Department of Telecom (DoT) is planning a mobile safety standard that will be applicable to all mobile devices, whether made in this country or abroad, reports Business Standard. Once these standards have been accepted, all mobile devices sold in India need to display the specific absorption rate (SAR) value and radiation emitted by a cellphone. The department has not revealed what other information these devices will have to display as part of the certification. The government is planning to amend the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951 and include mobile under this category, so that testing labs in India can certify these devices. This developments come at a time when BIS is framing safety and performance standards for locally manufactured cellphones and imported devices. DoT is also establishing a Telecom Testing & Security Certification centre, which will lay down local testing ground rules. As of now, there are no accredited local test labs for mobile devices, so the chances of these steps being implemented in the neat future are slim. At of now, the permitted SAR value in mobilephones is 1.6 watts a kg (w/kg) over a gramme of human tissue and was fixed in 2012. Previously, the SAR value for handsets was two w/kg over 1g of tissue. In the proposed norms, companies will have to mention the actual SAR measurement value for a particular device and related information in the user manuals. Besides, when ‘*#07#’ is keyed in, handsets should display the maximum SAR level of the device, as mentioned…
