SenRa, a PAN India Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWANs) provider for long range-based (LoRa®-based) (IoT) applications, announced the successful deployment of their LoRaWAN® Network across 60 cities in India. This achievement marks yet another major milestone in their journey of becoming one of the leading IoT network providers in India. SenRa is on track to deploy its public LoRaWAN® network in 100 cities by the end of 2020 which will be critical in supporting the massive IoT deployments in Smart Cities led by utilities and energy metering projects

The central government will be releasing a report card of 100 selected smart cities in three categories-ease of living, municipal, performance index and climate-in June, as the government's Smart Cities Project completes five years. The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said that it will help cities in better planning and moving towards data-driven governance that will eventually improve their liveability.

EESL has floated a tender to procure 1,000 electric cars with a driving range over 180 km on a pan-India basis. EESL has requirements for two different categories of EVs. The scope of work includes designing, manufacturing, supplying, and maintenance of the cars at the required locations in the country. Interested bidders are required to pay an earnest money deposit of ?21 million (~$294,142) for package-1 and ?7.06 million (~$98,887) for Package-2.

German auto giant Mercedes-Benz could become the first luxury carmaker to launch a fully-electric vehicle in India when it commercially launches the EQC, a battery-powered sports utility vehicle (SUV) in April’ 20. The five-seater SUV is one of the several new electric vehicles being planned by Mercedes for India. While the EQC will become the flagship model, there are plans to introduce the EQA, a compact EV, in India that could become the base EV for the company.

By 2024, as much as 43-48 per cent of new three-wheelers (excluding e-rickshaws), and 12-17 per cent of new two-wheelers sold in India will be electric vehicles (EVs), reveals a study by CRISIL Research. The study looked at demand, supply and policy growth drivers for EVs such as battery costs, government subsidy and charging infrastructure, besides conducting a segment-wise analysis of the cost of acquisition and operation of EVs compared with existing internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

To give a further push to clean mobility in Road Transport Sector, the Department of Heavy Industries has sanctioned 2636 charging stations in 62 cities across 24 States/UTs under FAME India (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India) scheme phase II.  Minister of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, Prakash Javadekar said that in future at least one charging station will be available in most of the selected cities in a grid of 4 Km X 4 km. He said it will boost the confidence of users of Electric Vehicles and also encourage the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) to launch the new electric vehicle models due to the lack of charging infrastructure.

Department of Heavy Industry had invited the Expression of Interest (EoI) from million-plus cities, smart cities, State/UT capitals and cities from special category states for submission of proposal for availing incentives under FAME India Scheme Phase II for deployment of EV charging infrastructure within Cities.

The Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) has floated a tender to procure 1,000 electric cars with a driving range over 180 km on a pan-India basis. EESL has requirements for two different categories of electric vehicles. The scope of work includes designing, manufacturing, supplying, and maintenance of the cars at the required locations in the country. Interested bidders are required to pay an earnest money deposit of ?21 million (~$294,142) for package-1 and ?7.06 million (~$98,887) for Package-2.  

G.S.R. 37(E) regarding mass emission standards for Di Methyl ether and M85. Read more/Download

o MEITY released a whitepaper on National Open Digital Ecosystems for public comments/inputs. Read more/Download

o Draft Recommendations on Network Testing before Commercial Launch of Services for Wireline Access Services. Read more/Download

o Consultation Paper on Traffic Management Practices (TMPs) and Multi-Stakeholder Body for Net Neutrality. Read more/Download

o Consultation Paper on 'Provision of Cellular backhaul connectivity via Satellite through VSAT under Commercial VSAT CUG Service Authorization'. Read more/Download

o Reforming the Guidelines for Transfer/Merger of Telecom Licenses Read more

Indian government policy “think tank” NITI Aayog has released its national blockchain policy draft paper, titled “Blockchain – The India Strategy”. The policy explains different use cases of blockchain in the country alongside some conclusions from ongoing pilot projects.  The strategy document is aimed at clarifying the concepts surrounding the blockchain technology. Its target stakeholders include enterprise leaders, the government, and citizens of the country. 

This first part of the two-part Strategy document deals with fundamental concepts, trust systems, the economic benefit of smart contracts and blockchain, ease of doing business and other ongoing use cases. Part two, which will be released soon, will mainly cover different recommendations for using blockchain in India.