The IEEE-SA has a portfolio of over 900 active standards and more than 500 standards under development.

ENGADGET: Ethernet gets new IEEE standard, still requires your thumbnail

Unlike Microsoft, Apple is not active in the WebRTC standards committees, and nobody knows what Apple is planning to do.

FORBES: Google And Mozilla Strike The Golden Spike On The Tracks Of The Real Time Web

Supporters of the stay-and-fix-it approach say it encourages retailers to play a more-active role in lifting standards, increasing the odds factories will fall in line.

WSJ: Retailers' Dilemma: Ax or Help Fix Bad Factories?

The proposals are based on the work of the Basle committee on banking supervision, which represents bank supervisors in the big industrial countries, and has spent several years designing a new framework to set minimum capital standards for internationally active banks.

ECONOMIST: Don��t bank on Brussels

The best-informed US investors are very confident of the quality of disclosures under IFRS but also want their country to play an active role in shaping the global standards.

FORBES: Finance

This investment provides efficient access to important inventions and standards-essential patents and reinforces our leadership role in building an active market for invention.

ENGADGET: NVIDIA, Intellectual Ventures partner to acquire 4G patents from IPWireless

Ms Blythman said the FSA compared very unfavourably to the Food Standards Authority Ireland (FSAI), which she said was "more pro-active" and unearthed the horsemeat contamination in the first place.

BBC: What is the Food Standards Agency?

Over 4, 000 schools have established rigorous nutrition and physical activity standards through the HealthierUS School Challenge, and more than a million Americans have earned the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award by committing to healthy eating and regular exercise.

WHITEHOUSE: The White House