RDSO becomes first standards body to join 'One Nation, One Standard' scheme

RDSO, has become the first standards body in the country to join the central government's 'One Nation, One Standard' scheme that aims to ensure quality products to Indian consumers

Lucknow-based 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 that aims to ensure quality products to Indian consumers.

The Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) has now been recognised as a 'Standard Developing Organisation' 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.

At a virtual press meet on Tuesday, Railway Board Chairman and CEO Suneet Sharma and Consumer Affairs Secretary Leena Nandan said that RSDO's partnership with BIS will help harmonise standards for the ease of doing business in the future.

The objective of the government's 'One Nation, One Standard' scheme, launched in 2019, is to ensure there is a synergy and no overlap in the standardisation work in the country, thereby building a 'Brand India' identity in the long run.

The BIS, under the aegis of the consumer affairs ministry, has experience of more than three decades and that will be of help to other standards developing organisations working in specific areas across the country, BIS Director General Pramod Kumar Tiwari said.

He also said the BIS is making efforts to encourage other standard developing organisations like Directorate of Standardisation under the defence ministry and Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI) under the agriculture ministry to be part of this voluntary scheme.

The process to be part of the scheme is simple and there is a registration fee of Rs 1,000. An independent board in the consumer affairs ministry decides on the applications, he added.

According to RDSO Director General Virendra Kumar, this is a game changing move as RDSO will be aligning better with WTO-TBT code of good practice. "Though we had domain knowledge, there was less stakeholders' participation in the standards making process," he added.

This partnership will help RDSO to take the opinion of all experts so that time taken in standards making is reduced as well as to have the best quality product at a cheaper cost.

RDSO has formulated over 1,000 standards for railways and many more are under process.