Under direction of Union Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister the Central Electricity Authority, Ministry of Power has prepared the guideline for the Cyber Security in Power sector, and it has been released. The guideline lays down required actions for cyber security preparedness across various utilities in power sector to raise the level of cyber security preparedness for power sector. It lays down a cyber assurance framework, the strengthens the regulatory framework, puts in place mechanisms for security threat early warning, vulnerability management and response to security threats, securing remote operations and services, protection and resilience of critical information infrastructure, reducing cyber supply chain risks, encouraging use of open standards, promotion of research and development in cyber security, human resource development in the domain of Cyber Security, Developing effective public private partnerships and information sharing and cooperation.

On World Standards Day, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) organized a day-long event on the theme of ‘Shared Vision for a Better World’ Standards for Sustainable Development Goals. Minister of State (MoS) for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, pressed on the significance of environmental sustainability through standardization. He emphasized on the importance of MSME sector in India and how the implementation of standards facilitate access to national and international markets. He spoke on the critical role that standards play in ensuring the integration of diverse technologies and interoperability of innovations required for propelling smart cities of the future.

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the national standard development body of India, has published Indian Standard IS 17802-"Accessibility for ICT Products and Services, Part 1: Requirements" which is the technical adoption of European Standard EN 301 549-"Accessibility Requirements of ICT Products and Services" developed by CEN, CENELEC and ETSI. Modifications have been made to adapt it to India and are limited to referencing the relevant regulatory context (Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016) and the official languages of India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the 16th East Asia Summit (EAS), called for a resilient and stable global supply chain and raised the idea of developing global standards on cyber security. The PM's comments on developing global standards on cyber security are significant amid allegations of hacking by China.

Ministry of Electronics and Information technology (MEITY) released “National Strategy on Blockchain” with the vision to create trusted digital platforms through shared Blockchain infrastructure; promoting research and development, innovation, technology and application development; and facilitating state of the art, transparent, secure and trusted digital service delivery to citizens and businesses.

This strategy document lays out overall vision towards development and implementation strategies for a National Blockchain Platform covering the technology stack, legal and regulatory framework, standards development, collaboration, human resource development and potential use cases. It is envisaged that this strategy document would provide the necessary guidance and support for realizing the vision and creating a nationwide ecosystem for creating the National Blockchain Platform and development of relevant applications using this platform in various domains. Download>>

• Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) have released a technical report titled “Smartphone User Data & Privacy Protection” Read more/Download>>

• MEITY launched its AI compendium’ 75@75 India’s AI journey”. This was done in collaboration with NeGD and NASSCOM. The compendium highlights the 75 use cases of AI in India that have successfully impacted the people and the governance of the nation. The use cases have been categorized under government, startups, academia, and enterprises. Read more/Download>>