The Indian Chapter of the Regional Science Association started on 7 September, 1967 by Professor ChittaRanjan Pathak at the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, IIT Kharagpur, West Bengal, India after the conclusion of the First International Regional Science Conference at IIT Kharagpur. Held as a section of Regional Science Association,International headquartered at University of Pennsylvania,USA. Late Prof. Walter Isard, the President of the Association had participated in the conference. The Association in India functioned independently since then.The first President of the Regional Science Association, India was Prof. V.N. Prasad with Prof. C R Pathak and Prof. A.N. Bose as the secretaries. Over the years, the Association has grown from strength to strength,but is still a relatively compact organisation, having 340 Life Members and about 135 Annual Members. It started publication of thebi-annual Indian Journal of Regional Science in 1968-69, aimed at publishing good quality research papers selected through a peer review process. It reaches out to 170 University Libraries. The Association holds its annual conferences on a regular basis. Premier Institutes,Universities and learning centres across the country have hosted the Regional Science Conference over the years. This year (2016) it was an International Conference and 47th Annual Seminar of the Association and was organised by Department of Geography, University of Calcutta. The 48th International Regional Science Conference will be held at Department of Geography, University of Tripura, Agartala, Tripura between 5-7 January, 2017.
The objectives of Regional Science Association, India are to develop tools of Regional Analysis and to encourage the application of such tools in the formulation and solution of problems of regional development. These objectives are sought to be realized by encouraging publications of research papers, reports, journals and monographs; undertaking research investigations and empirical studies, organising/sponsoring national and international level Conference and Seminars regularly and by rendering services to the cause of advancement of learning in the applied field of regional science.
The Indian Journal of Regional Science is devoted to the publication of original research work in Regional Science and Development Planning. Each volume of thejournal is published in twoissues. Papers already published elsewhere shall not be accepted for publication in the journal and published papers cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission. It is a referred peer review and membership journal.