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National Lab Directory launched by BIS – A major breakthrough for industry in the field of testing & measurement
Consumer Affairs Minister launched an online directory, which provides information about Indian standards of various products and testing infrastructure in the country for the benefit of various stakeholders such as start-ups.
There are estimated 10,000 labs across the country. Currently, about 4,500 labs owned by public and private academic institutions are listed on the online directory.
The link for the National Laboratoy Directory is www.labdirectory.bis.gov.in
Smart City Mission 2.0 likely in 2020
After first Smart Cities Mission for 100 cities, the government will expand the Smart Cities Mission to all 4,000 cities in the country. The ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA), the nodal department for Smart City Mission, is set to roll out smart city 2.0 mission in 2020. The central government’s second version of the smart city initiative will be rolled out across the country, said a government official.
The ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) is also looking at alternative funding mechanisms such as pool finance, fund of fund approach, bonds, fiscal money, monetisation of unused land and tapping foreign capital.
The mission has started rating the existing projects under five parameters - planning, technology, governance, services and finance, along with climate sensitive action and ease of living sensitive action. So far, about 10% of the planned projects have been completed in the past three years.
DoT issues Guidelines for 5G trials across all available Spectrum bands Cabinet
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued guidelines for 5G trials across all available spectrum bands indicating to allocate up to 400 MHz of radio waves for experiments. The DoT has fixed a uniform fee of INR 5,000 (~64 Euro) for the trial licence. However, its validity will range between 3 month and 2 years, depending on the purpose for which the trial is being conducted.
The government has plans to conduct spectrum auction for 5G services by the end of this year to enable the roll-out of commercial services using the technology in 2020.
Indian entities involved in R&D, manufacturing, telecom operators and academia for the purpose of R&D and experimentation can get licence for a period of "up to two years, renewable on case to case basis by WPC, subject to truncation to prevent interference to licensed operations".
India looking at newer EV battery technologies for strategic reasons
As part of India’s energy security plan, the government is exploring newer battery technologies such as polymer-based solid state batteries that may allow India to avoid dependence on lithium or cobalt imports.
This comes in the backdrop of Chinese state-owned firms securing lithium mine concessions in countries such as Bolivia, Argentina and Chile, which forms the so-called lithium triangle. The idea is to not allow India to fall in a vulnerable position with a likely threat of supply squeeze as has happened in the case of crude oil, with India being the world’s third largest oil importer.
Almost all electric vehicles in the country run on imported batteries, mostly from China. At present a lithium-ion battery accounts for 40% of the total cost of an electric vehicle. Lithium also has other uses such as in mobile phone batteries and solar panels.