Research Design & Standards Organization (RDSO), under the Indian Railways has become the first institution to be declared Standard Developing Organization (SDO) under one "One Nation One Standard" mission on Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the union commerce ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry said BIS, an Institution under Department of Consumer Affairs, after reviewing the Standard Making Procedures of RDSO, has granted it recognition as SDO on May 24.

A statement from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs said, "RDSO took the initiative to seek recognition as a Standard Developing Organization (SDO) under the BIS SDO Recognition Scheme. In the process, RDSO reviewed its standard formulation procedures to realign them with the best practices of standardization, encoded in the World Trade Organisation's Code of Good Practice."

"The scope of RDSO’s recognition as SDO, as approved by the Bureau (BIS), is Standards Developing Organization for products, processes and services for railway transportation sector in India. The recognition is valid for 3 years and will require renewal after completion of the validity period," the statement added.

According to an ANI report, through this scheme, BIS aims at aggregating and integrating the existing capabilities and dedicated domain-specific expertise available with various organizations in the country engaged in standards development in their specific sectors, and enable the convergence of all standard development activities in the country resulting in 'One National Standard for One Subject'.

The ministry further said, "The standard formulation procedures at RDSO will now be more focused on consensus-based decision making and will entail the extensive engagement of all stakeholders including Industry, Academia, Users, Recognized Labs, Test Houses, etc, in the process of Standard making from the very early stages i.e. from Conceptualization to finalization of Standards."

Image courtesy: Times of India