Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)

·       The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the National Standards Body of India under Department of Consumer affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India.

·       It is established by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 which came into effect on 12 October 2017.

·       As a National Standards Body, it has 25 members drawn from Central or State Governments, industry, scientific and research institutions, and consumer organisations.

·       BIS has its Headquarters at New Delhi. It has 5 Regional Offices located at Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Delhi.

Statutory Framework

·       The highlights of the new BIS Act are:

Ø  Allows multiple conformity assessment schemes in line with global practices.

Ø  Enables the Government to authorize any agency apart from BIS to certify and enforce conformity to a standard.

Ø  Enables the Government to include products under mandatory certification on grounds of health, safety, environment, national security and prevention of deceptive practices.

Ø  Enables the Government to bring Hallmarking of precious metal articles under mandatory certification.

Ø  Provides consumer protection measures like recall of non-conforming standard marked products, compensation to the consumer and more stringent penal provisions.

 Objective of BIS

·       Harmonious development of the activities of standardization, marking and quality certification of goods

·       To provide thrust to standardization and quality control for growth and development of industry on one hand and to meet the needs of consumers on the other.

Function of BIS

·       Standard formulation - BIS formulates Indian Standards in line with the national priorities for various sectors that have been grouped under 14 Departments like Chemicals, Food and Agriculture, Civil, Electro-technical, Electronics & Information Technology, Petroleum Coal & Related Products, Medical Equipment and Hospital Planning, Textile, Water Resources etc.

·       Product certification - BIS operates a Product Certification scheme for ensuring compliance to Indian Standards. Presence of BIS standard mark (popularly known as ISI mark) on a product indicates conformity to the relevant Indian Standard.

·       Foreign Manufactures Certification Scheme (FMCS) - BIS has been operating a separate scheme for foreign manufacturers in order to certify goods manufactured outside India. Under this scheme, foreign manufacturers can seek certification from BIS for marking their product(s) with BIS Standard Mark after ensuring conformity of the products to relevant Indian Standard(s).  

·       Registration Scheme for Self Declaration of conformity - Registration Scheme operated by BIS is a simplified process of conformity assessment. In this this scheme a manufacturer himself makes a declaration that his product conforms to the Indian Standard.

·       Hallmarking of Jewellery - Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery was started by BIS in April 2000 to provide third party assurance to consumers on the purity of gold jewellery or its fineness.  The scheme for Hallmarking of Silver Jewellery / artefacts was launched in October 2005.

·       Laboratory - To cater to the needs of testing for certification activity, BIS has established eight laboratories in the country. In addition, BIS has also recognized NABL accredited laboratories and government laboratories to discharge the work related to testing of products for conformity assessment.

·       National Institute Of Training for Standardization (NITS) - BIS imparts training through NITS to the technical and management personnel from industry, consumer organizations, public sector undertakings, govt. bodies and developing countries.

Significance of BIS

·       In recent years, BIS has worked towards specifically addressing various national priorities and other government initiatives like Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, Digital India, Make in India and ease of doing business through its activities of standardization and certification.

·       In standards development, BIS continues to address issues of technology changes and advancements, climate change, environment and energy conservation, conditions of health and safety and facilitation of trade. In the area of conformity assessment BIS is working towards making the processes simpler and faster.

International Activities of BIS

·       International Organization for Standardization (ISO) - ISO is an independent, non-governmental membership organization and the world’s largest developer of voluntary International Standards. BIS is a founder member of ISO and is actively involved in development of International Standards by acting as Participating (P) member or Observer (O) member on various Technical Committees, Sub-Committees, Working Groups, etc.

·       International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) - IEC was founded in 1906 and is the world’s leading organization for the preparation and publication of International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies. India is represented in IEC through BIS.

·       Regional and Bilateral Cooperation- BIS is actively involved in the Regional and Bi-lateral Co-operation Programmes pertaining to standardization, testing, certification, training etc. So far, BIS has signed several MoUs with national standards bodies of various countries. BIS also plays an active role in formulation and implementation of regional standards and on conformity assessment scheme for the SAARC countries under the South Asian Regional Standards Organization (SARSO).