Certified backlog

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) celebrated the grant of its first registration certificate for information technology products with great fanfare. An internal event was followed by the distribution of press releases and cheerful photographs to the media. The irony is that even as these festivities had the Samsung Printers division - recipient of this first certificate - on cloud nine, the rest of the industry was worrying itself sick. That's because under a new rule electronics products in India face a possible blackout after July 3 if laptops, printers and tablets, among other products, do not get a BIS certification. Almost 1,500 applications have been sent to the BIS, of which a handful were certified. Despite this backlog, the week-long preparations that went into the celebratory event kept most department officials away from their routine work. Had they applied themselves to all the other applicants, the entire industry could have joined BIS in celebration.