There were many committees set up to enquire into the lapses and suggest remedial measures, many international agencies pledged their support and the United Nations contributed both monetarily and providing technical guidance.

The Indian Seismic Code underwent a stringent upgrade so that future catastrophes could be averted. The loss of life and property was colossal and for some time the vast media coverage made one believe that this was the “final wake up call”. As time passed the memories once again proved to be short lived and the “chatpatta” Bollywood news sold more and the mundane “Earthquake Safety” which was simple to ignore especially when it was asking the people to do some thing, which they have never done before, namely “protect themselves”. 
 
The Government after great deliberations benchmarked “Life Safety” as the minimum safety standard that all buildings must adhere to. Life safety implies that in case of a major earthquake the total collapse of the building should be prevented. This would help in minimizing casualties. After the earthquake incase the damage to the building is above a threshold level it can be demolished and rebuilt.
 
Approximately 59% of the country is vulnerable to earthquakes. The recent seismic activity in the Indian Sub-Continent to include the High-Intensity Indonesia and Muzaffarabad quakes has rekindled the fears at the highest echelons and many initiatives are being revived.

The establishment of the National Disaster Management Authority headed by the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh himself and President, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam raising the issue of “the need to accelerate research for forecasting earthquakes” to “prevent heavy damage to the people and property” in his Independence day speech is testimony enough for the seriousness with which the Government is eyeing the threat. With growing economic might comes greater vulnerability and therefore the need for stringent safeguards.
 
However mere lip service on what should be done and followed would do little for the country to achieve greater earthquake resilience.

Accountability should be the order of the day; stringent legal provisions to enforce at least the minimum safeguards should be followed and creating public awareness through mass advertising would ensure that necessary steps are taken to upgrade buildings.
 
Today the responsibility of the Builder/Developer finishes once the possession is handed over, the occupants who are struggling to pay their housing installments are many a time in no position to incur further expenditure on structural analysis/evaluation and seismic retrofit.

Even if the actual retrofit costs are to be paid by the occupants the builders should provide their existing engineering infrastructure for seismic evaluation of the buildings constructed by them. Once the evaluation is done the occupants would then exactly know as to the expenses required for upgrading the building structure to present earthquake standards.   
 
In many developed and developing countries, which lie in the seismically active regions, building Insurance is mandatory, specifically in high-rise constructions. The insurance companies pitch in with quality control and following stringent safeguards before they provide the required insurance cover. As an incentive in case higher than the minimum safeguards are followed the premium becomes less and in cases where even the minimum safeguards are not adhered to the building simply does not get insured.    
 
Today there exists many earthquake protection technologies which efficiently and effectively protect structures against earthquakes i.e. Dampers or energy dissipaters. These devices are also the most efficient and cost effective way of protecting buildings and have been used on many thousands of buildings around the world.

One or the other building, which incorporates this technology, witnesses an earthquake each day. Ministry of Science and Technology is pitching in its bit by funding a research project for evaluating the effectiveness of such devices. Incase the Government provides incentives and facilitates funding these time tested earthquake protection technologies can be brought to India for manufacturing such devices.