IUDX Becomes First Software Platform to Fully Adopt BIS Standards for Unified Data Exchange

The India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX), an open-source data exchange platform for Indian Smart Cities, today announced adoption of the Indian standards for Unified Data Exchange specified by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the national standards body of India. In doing so, IUDX has become the first software platform in the country to fully adhere to the Architecture and API Specifications set by the standards’ body for data exchange platforms.

The Unified Data Exchange standard – IS 18003, is part of a series of 10 indigenous standards developed by BIS Smart Infrastructural Sectional Committee (LITD 28) for Indian Smart Cities to ensure a secure and sustainable digital infrastructure and to facilitate the implementation of various smart city projects. The foundational standard for this series is IS 18000 Unified Digital Infrastructure – ICT Reference Architecture (UDI-ICTRA).

IUDX development team played an integral part in development of IS 18003 by contributing technical know-how and expertise to formulate the data exchange architecture and the API specification. It took the lead in driving the initiative and has already deployed the compliant platform in many smart cities across India. IUDX has also released its code as open-source so that other players can adopt the source code to become compliant to the specified standards.

“By defining the architecture and API specifications, the Unified Data Exchange standard will enable a whole new ecosystem of application developers to provide new data driven solutions and services. Adopting the standards on a national level will enable economies of scale for the developers and will allow the same applications to run across the country”, said Dr Inder Gopal, CEO, IUDX and newly elected Chairperson of LITD 28.

“The LITD-28 committee on Smart Infrastructure has issued several new standards that will help to improve the lives of citizens in India’s urban centres, by fostering innovation and enabling new citizen centric services. We are very pleased to note that these standards have already been adopted by IUDX, the data exchange platform being deployed in many of India’s cities. We hope other platforms and software products will follow suit, helping us achieve the objectives for these initiatives.”, said Ms. Reena Garg, Head (Electronics and IT Dept.), Bureau of Indian Standards.

The Unified Data Exchange standards will allow a simple way to expose, provide consent, audit and track the usage of the data resources for data custodians. They would also help address the heterogeneity in devices, data, applications and systems and in developing digital infrastructure with reduced cost.