The basic data that is needed in the design of systems located in an earthquake environment is the way the ground particle moves in all camponental directions during a pastulated earthquake. For this purpose a data bank of records of actual strong earthquake is necessary in order to study their statistical behaviour and intluence of varlous parameters for the purpose of predicting design earthquake. This paper high.lights the development and deployment of strong motion measuring instruments particularly in India. A description of processing the data frcm analag medium in the form of photographic paper/film is also given. Except for the significant records obtained at Koyna (a hydroelectric project in Western Ghats of India) no major event has been recorded so far in the existing network and array of strong motion accelerographs.