Research Society for Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI) was founded by Prof. M.M.S. Ahuja who conceived the idea for establishing the society for ensuring academic activity and research and holding scientific meetings, and providing training facilities for research. He sought the cooperation of Dr. B.B Tripathy and both agreed to elect Dr O.P.Gupta of Ahemadabad as President of the Society. Accordingly Dr. Vinod Kumar registered RSSDI was registered on July 29, 1972, located the Society's office was located in the Department of Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

In the first RSSDI Executive Committee (EC) on September 25, 1972 at 5 p.m. Prof. O.P. Gupta was in chair, and Prof B.B. Tripathy, Dr. Vinod Kumar, Dr. M. Bhaskar Rao, Prof. M.M.S. Ahuja and Prof. G.S. Mutalik were present. The 2nd EC met on December 20, 1972 with Dr. O.P. Gupta as President; Dr. B.B. Tripathy as Vice President; Dr. Vinod Kumar as Secretary, Dr. M. Bhaskar Rao as Treasurer; and Dr. N.C. Panda, Dr. M.M.S. Ahuja and Dr. G.K. Rastogi as members. Two additional members inducted later were Prof. K.N. Pai and Prof. G.S. Mutalik. Dr. C.B. Sridhar from Vellore, Dr. P.J. Geevarghese of Trivandrum, R.D. Kulkarni from Bombay and Lt.Col. M.C. Srivastava in Delhi were also co-opted as members of the Executive committee.

The first academic activity of the Society was a symposium-cum- workshop in Delhi on Etiogenesis of Diabetes Mellitus, between December 19 and 23, 1972. About 30 scientists from various parts of India including two from abroad participated in this exercise and 22 papers were presented along with a panel discussion on Biological Characterisation on Insulin.

The first Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) of the Society was held on January 29, 1973 in Udaipur. It was attended by Dr. B.B. Tripathy, Dr. Vinod Kumar, Dr. M. Bhaskar Rao, Dr. N.C. Panda, Dr. A. Sarangi, Dr. G.S. Mutalik, Dr. M. Vasudevan, Dr. M.M.S. Ahuja, Dr. B.R. Chowdhury, Dr. G.K. Rastogi, Dr. Lt.Col. M.C. Srivastava.

Third EC on August 16, 1973 at 7.00 p.m. in New Delhi was attended by Dr. O.P. Gupta, Dr. Vinod Kumar, Dr. M.B. Rao, Dr. M.M.S. Ahuja, Dr. K.N. Pai and Dr. N.C. Panda. Fourth EC meeting in Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) on January 24, 1974 at 5.30 p.m. was attended by Dr. B.B. Tripathy, Dr. Vinod Kumar, Dr. M.B. Rao, Dr. M.M.S. Ahuja, Dr. M.C. Srivastava, Dr. N.C. Panda, Dr. H. Vaishnava and Dr. K.N. Pai.

 The 2nd Annual General Meeting at Maulana Azad Medical College on January 25, 1974 conducted by Dr. B.B. Tripathy as President, Dr. Vinod Kumar as Secretary and Dr. M.B. Rao as Treasurer, the ad- hoc Executive Committee of 1972 was dissolved and new office bearers were elected for the post of President : Dr. B.B. Tripathy, Vice President : Dr. Lt. Col. M.C. Srivastava, Executive Secretary : Dr. Vinod Kumar, Treasurer : Dr. M.B. Rao. Executive Committee Members were Dr. M.M.S. Ahuja, Dr. H. Vaishnava, Dr. S. Mehtalia, Dr. Sam G.P. Moses, Dr. G.S. Sainani, Dr. P. Zakariah, and Co-opted Members were Dr. N.P.S. Verma, Dr. K.N. Pai and Dr. B.R. Sen Gupta.

An International Symposium on Disorders of Carbohydrate Metabolism was conducted on January 24 and 25, 1974 at Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi preceding the Fifth Asia-Oceania Congress of Endocrinology and following the API Conference at Patna. Based on these presentations, the first monograph of the Society, Disorders of Carbohydrate Metabolism was edited by Dr. M. Bhaskar Rao and published by Arnold Heineman.

The Third Annual meeting of the Society was held between January 17 and 19, 1975 at Madras preceding the API Conference in Bangalore, and the theme of the meeting was Complications of Diabetes Mellitus. This meet was organized by Dr. Sam G. P. Moses who has pioneered the first membership drive and firmly established the Society in the Southern India. Dr. M.G. Karmarkar and Dr. M. Bhaskar Rao organized the Fourth Annual meeting of the Society on January 21, 1976 at All India Institute of Medical Science with a Symposium on Chemical Pathology of Diabetes, and Workshop on Laboratory Techniques. Smt. K. Aggarwal representing the Nutrition Section of the Society prepared a diet calendar which was released at this meeting by Boehringer Knoll. Several charts illustrating diets from different parts of the country were also prepared for exhibition at all subsequent Society meetings. This was the first major attempt in the country for making medical professionals aware of regional diets and familiar with diet education.

The Society has also sponsored the first diabetes teaching exercise in the country with post graduate teaching charts and slides prepared by Glaxo, for release in the Fifth Annual meeting at All India Institute of Medical Sciences on October 30, 1976. The second major publication of the Society - a book on Diabetes, with contributions from eminent teachers of the country was also edited by Dr.M.Bhaskar Rao and released on this date. The theme presentations at this meeting on Challenges of Therapy of Diabetes Mellitus in Developing Countries were edited by Dr. D.K. Hazra and released at a later date as the third major publication of the Society.

