Cabinet approves new BIS bill

The union cabinet on Wednesday approved a new Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015, which will replace the existing BIS Act, 1986, on implementation.

The decision over the new BIS bill was taken during a cabinet meet, presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"New BIS bill envisages mandatory certification regime to protect health, safety, environment etc," Information Technology and Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media.

"The new BIS provisions will allow multiple conformity assessment schemes, including self-declaration of conformity," he said.

The new bill will provide legislative framework for following new provisions other than the provisions in the existing Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986 which is proposed to be repealed.

Some of the main objectives of the proposed legislation would be to establish the Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) as the national standards body of India, ensure that the bureau performs its functions through a governing council and to enable the government to bring in the mandatory certification regime.

It will also enable the central government to appoint any authority, in addition to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), to verify the conformity of products and services to a standard and issue certificate of conformity besides enabling the government to implement the mandatory hallmarking of precious metal articles.