NEW DELHI: India has been recognised as the ‘Authorising Nation’ under the international Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement (CCRA) to test and certify Electronics and IT products with respect to cyber security. Thus, India has become the 17th nation to earn such recognition. This international arrangement has 26 member countries. USA, UK, Germany, South Korea, France, Japan, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Malaysia etc. are the other countries who have this recognition.

So far India was having the status of ‘Consuming Nation’ with respect to certification of electronics and IT products. The status of ‘Authorising Nation’ will enable India to test IT and electronics products and issue Certificates which will be acceptable internationally. The recognition would also remove the bottleneck which as of now had prevented international companies from submitting their products for testing and certification in India.

The recognition would also enable investment in setting up infrastructure and labs in public and private sectors in India for testing electronics and IT products.

Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) Directorate of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has been operating Common Criteria Certification (CC Certification) scheme in India for the last five-six years. Under it STQC undertakes certification of electronics and IT products after evaluation of the products at its lab in Kolkata. The Certificates issued by STQC Directorate shall now be acceptable internationally by all CCRA member countries.