Which one of the following not-for-profit organization is the apex body for setting up standards in Robotics and Automation in India?

Question

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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.

Why the other options are wrong — (b) 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) 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) 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.

Concept: 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.

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