RDSO of Railways becomes first Institution to be declared SDO

New Delhi, Jun 1 (UNI) Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO) of Indian Railways has become the first Institution to be declared Standard Developing Organization (SDO) under “One Nation One Standard” mission on Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) which is Institution under Department of Consumer Affairs.

This unique initiative of two organizations under GOI is going to set a template for all the rest of leading research and standard development organizations in the country to follow and adapt World Class Standards, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said in a statement here on Tuesday.

It may be noted that to attain ‘One Nation One Standard’ vision of Government of India, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the National Standards Body, has launched a scheme which provides for ‘Recognition of SDO’.

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 convergence of all standard development activities in the country resulting in ‘One National Standard for One Subject’.

RDSO, Lucknow, which is the sole R&D Wing of Ministry of Railways, is one of India’s leading Standard formulating Body undertaking standardization work for railway sector.

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 WTO-TBT ‘Code of Good Practice’ and also mandated by the BIS as essential criteria for recognition as SDO.

BIS, after reviewing the Standard Making Procedures of RDSO, has granted recognition to RDSO on May 24 as SDO (Standard Developing Organization). With this recognition, RDSO becomes the first Standard Developing Organization in the country to be granted recognition under the BIS SDO Recognition Scheme.

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