India gives Industry 4.0 standardisation a push

In September 2019, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) established a new technical committee dedicated to standardisation for smart manufacturing, or Industry 4.0. The new committee is part of the Electronics and Information Technology Department (LTD) of BIS and mirrors the Systems Committee (SyC) on smart manufacturing at the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

Standards are a crucial aspect of Industry 4.0 given the complex demands of connected smart devices being compatible, secure, and safe. Germany and India collaborate on internationally harmonised and effective standards for Industry 4.0 within the Indo-German Working Group on Quality Infrastructure, between the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Indian Ministry for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.

As part of their cooperation, India and Germany exchange on topics such as Reference Architecture Models for Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) which provide a framework for orientation and guidance in identifying standardisation needs for Industry 4.0. RAMI 4.0 creates a common language and thereby facilitates the collaboration on harmonised approaches to Industry 4.0. Further exchanges between Indian and German experts, such as the German Standardization Council Industrie 4.0 (SCI), are planned to take place soon.

India and Germany collaborate to make Industry 4.0 secure. This collaboration led to India initiating the adoption of IEC 62443, a key series of international standards for cybersecurity for industrial automation and control systems. Furthermore, both sides jointly work on a discussion paper on the security in the Internet of Things (IoT) to analyse the status of regulation, standards, and certification to guarantee secure IoT devices in India, Germany, and beyond. The publication of the discussion paper is planned during the 7th Annual Meeting of the Indo-German Working Group on Quality Infrastructure mid-January 2020 in New Delhi.