In July 2016, some members of the INCURSI, the Indian National Committee of URSI (International Radio Science Union) met at INSA as a part of preparation for a delegation to URSI AP-RASC 2016 to be held in Seoul, Republic of Korea. They resolved that there is an urgent need to register an Indian Radio Science Society for furthering the cause of Radio Science in India, making a bid for holding the Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference in 2019 and other progressive measures to disseminate Radio Science in India and in neighbouring countries.

The members were present on that occasion were – S. Ananthakrishnan, Amitava Sen Gupta, Animesh Maitra, Debatosh Guha, P. Janardhan and R. Paulraj. They agreed to work towards the formation of the Indian Radio Science Society and to formulate its Constitution and the Memorandum of Association. These were to follow the general practice in many other scientific societies in India – such as the Astronomical Society of India and the Indian Physical Society. Accordingly, a draft constitution was formulated with the following sections:

Memorandum of Association
Rules and Regulations
Article I: Membership
Article II: Election of the Executive Council
Article III: Functions of the Council and its Officers
Article IV: Finance
Article V: Meetings
Article VI: General Matters
Signatories
Bye-Laws concerning management and funding of the publications

The draft constitution was circulated among the ten INCURSI members and eventually finalised after several revisions (Final Constitution). It was decided to adopt the acronym “InRaSS” for the Indian Radio Science Society. The ten members of INCURSI agreed to become the founding life members of InRaSS and contributed the seed money for its initial activities. Also, the founding members unanimously decided on the composition of the first InRaSS board as the following.

InRaSS is a non-governmental and non-profit organisation whose mission is to disseminate radio science in India and neighbouring countries and foster excellence in radio science among young scientists/engineers who choose any aspect of radio science in their career. Radio science is a wide field of research that encompasses the study of all aspects of electromagnetic fields and waves. In keeping with the nomenclature of URSI, we group the entire spectrum of radio science into the ten specific commissions – namely, (A) Electromagnetic Metrology; (B) Fields and Waves; (C) Radio communication Systems and Signal Processing; (D) Electronics and Photonics; (E) Electromagnetic Environment and Interference; (F) Wave Propagation and Remote Sensing; (G) Ionospheric Radio and Propagation; (H) Waves in Plasmas; (J) Radio Astronomy and (K) Electromagnetics in Biology and Medicine.

Included within the objectives of InRaSS are the following:

• To hold scientific meetings for presentation of original papers, review talks, etc.
• To popularize Radio Science among the educational institutions and in the general public of India by
• Arranging lectures on all aspects of Radio Science
• Striving to include Radio Science courses in the School, College and University curricula.
• Cooperating in conducting symposia, schools, etc.
• Encouraging amateur radio scientists, hams &
• Taking up any other suitable activity.

The first major activity of InRaSS was to successfully conduct the URSI Asia Pacific Radio Science Conference (URSI AP-RASC 2019) during 9-15 March 2019 at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. This Triennial URSI Flagship conference was attended by over 700 delegates, with more than 300 from outside India.

InRaSS has also successfully organised its own biennial Flagship conference supported by URSI, the Regional Conference on Radio Science (URSI-RCRS 2020) during 12-14 February, 2020 at the IIT, BHU.

InRaSS has also joined the NPL Former Scientists’ Forum (NPL-FSF) to successfully organise two Webinars so far on the Annual A. P. Mitra Memorial Lectures: the sixth, delivered by Dr Anil Bhardwaj, Director, PRL and the seventh, delivered by Dr Patricia Doherty, Director, Institute of Scientific Research, Boston College, Boston, MA, USA

We plan to organise many more such events and also focussed training workshops in the future.