Indian Standards System: Key Organizations
The Indian
standards system is coordinated by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), with
input from other Government of India (GOI) organizations, consumers, and Indian
insustry (including groups such as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)). This section provides information on these
key stakeholder groups.
The role of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
Housed within the Ministry for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, BIS was
established on April 1, 1987 as a statutory body under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act of
1986 replacing the Indian Standards Institution (ISI). BIS’ main objectives include:
- Harmonious development of standardization, marking and quality certification,
- To provide new thrust to standardization and quality control, and
- To evolve a national strategy for according recognition to standards and integrating them with growth and
development of production and exports.
The BIS Act of 2016, which came into effect in 2017, officially established the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as the National Standards Body of India.
In this capacity, BIS takes part in several standards-related activities including:
Standards Development
The Bureau of Indian Standards develops Indian Standards (IS) for 16 of the country’s high-priority economic sectors, including for:
- Basic & Production Engineering
- Chemicals
- Civil Engineering
- Electronics and Information Technology
- Electrotechnical
- Food and Agriculture
- Mechanical Engineering
- Management and Systems
- Medical Equipment and Hospital Planning
- Metallurgical Engineering
- Petroleum Coal and Related Products
- Service Sectors (BIS has two departments for services, SSD-1 and SSD-11)
- Transport Engineering
- Textile
- Water Resources
In each industry sector for which BIS develops standards, a specific Technical Division, including specific technical committees, with its own supervisory Division Council is set up.
More information on the development of Indian Standards.
In order to increase the relevance of Indian Standards (IS), BIS is also actively engaged with activities designed to improve adoption of IS by industry, large scale purchasing organizations, statutory bodies and universities. Key aspects of BIS’ standards promotion activity include greater emphasis on the use of IS in legislation; sectoral and state level committees designed to improve implementation of standards; and greater interaction with the media and education systems to improve standards awareness.
More information on BIS and standards promotion.
BIS is accredited by the Quality
Council of India to operate a number of conformity assessment schemes for the
certification of products and management systems. Specifically, BIS certifies products (for
both foreign and domestic manufacturers), quality management systems (QMS), and
environmental management systems ( EMS );
conducts the hallmarking of gold jewelry; and operates the Hazard Analysis
Critical Control Point (HACCP) for the food industry.
More information on BIS and conformity assessment.
WTO/TBT Enquiry Point
In India, BIS has been designated the official enquiry point for the World Trade Organization’s Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement for all sectors except telecommunications.
Domestically, BIS assists Indian industry in this role by providing useful and necessary information for entering and competing in foreign markets, and acting as a national clearing house
for information on standards, technical regulations, and conformity assessment procedures.Internationally, the Technical Information Services Centre of BIS assists the Ministry of Commerce
in notifying the WTO of proposed technical regulations. For telecommunications, the enquiry point is the Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC).
As the Indian WTO/TBT Enquiry Point,
BIS collects all of the TBT Notifications from other member countries from the
WTO website and disseminates them to all interested Indian stakeholders so that
they may have the opportunity to comment on proposed technical regulations that
affect their trade interests. BIS also
forwards Indian stakeholder comments to the WTO Secretariat via the Ministry of
Commerce.
Get information and sign up for a free e-mail subscription service in order to review and comment on TBT Notifications from Indian and other WTO member countries:
Hallmarking of Gold Jewelry
Gold, and specifically gold jewelry,
represents a significant portion of the Indian market. Due to gold’s cultural and economic
significance, India places a high priority on protecting the quality and purity of its gold. Hallmarking is the accurate determination and
official recording of the proportionate content of precious metal in gold. The Government of India has designated BIS as
the sole agency in India authorized to conduct the hallmarking scheme, which is aligned with
international criteria on hallmarking (Vienna Convention 1972).
Hall Marking of Gold Jewelry (IS:1417, equivalent to ISO
9202:1991-Jewellery – Fineness of Precious Metal Alloys)
More information on BIS’ Hallmarking Scheme.
Indian Ministries
The role of Indian Ministries
Government of Indian (GOI) organizations participate in the standards development process as contributors on technical committees. In addition to BIS and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, a number of other Indian Ministries are involved in the development of standards pertaining to their areas of responsibility. GOI organizations also frequently use standards as the basis of technical regulations, as well as to support government procurement and other governmental programs. A complete list of Ministries with links to their websites is provided below:
- Ministry of Agriculture
- Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers
- Ministry of Civil Aviation
- Ministry of Coal
- Ministry of Commerce and Industry
- Department of Telecommunications
- Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
- Ministry of Corporate Affairs
- Ministry of Culture
- Ministry of Defense
- Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region
- Ministry of Earth Sciences
- Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
- Ministry of Environment and Forests
- Ministry of External Affairs
- Ministry of Finance
- Ministry of Food Processing Industries
- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
- Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
- Ministry of Home Affairs
- Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
- Ministry of Education
- Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
- Ministry of Labour and Employment
- Ministry of Law and Justice
- Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
- Ministry of Mines
- Ministry of Minority Affairs
- Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
- Ministry of Panchayati Raj
- Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs
- Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
- Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas
- Ministry of Power
- Ministry of Railways
- Ministry of Rural Development
- Ministry of Science and Technology
- Ministry of Shipping
- Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
- Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
- Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
- Ministry of Steel
- Ministry of Textiles
- Ministry of Tourism
- Ministry of Tribal Affairs
- Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
- Ministry of Women and Child Development
- Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
Indian Private Sector
The role of the private sector
The private sector is very active in the Indian standards system, which incorporates input both from consumers as well as from Indian Industry.
Consumers have a strong interest in assuring that the standards of the products they use are of high technical quality and safe to use. While industry is motivated to use high quality standards in order to please and thus attract the consumer,
the Indian standardization system recognizes the input of consumers and consumer groups to drive the continuous improvement of standards related to Environment,
Health, and Safety. Consumer input is taken into consideration during the formulation of new standards, as well as the revision of existing standards.
Indian industry recognizes the importance of standards to their ability to business nationally and internationally, and actively participates on BIS technical committees to develop Indian Standards, as well as in
other standards development fora. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), an Indian industry association, has taken leadership to encourage and support Indian industry participation in standards in conformity assessment,
as well as to facilitate international cooperation in these areas.
In 2007, CII signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MOU) with BIS and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to encourage cooperation and collaboration in the areas of standards and conformity assessment in order to facilitate Indo-U.S. trade.
Furthering relations with the Indian standards community in 2010, ANSI and CII signed bilateral MoU pledging increased dialogue, mutual information exchange, and more opportunities to jointly organize and sponsor conferences, workshops, and other initiatives.
More information on CII
View the ANSI/BIS/CII MoU text
View the ANSI news story on the ANSI/BIS/CII MoU with a link to the MoU text
Development of Indian Standards (IS)
