PM against 'Chalta Hai' Attitude, Govt Working on Standards for Drones And EVs: Piyush Goyal

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is against “chalta hai” attitude and the government is working towards industry-specific quality standards, including some new areas such as electric vehicles and drones.

He said during a press conference that the quality control orders will reduce the cost, expand the scale of operation and help to get larger markets, leading towards becoming competitive and affordable in both domestic and internal markets.

Drones

The Union Minister said: “New areas on which we are looking at standards are areas like drones for agriculture purposes which will help us in soil analysis, irrigation, crop mapping and pest management.”

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has formulated an Indian Standard for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or drones. It is said that compliance with this standard will ensure the drone is compatible with agrochemicals and can work satisfactorily with variable payload during, before, and after the application.

The Standard on UAV — General Requirements, Subsystem Testing Requirements, and Cyber Security — is currently being developed that is expected to help in several ways.

This standard, which is under development, would ensure the design and maintenance requirements such as Control & Stability, Propulsion system, Flight control system, Geo-fencing, and the performance of various subsystems such as Control Systems, Mission Profile, and Software under various environmental conditions such as temperature, pressure, humidity, rain, and vibration.

Additionally, it is said that drone cybersecurity is critical for protecting against cyber threats, unauthorised access, and data theft. So a document is being created based on risk identification and compliance with this will ensure the security of sensitive data, privacy, safe operation, and the prevention of hijacking.

Electric Vehicles

Similarly, the Union Minister stated that the government is also working on standards for EVs and the charging infrastructure.

While BIS has prepared five standards for EVs focusing on range, energy consumption, and safety requirements of battery swapping, the standards which are under development include:

1. Specific requirements for electric power train and Rechargeable Electrical Energy Storage System (REESS) of L, M & N category vehicles.
2. Electric Rickshaw E-Kart.
3. Type approval of Hybrid electric vehicles.

According to Pramod Kumar Tiwari, Director General of BIS, they are working on battery swapping standards which would take about three months to formulate.

While talking about the development of quality control orders, Goyal said: “This is good for India, this is good for Indian consumers.”

“I would urge the industries for faster adoption and alignment with world standards. When we have the same quality in India we will be able to export much more and the importers of those countries will have confidence in Indian goods,” he said.

Testing Infra

According to the Union Minister, the government is investing to enhance the testing infrastructure and inviting the industry for suggestions.

In case of a requirement for better and modern testing infrastructure, the government would help to set it up “at our own cost”.

“BIS will set up testing infrastructure across the country— modern infrastructure wherever required— and we seek industry’s cooperation and participation in that,” he noted.

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