On September 7, 1977, new office bearers have been elected for the Executive Committee of the Society to be effective from January 1, 1978 - President : Dr. M. Viswanathan, Vice-President : Dr. G.S. Sainani, Secretary : Dr. Vinod Kumar, Treasurer : Dr. B. Krishna Ram, Members : Dr. M.M.S Ahuja, Dr. D.K. Hazra, Dr. M. Bhaskar Rao, Dr. N.P.S. Verma, Prof. H. Vaishnava, and Dr. M.G. Karmarkar.

For the first time the annual meeting of the Society was held at a API venue on January 19, 1978 in the Conference Hall of Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal under the organising chairmanship of Dr. N.P. Misra. The theme of the meeting was Health Care Delivery to Diabetics, which was also later published as a monograph of the Society. The first Oration of the Society named after Dr. Sam G.P. Moses was unanimously accepted at this meeting. Another first at this sixth meeting was that Prof. M.M.S. Ahuja announced the first multicentric research projects in the country under the auspices of the Society and offered a central facility for estimation of islet cell antibodies. In the seventh annual meeting at Madras he added that HLA typing was also made available to researchers in the country.

The Seventh Annual meeting was at Madras Medical College on January 17, 1979 and Diabetes in Young was the theme. The eighth annual meeting was in Trivandrum in January 1980. The ninth Annual meeting was on January 18, 1981 at Government Medical College, Nagpur under the presidentship of Dr. G.S. Sainani with Impaired Glucose Tolerance as the theme of the meeting.

Subsequently an Annual Conference of RSSDI was held at Cuttak under Chairmanship of Prof.N.C. Panda in 1983 alongwith Joint Annual Conference of the API and next annual meets were held just before the API joint Annual Conference. As promised at the outset RSSDI never intended to be a participant in the Joint Annual Conference of API as RSSDI never desired to compete with the Diabetic Association of India in that forum.

The Ninth Annual meeting was at Maulana Azad Medical College in Delhi on January 21, 1982 with Insulin Dependent Diabetes as the theme. The Tenth Annual meeting was proposed at Cuttack under the organizing secretaryship of Dr. N.C. Panda with Lipid Disorders in Diabetes as the theme. By 1982, the Society has been able to bring out three issues of Diabetes Bulletin, and the credit went to the enthusiasm and drive of Prof. M.M.S. Ahuja.

New executive members for the year 1982 were - President : Dr. N.C. Panda, Vice President : Dr. R.J. Dash, Members : Dr. M.M.S. Ahuja, Dr. Lily John, Dr. D.K. Hazra, Dr. P. Shyam Sunder, Dr. N.P.S. Verma. They have continued till 1984, when the new executive was elected - President : Dr. V. Seshiah, Vice- Presidents : Dr. Naresh Bhu, Dr. C.B. Sridhar, Executive Members - Dr. C. Munichoodappa, Dr. M.M.S. Ahuja, Dr. B.K. Sahay (Past President), Dr. Ramana Kumar, Dr. N.P.S. Verma, Dr. B.D. Punekar, Dr. S.D. Mehtalia, Dr. P. Shyam Sunder.

Dr P.V Rao was elected as Secretary of the RSSDI in 1990. By 1992 the size of the membership list had enlarged by a great extent. He got moral support from Late Prof. M.M.S.Ahuja and practical help from Prof. S.G.P Moses. In 1992 a joint conference of Endocrine Society of India (ESI) and RSSDI was oganised by Prof. K.C.Samal at Puri. It was a grand success. Subsequent conferences of RSSDI were held separately.

In 1993 RSSDI Conference was very intelligently conducted by Dr.Nadeem Rais at Bombay.

The next conference at Hyderabad was a great sucess as it was attended by a large number of foreign delegates, most of them were eminent NRI's.

The next conference was held at Goa in 1995 organised by Dr.S. Pendsey of Nagpur. It was a wonderful conference, USV and  NOVO Nordisk helped in the organisation. Both these firms were taken as corporate members.

By this year RSSDI happens to be the largest Indian Society of Diabetes Health care professionals and researchers. In January 2000, 1245 life members of the society represent 25 States and Union Territories of the county as follows:

Andra Pradesh (305), Assam (33), Bihar (40), Chandigarh (8), Delhi (55), Gujrat (64), Goa (6), Haryana (6), Himachal Pradesh (1), Jammu & Kashmir (4), Karnataka (107). Kerala (54), Manipur (3), Meghalaya (3), Madhya Pradesh (62), Maharashtra (126),    Orissa (43), Pondicherry (4), Punjab (14), Rajsthan (29), Tamil Nadu (183), Uttar Pradesh (60), West Bengal (30).

During this year, Prof. H.B. Chandalia and his team have added almost 80 new life members from Maharashtra.

Prof. MMS Ahuja, continued to publish Diabetes Bulletin all along from Delhi. In 1991, Prof. H.B.Chandalial was appointed co-editor, The publication of Diabetes Bulletin was shifted to Mumbai. The journal was published under the aegis of Diabetes Foundation, Delhi. With the advice of Prof. H.B.Chandalia, the jourmnal was adopted by RSSDI as its official publication in 1998. It continues to be published now under the editorship of Prof. H.B.Chandalia and Prof. C.S.Yagnik.

In 1996 the Conference name was 75 years of discovery of insulin. It was held at Pondichery under the leadership of Director Professor A.K. Das of JIPMER where the sad news of demise of the great Dr. M. Viswanathan, organiser of the famous Diabetes Research Centre, Madras, was declared. A condolence meeting was held there.The 24th Annual meeting of RSSDI was organised by Prof.A.K.Das at Mysore. It was a happy meet held under the dark shadow of loss of a great member. Prof. B.B Tripathy was entrusted by the Diatetes Research centre to give the first Memorial Oration for the honoured M. Viswanathan who was a few months younger to Tripathy.