The Indian Society of Earthquake Technology (ISET) came into being in November 1962 with Late Prof. Jai Krishna as the founding President and was registered in December 1964 under Society’s Registration Act 1961.
The Society started publishing a periodical entitled ‘Bulletin of the Indian Society of Earthquake Technology” from 1964. This Bulletin continued as a half-yearly publication till 1966 and started a quarterly publication in 1967. The name of Bulletin has been changed to “ISET JOURNAL OF EARTHQUAKE TECHNOLOGY” from March, 1998. In addition the Society also publishes a quarterly News Letter. It has also published a number of books that further its aims and objectives. In particular, the Society has published a Catalogue of Earthquakes in India and its Neighbourhood and reprinted a “Manual of Earthquake Resistant Non-Engineered Construction” with permission from International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE).
The Indian Society of Earthquake Technology holds an Annual Lecture along with AGM every year which is delivered by an eminent Engineer/Scientist in the field of Earthquake Technology. This lecture is subsequently published in the ISET Journal of Earthquake Technology for wider dissemination.
The current membership of the society, which includes Honorary Fellows, Life Fellows and Members as well as Institution Members, stands at 1700. The ISET activities are spread all over the country through ISET Local Chapters. The Society has 11 Local Centres at Roorkee, New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Jorhat, Nagpur, Pune, Amravati and Guwahati.
Since its inception in 1962, the Society has been involved in the organization of four yearly Symposia in Earthquake Engineering. Apart from these, the Society has been involved in the organization of several conferences including the Sixth World Conference on Earthquake Engineering held in New Delhi in 1977. It is also engaged in various activities directed towards creation of awareness about earthquake and earthquake engineering in general -public as well as scientific/engineering communities. The Society also organizes short term training courses dealing with earthquake technology from time to time.
The recent Bhuj earthquake of January 26, 2001 with a magnitude 6.9 was the largest earthquake to occur in India since its independence in 1947. As such, the society organized a special 3 days Workshop on “Recent Earthquakes of Chamoli and Bhuj” in Roorkee from May 24-26, 2001. This Workshop had participation of 98 delegates including representatives from 47 organizations and a total of 60 technical presentations were made covering different themes during the Workshop. Recently, the Society has Co-organized 4-yearly Symposium “14th Symposium on Earthquake Engineering” jointly with the Department of Earthquake Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee during December 17-19, 2010.
The ISET is a founder member of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE) and represents India on this world forum dealing with various-aspects of earthquake engineering. The society is represented by the President as the National Delegate and the Vice President as the Deputy National Delegate in the General Assembly of Delegates of the IAEE. A number of ISET members have served on the Executive Committee of the IAEE. The Executive Committee of ISET also acts as the Indian National Committee on Earthquake Engineering. The ISET has a role in formulation of various Indian Standard Codes of Practice related to earthquake engineering. The President of ISET is represented on the relevant committee responsible for drafting this code.