EUROPE| October 2019| Issue 1 | Consumer Protection Bill 2019 approved

Message From SESEI

Dear Readers,
Wish you all a very Happy Diwali from Project SESEI!

Project SESEI team at the outset would like to begin with thanking each one of you for your support, cooperation and guidance during SESEI 3. The need for collaboration and alignment of synergies between the major economies of the world has been recognized, established and Project SESEI has been acknowledged for its contribution towards creating a strong dialogue on standards around emerging technologies & related technologies.
The Fourth phase of Project SESEI after its due approval process has commenced from 15th July 2019.

Newsletters from Project SESEI are considered important tools for sharing of information and knowledge around Standards & related policies work around Project priority Sectors (ICT, Automotive, Electrical Equipment including Consumer Electronics) covering latest on standards, guidelines published and important research and growth-related activities being carried out in India. We are happy to present our first edition of “Newsletter Europe” from the desk of Project SESEI IV.

Lot of new developments in India have taken place during the last quarter. We have tried to capture the important policy and market developments in our newsletter. Ministry of Consumer Affairs launched an online directory recently, 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. The directory is a one-stop solution for all testing requirements and houses information about all testing facilities available in the country. Likewise, another important development this quarter was the release of “Consumer Protection Bill, 2019” which was recently approved by the Parliament. Bill aims to protect the rights of consumers by establishing authorities for timely and effective administration and settlement of consumers’ dispute. The bill also covers consumer rights on e-commerce transactions whether through offline or online transactions, electronic means, teleshopping, direct selling or multi-level marketing.

The government of India is exploring to expand the Smart Cities mission from 100 to 4000 cities in the next phase of the mission. Smart city 2.0 mission is likely to be rolled out in 2020. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is also working towards monetizing of data collected from various local bodies. The India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX) will be used as a means of transferring data between urban local bodies, private sector, academia and civil society.

5G readiness of the country, setting the scene for IoT / M2M technology and how to use Artificial Intelligence to its maximum benefit are the key focus areas for the Indian ICT industry at present. Guidelines for the 5G trials have been issued by the Department of Telecommunications for all the stakeholders. India is also working toward new cybersecurity policy, which is likely to be unveiled by 2020.

The Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSU's of Ministry of Power, Govt. of India is leading the procurement and sale of Electric Vehicles in India. The company now plans to address the issue of EV Charging stations, by setting up nearly 1,000 charging stations, and is confident of deploying around 5,000 e-vehicles for various government departments by next year. Government of India also introduced a New Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2019, with major change of increased penalties for driving errors.

EESL is also making huge contributions in the Power and electronic sector. It has successfully installed over 5,00,000 Smart Meters across India. The smart meter technology is critical to India’s ongoing power sector reforms. The Smart Meter National Programme that aims to retrofit 250 Million conventional meters with smart variants will lead to 80-100 per cent improvement in billing efficiency.

The Ministry of Power has also released its vision document for 2024. The document, called “Vision 2024”, aims at developing a sustainable, viable, efficient, and competitive power sector to facilitate economic and social development. Clean technologies, renewable energy sources and India’s commitment to accomplish the Paris pact are the latest updates on the Electrical sector.

Apart from the interesting news we have brought details of the important events and seminars which will be happening in India and if interested details of the draft standards released by BIS, ARAI and TSDSI.
Happy Reading once again.

Warm regards,
Dinesh Chand Sharma
(Seconded European Standardization Expert in India)
Director – Standards & Public Policy
Mobile: +91 9810079461
Desk: +91 11 3352 1525
E-mail: dinesh.chand.sharma@sesei.eu