The recent earthquakes in India and across the globe have again reminded us about the most unpredictable behavior of the hazard. Over the last 10 years, there has been more than 2500 moderate to severe earthquakes which have been experienced within a distance of 300 km of India (source: earthquakelist.org ). As per the Vulnerability Atlas of India, 59% of the land is prone is earthquake hazard and almost 11% is susceptible to severe earthquakes. While the standards for design of earthquake resistant structures have evolved over period of time creating robust guidelines, the same was not observed for non-structural elements (NSE) within a building. It is important to understand that NSE constitute a major component of any building project. Their contribution to the overall project cost is to the tune of almost 75 to 80% for specific categories of buildings. Failure of non-structural elements have several repercussions. They lead to loss of life, extensive repair cost, create obstacles in the escape routes and jeopardize the safe evacuation of the people and also render the building like hospitals, airports, data centers, etc. non-functional. The existing Standards in India lacked adequate assessment criteria until the release of National Building Code 2016. Emphasis on the structural stability of non-structural elements is a welcome addition. IS 16700-2017 resonates the requirement. A research project was taken up between Hilti India Pvt. Ltd. and Earthquake Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee on “Seismic Performance Assessment of Non-Structural Elements in a Building”.