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 railways currently rely on optical fibre for their communication network but with the allocation of fresh spectrum, it will be able to use high-speed radio on a real-time basis. It will help in augmenting both communication and signalling networks of the railways. The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the allotment of a 5 MHz spectrum in 700 MHz frequency band to the Railways for public safety and security services at stations and in trains. The spectrum allocation is in line with the Railways’ objective to provide Long Term Evolution (LTE) based mobile train radio communication on its route, a project with an estimated investment of Rs 25,000 crore (€2.9 Bn).

• Ministry of Road Transport & Highways Issues Draft Notification, proposing to exempt Battery Operated Vehicles (BOV) from payment of fee for issue or renewal of Registration Certificate (RC). Read more>>

Railway Ministry issued following notifications:

• Misclassification of Goods as Works in procurement. Read more>>

• PPP-MII Order, 2017- Clarification regarding local content calculation for imported products.