The Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO), which sets standards for the railway sector, has become the first standards body in the country to join the central government's 'One Nation, One Standard' scheme. RDSO has now been recognized as a 'Standard Developing Organization' by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), which is implementing the scheme. The partnership will help RDSO, the sole R&D wing of the railways ministry, to realign its standard formulation procedures as per the code of good practices mentioned under the WTO-Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO-TBT). The recognition will be valid for three years.

The government has slashed the annual marking fee to get a new BIS license and certification by 50 per cent for micro-industry, startups and women entrepreneurs. It also said the services of BIS are now made available free of cost to everyone and can be downloaded from the standardization port of e-BIS. The government has given 50 per cent rebate on (new) BIS certification of products for start-up, micro-industry and women entrepreneurs. An additional 10 per cent rebate has been given to the existing licence holders, which will give a boost to the government 'Vocal for Local' campaign.

The latest endeavour in the list of India's many, many efforts to encourage mass adoption of electric vehicles in the country is the upcoming announcement of standards for low-cost AC charging point for EVs. The Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India recently issued a statement, saying the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) will soon announce new affordable EV charging standards. The BIS Committee on Electromobility Standards is expected to announce the new standards within two months, after completion of field and durability trials of sample products.

The Open Group, the vendor-neutral technology consortium, announced the adoption of the ArchiMate® Specification, a standard of The Open Group, in the publication of India's ICT Reference Architecture for Smart Cities (ICTRA), marking a milestone for accelerating smart cities initiatives globally.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in collaboration with the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA), alongside city administrations in the country, has developed the ICTRA (Indian Standard IS18000:2020) which makes the internationally recognized ArchiMate® Specification available for smart cities applications across India.