CDS (II) 2024 General Knowledge · Question 49 of 120

Correct — C, Indian Railways. The Research Design and Standards Organisation, at Lucknow, is the single research, design and standards body of Indian Railways, working under the Ministry of Railways. It was formed in 1957 by merging two older units — the Central Standards Office, which had drawn up standards for railway equipment since 1930, and the Railway Testing and Research Centre set up at Lucknow in 1952. Its work is to design and test rolling stock, track, bridges, signalling and traction equipment, to write the specifications that suppliers must meet, and to approve vendors; in 2019 it was notified as a Standard Developing Organisation under the Bureau of Indian Standards scheme. The other three organisations named in the options each have their own laboratories and centres, and none of them owns an outfit by this name.

• (a)Bhabha Atomic Research Centre — The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Trombay is itself a research centre, the principal one of the Department of Atomic Energy; it has no wing called the Research Design and Standards Organisation.
• (b)Indian Space Research Organization — The Indian Space Research Organisation works through its own centres — Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, U R Rao Satellite Centre, Satish Dhawan Space Centre and others — none of which is this organisation.
• (d)Defence Research and Development Organization — The Defence Research and Development Organisation has more than fifty laboratories of its own, such as DRDL, GTRE and ADE, but the railway standards body is not one of them.

Indian Railways runs a vertically integrated technical establishment: production units build the rolling stock, zonal railways operate it, and a single organisation at Lucknow designs it, writes the standards and tests what suppliers offer. That concentration is unusual — most large public systems separate the standard-setter from the operator — and it is why one name covers research, design and standards together.

Acronym-and-parent items are answered by asking what the words in the name are for. 'Standards' is the giveaway here: a standards body implies a large procurement system with many suppliers and interchangeable parts, which describes a railway far better than a space or atomic research programme. The remaining three options are all research organisations in their own right, so none of them would need a separate research wing, and that structural point settles the question even if the name is unfamiliar.

• The Research Design and Standards Organisation is at Lucknow and works under the Ministry of Railways.
• It was formed in 1957 by merging the Central Standards Office, of 1930, with the Railway Testing and Research Centre set up in 1952.
• Its functions include design and testing of rolling stock, track, bridges, signalling and traction equipment, and the writing of specifications and vendor approvals.
• It was notified as a Standard Developing Organisation under the Bureau of Indian Standards scheme in 2019.
• Indian Railways separately runs production units such as the Integral Coach Factory at Chennai and the Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, which build to these designs.

• Assuming any organisation with 'Research' in its name belongs to defence or atomic energy.
• Confusing the design and standards body with the production units, which manufacture rather than design.
• Placing the organisation at Delhi; it has been at Lucknow since the research centre was set up there in 1952.

As a parent-organisation identification, with major national research bodies offered as distractors.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Research Design and Standards Organisation of Indian Railways has its headquarters at

  • (a)New Delhi
  • (b)Lucknow
  • (c)Chennai
  • (d)Pune

  Answer(b) Lucknow — where the Railway Testing and Research Centre was set up in 1952 before the merger of 1957.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Integral Coach Factory, a production unit of Indian Railways, is located at

  • (a)Kapurthala
  • (b)Chennai
  • (c)Varanasi
  • (d)Chittaranjan

  Answer(b) Chennai — while Kapurthala has the Rail Coach Factory and Chittaranjan the locomotive works.