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The Union government has declared the Kerala floods a “calamity of severe nature”.

What are the classifications of disasters, and how does this affect funding?

According to the National Disaster Management Policy, the State governments have to provide disaster relief from their respective State Disaster Response Funds (SDRFs), and only for a “calamity of severe nature”, will additional assistance be provided from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
There is, however, no provision in the law or rules for the government to designate a disaster as a “national calamity”.

How are the NDRF and the SDRFs funded?

The NDRF is funded through a National Calamity Contingent Duty levied on pan masala, chewing tobacco and cigarettes, and with budgetary provisions as and when needed.
A provision exists to encourage any person or institution to make a contribution to the NDRF. However, this source of funding has not been tapped so far, according to the government.
The 14th Finance Commission recommended changes to this structure once the cess was discontinued or subsumed within the Goods and Services Tax. However, the government, instead, decided to continue with the National Calamity Contingent Duty even in the GST regime.
The SDRF corpus is contributed by the Union government and the respective State governments in a 75:25 ratio for general category States and 90:10 for Special Category States.
The allocation of the SDRF for each State is done by the Finance Commission, and the Centre contributes its specified share each financial year.
The Central share of SDRF is released in two equal installments, in June and then in December.

How have NDRF funds been allocated to States in the recent past?

In 2017-18, up to December 27, 2017, the Union government released NDRF funds to nine States — Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana — over and above its contributions to their respective SDRFs. The recipient of the highest amount was Karnataka, which got Rs. 913 crore that year.
Over the four years till December 27, 2017, the Centre has released the most cumulative funds to Maharashtra (Rs. 5,244.69 crore), Karnataka (Rs. 5,122.45 crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs. 4,949.04 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs. 3,115.31 crore), and Madhya Pradesh (Rs. 1,958.93 crore).
For specific calamities, the Centre released Rs. 1,365.67 crore for the Chennai floods of 2015 and Rs. 218.76 crore after Cyclone Vardah in 2016. Andhra Pradesh received Rs. 400 crore and Rs. 230 crore after Hudud ravaged Visakhapatnam.

Would declaring Kerala floods a “National Disaster” help the state receive additional assistance?

The government had termed the 2001 Gujarat earthquake and the super cyclone in Odisha in 1999 as “a calamity of unprecedented severity.
In the recent past, there have been demands for declaration of a natural disaster during the Uttarakhand floods in 2013, Cyclone Hudhud in Andhra Pradesh in 2014 and the Assam floods of 2015.
As per the Disaster Management Act, 2005, “disaster” means a catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence in any area, arising from natural or man-made causes, or by accident or negligence which results in substantial loss of life or human suffering or damage to, and destruction of, property, or damage to, or degradation of, environment, and is of such a nature or magnitude as to be beyond the coping capacity of the community of the affected area. A natural disaster includes earthquake, flood, landslide, cyclone, tsunami, urban flood, heatwave; a man-made disaster can be nuclear, biological and chemical. But, there is no provision, legal or otherwise, to declare a natural calamity as a national disaster.
But as the DM Act 2005 guidelines state, there is no such provision for a disaster to be given more importance or urgency in relief only if it is declared as a national disaster. That is, it states that any calamity which is termed to be of “severe nature” or a “rare severity” will get adequate financial support and assistance from rescue forces such as the NDRF.