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 Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has launched an online portal to enable companies participating in government procurement to file complaints for alleged violation of the Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017.
According to an office memorandum of the DPIIT, stakeholders can lodge grievances for alleged violation of the order and the department can refer those to procuring entities/ministries/departments concerned through the portal on real-time basis for examination, necessary corrective action.

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 government has launched a nationwide network of 6,580 laboratories in line with Prime Minister’s vision that “scale” and “standards” are the two key principles that could catapult India as a global manufacturing hub, commerce and industry ministry said. The portal makes it possible to search labs for a particular product in a state or a city. It also enables finding the scope of accreditation and test methods of a laboratory. Facility for booking a test online has been developed and is being pilot tested for Textile Committee Laboratories.

• G/TBT/N/IND/201 & G/TBT/N/IND/203: Thermoplastic materials.

• G/TBT/N/IND/202: Halogenated hydrocarbons.

• G/TBT/N/IND/204: Plastics in general.

• G/TBT/N/IND/205 & G/TBT/N/IND/206: Organic chemicals

G/TBT/N/IND/44/Add.10: Telecommunications.

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.

International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad (IIIT-H) has announced that Silicon Labs, a leading provider of silicon, software and solutions, is the first corporate founding partner for its new Smart City Living Lab. The lab’s mission is to provide a research and development ecosystem for next-generation technologies designed to improve safety, sustainability, energy efficiency, sanitation, and overall quality of life in densifying cities. It is part of the institute’s Smart City Research Center, supported by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Smart Cities Mission, Telangana government, and European Business and Technology Centre.

To revolutionize the transport of goods and reduce the overall logistic costs, the Automotive Industry Standards Committee has amended its AIS-113 Standard to include the safety requirements of Road-Trains and has hosted the draft on Ministry of Road Transport & Highway’s website. The standards have been prepared after examining European benchmarks, keeping in mind Indian operating conditions. These standards shall pave the way for a breakthrough intervention for fast and efficient movement of goods along the long-distance freight corridors.

India pitched for common international standards for green hydrogen at the BRICS Green Hydrogen Summit, to ensure safe transportation and storage of the new age emission-free fuel. India had organised the two-day summit on green hydrogen involving Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, also referred to as the BRICS nations, on their initiatives around the green fuel.  Ministry of Power stated that Government and industry must work together to ensure existing regulations are not an unnecessary barrier to investment. Trade will benefit from common international standards for the safety of transporting and storing large volumes of hydrogen and having appropriate certificate of origin