INS Building
Since inception in February 1939, the Society had been functioning from the premises of "The Statesman", New Delhi. The Executive Committee at its meeting held on 9.9.1953, accepted, in principle, the proposal of the then President, Mr. C.R. Srinivasan (Swadesamitran), to put up the Society own building in Delhi and authorised him to move the Government of India for a suitable site.
On 2.10.1953, President of the Society wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru to allot a suitable site for the building of the Society. The matter was pursued further with the then Minister for Works (Sardar Swaran Singh) and also the Minister for Information & Broadcasting (Dr. B.V. Keskar) and in February, 1954, a plot of land admeasuring 0.833 acres on the then Old Mill Road (since renamed as Rafi Marg) was allotted to the Society.
The foundation stone for the building was laid by the then Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on 21.3.1955 and was inaugurated on 6-10-1956 by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India. The building comprised five floors with a built up area of about 8000 square feet. The Society office moved into the INS building on 6.10.1956.
To meet the demand for office space, construction of a new building in the same premises was taken up in March, 1985. The new building was inaugurated by Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, on 7.3.1988, coinciding with the Golden Jubilee of INS.
The buildings have all necessary supporting facilities like lifts (one for each building), standby DG set, parking slots, PABX exchange with 120 extensions.
The two buildings house the following as on date:
- The INS Secretariat
- 6 guest rooms with supporting facilities including lounge and store rooms.
- Library
- Media Centre with STD/ISD/PCO, Fax, Internet facilities
- Conference Room which can accommodate about 40 persons
- Committee Room with sitting facility for 8 personas
- Canteen
- Offices of 84 member publications spread over 92 flats on leave and licence basis
Though some of the flats in the old building were initially allotted to non-members, including some foreign agencies, in 1967 it was decided to get the non-members to vacate.
In the beginning the licence fee for the flats was fixed on ad-hoc basis. In 1966, the licence fee was Rs.1/- per sq. ft. This was raised in 1975 on the basis of Rs.2/-, Rs.2.50 and Rs.1.50 per sq. ft. for the first, seocnd/third and the fourth floors respectively. Later in January, 1979, service charge of Rs.1/- per sq. ft. was added to the licence fee. The licence fee was raised subsequently in 1985, 1988 (on uniform basis for all floors), 1992, 1996 and 1999. The latest rates are licence fee of Rs.10 /- + service charge of Rs.17/- per sq. ft. for all floors. The amount received from the licensees is utilised for maintenance of the buildings and provision of necessary services like lifts, fire fighting etc.