Greeting from Project SESEI!!!
Dear Readers,

I would like to begin the sixth edition of SESEI newsletter India with wishing all of you a very Happy 2021! May this year be full of hope and victory for all of us, harbinger of peace, good health and vitality for our families, society, country and most importantly economy. With the advent of Covid Vaccines, the entire mankind is once again hopeful of return of normalcy. This edition of the SESEI Newsletter India will provide you with latest updates, news and information from the European standardization bodies on new technologies, release and development of standards, initiatives and policy recommendation from European Commission for the period of October to December 2020.

At the very outset, I am proud to announce that India has adopted OneM2M specifications as the national standards for IoT/M2M technologies in India. Adoption of national IoT standards is a big milestone for India and will provide a framework to support applications and services such as smart grid, connected car, home automation, public safety, health and many more.

Protecting the planet with standards was the theme of the World Standards day celebrated on 14th October 2020. Standards play a great role in sustainability, safety, innovation and consumer choice. Developing environmentally ambitious standards is also instrumental to achieve some of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Standards also play a fundamental role in Research & Development and innovation; however, their role is often underrated and undermined.

ETSI being one of the world-leading Standards Developing Organization (SDO) is taking a lead for recognition of global importance of ICT standards to support the digital transformation of society as well as sustainable development. In this regard, ETSI has unveiled its new strategy called ‘Designing tomorrow’s world’, which will be at the forefront of new Information and Communication Technology; and to lead the development of standards that enable a sustainable and securely connected society. Conformance to standards, also ensure that only safe products are available in the market and European standards (EN) have always had a huge role to play in fulfilling this ambition. This important role is highlighted in a recent Position Paper, published by CEN and CENELEC in response to a stakeholder’s consultation launched by the European Commission on the General Product Safety Directive. To highlight the benefits of standardization for startups, innovators and venture capitalists, CEN and CENELEC has also defined an “Innovation Plan.”.. Success story of Bitmovin was shared by CENCENELEC as a start-up that managed to scale-up due to standardization.

A new EU Cybersecurity Strategy is presented by European Commission for resilience towards cyber threats and help to ensure that all citizens and businesses can fully benefit from trustworthy and reliable services and digital tools. An interesting brochure developed by theCEN and CENELEC Sector Forum for Security (SF-Sec). was released illustrating areas of security to which standardization is contributing.

ETSI TS 103 523-1: Part 1 of the Middlebox Security Protocol (MSP) was released by ETSI, allowing middleboxes to perform vital functions securely whilst keeping up with the rapid pace of technical development. Other new standards developed by ETSI recently are launch of OSM Release NINE and ETSI GS NFV-IFA 040 by the ETSI group on Network Functions Virtualization. OSM Release NINE completes the alignment process with ETSI NFV specifications, standardizing the onboarding process for VNFs into OSM fosters interoperability and boosts the growth of OSM’s VNF ecosystem. Whereas, the ETSI GS NFV-IFA 040 specifies requirements for service interfaces and an object model for OS (Operating System) container management and orchestration. Another important milestone achieved by ETSI was launch of DECT 2020, new radio interface for IoT technologies. DECT-2020 NR was developed to support broad and diverse wireless IoT applications requiring both ultra-reliable and low-latency communication needed in voice and industrial applications.

Smart & Green Mobility is another common cause between Europe and India. European Commission has recently presented its ‘Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy' laying down the foundation for how the EU transport system can achieve its green and digital transformation and become more resilient to future crises. Concrete milestones to be achieved by 2030 have also been defined in the strategy. CEN and ISO published a freely available brochure on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (CITS).This extensive document provides up-to-date information on global standardization in the domain of Cooperative ITS (C-ITS) which has the potential to further increase the benefits of ITS services and applications. Three standards related to Vulnerable Road Users (VRU) protection has been completed by the ETSI TC ITS, the committee in charge of Intelligent Transport Systems. This standard defines the VRU awareness service together with its key interfaces and protocols as well as the VRU awareness message (VAM) format, semantics and syntax.

Many other important developments, new concepts and standards released by the Project partners is highlighted through this newsletter. White Papers/ Strategy documents released by the European standardization bodies and upcoming events/seminars also form an integral part of our newsletter.

We are hopeful that you will find this 6th edition of our newsletter, interesting and informative read for all of you. I wish you all a very happy New Year once again.

Warm regards,
Dinesh Chand Sharma (Seconded European Standardization Expert in India)
Director – Standards & Public Policy
Mobile: +91 9810079461, Desk: +91 11 3352 1525
E-mail: dinesh.chand.sharma@sesei.eu