Authorities have opened the country's first laboratory for testing and measuring mobile phone radiation that is located at the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) in New Delhi.

The government has stated that the new mobile phones devices in the country, which are manufactured domestically or imported from other countries, will have to be compatible with strict radiation norms from September, 2013. It will become mandatory for the manufacturers t display the radiation level of the device on the handsets sold to the people in India.

The new Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) laboratory has been set up with an investment of Rs. 2.5 crore at the TEC in the national capital. At present, the mobile phone manufacturers in the country either self certify their devices or get certified from international agencies. SAR is the electric field strengths that are produced inside the body tissues while making phone calls.

Officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have said that the Telecom Enforcement Research and Monitoring (TERM) cells will begin certification of self certification records produced by the manufacturers of mobile devices. The facility will be able to take SAR measurements for CDMA, GSM 2G and 3G mobile handsets in the frequency band of 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz and 2,100 MHz.

Telecom minister Kapil Sibal said, "We have set up a lab in the country so that mobile phones can be tested here for electromagnetic radiations. More such labs will be set up across the country starting with Mumbai."