?

By Ravi Prakash Mishra

Abstract:
Communications networks are critical infrastructure, yet their resilience faces challenges from an evolving risk landscape. This paper introduces the author's four-stage framework—Network Resilience Policy Mapping (NRPM), Network Resilience Stress-Test Matrix (NRSTM), Network Resilience Sufficiency Index (NRSI), and Network Resilience Action Framework (NRAF)—to evaluate whether current policies adequately safeguard ICT infrastructure.

The assessment examines two policy pillars: infrastructure protection (undersea cables, telecommunications networks, and data centres) and supply chain diversification (equipment vendors, semiconductors, cloud infrastructure, software supply chains, and Open RAN).

The analysis finds that protection and governance frameworks are relatively mature, while supply chain
diversification remains the most significant resilience gap. It identifies submarine cable resilience, cloud
concentration, semiconductor supply chains, and international coordination as the most critical vulnerabilities.

The paper concludes with a sequenced policy action framework to strengthen long-term ICT resilience and preparedness.