MPPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 21 of 100

Correct — A, All India Council for Robotics and Automation (AICRA). AICRA is a New Delhi-based not-for-profit body that works on standards, certification, skilling and industry–academia linkage in robotics and automation, and it is the organisation that describes itself — and is described in the official key — as the apex standard-setting body for this sector in India. Note what the stem itself signals: it says 'not-for-profit organization', not 'statutory authority'. India's statutory national standards body is the Bureau of Indian Standards; AICRA is the voluntary, sector-level counterpart for robotics and automation.

• (b)National Institute of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (NIRA) — The apex standard-setting role in Indian robotics and automation is not held by any body of this name — the option is built out of official-sounding words ('National Institute', 'Artificial Intelligence') to look like a government institute.
• (c)India Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) Mission — STEM-branded initiatives in India work on school and college STEM education, outreach and robotics competitions. Promoting STEM learning is not the same function as writing technical standards for an industry.
• (d)Robotics Skill Centre of India (RSCI) — A 'skill centre' by definition trains and certifies individuals. Skilling sits at the delivery end of the ecosystem; setting the standards that such training must meet is a different, apex-level role.

India's standards ecosystem has three distinct layers, and questions like this test whether you can tell them apart. (1) The statutory layer — the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), established under the BIS Act, 1986 and now governed by the BIS Act, 2016, is India's National Standards Body and issues the ISI/Standard Mark. (2) The sectoral not-for-profit layer — industry bodies such as AICRA that frame voluntary standards, certifications and benchmarks for a specific technology sector like robotics and automation. (3) The skilling/education layer — sector skill councils, STEM missions and training centres that build the workforce. AICRA belongs to the second layer.

The elimination route is faster than the recall route here. Two options (STEM Mission, Skill Centre) name education/training functions, which cannot be the 'apex body for setting standards'. That leaves two robotics organisations, and only one of them — AICRA — is an actual, functioning not-for-profit council in this space. The stem's own phrase 'not-for-profit organization' is a hint that the answer is an industry council, not a government institute.

• AICRA = All India Council for Robotics and Automation — a New Delhi-based not-for-profit working on standards, certification and skill development in robotics and automation.
• It is an industry not-for-profit, not a statutory regulator: India's statutory National Standards Body is the Bureau of Indian Standards (established under the BIS Act, 1986; now governed by the BIS Act, 2016).
• BIS functions under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
• On the policy side, emerging-tech work sits with MeitY and with NITI Aayog's 2018 discussion paper 'National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence' (#AIforAll).

• Assuming a name beginning 'All India Council…' must be statutory like AICTE — AICRA is a private not-for-profit.
• Treating a STEM-education mission or a skill centre as a standard-setting body.

MPPSC and UPSC both ask 'which organisation performs function X' — so store each acronym with its exact mandate and its parentage (statutory body vs registered society vs industry council).

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following is India's National Standards Body, established under an Act of Parliament?

  • (a)Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
  • (b)All India Council for Robotics and Automation (AICRA)
  • (c)NITI Aayog
  • (d)NASSCOM

  Answer(a) Bureau of Indian Standards — the National Standards Body of India, established under the BIS Act, 1986 and now governed by the BIS Act, 2016.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  NITI Aayog's 2018 discussion paper on Artificial Intelligence is popularly identified by which tagline?

  • (a)#AIforAll
  • (b)#DigitalIndia
  • (c)#SkillIndia
  • (d)#MakeInIndia

  Answer(a) #AIforAll — the tagline of NITI Aayog's National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (2018).