Bill on Indian Standards taken up in RS

A bill that seeks to extend the ambit of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to include services, processes and products while ensuring production of world class goods in line with best global practices was taken up for discussion in Rajya Sabha today.
The Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015, proposes to make BIS a national standards body, introduce mandatory hallmarking of precious metal, prevent misuse of Standard marks and provide for recall of ISI marked products not conforming to relevant standards.
The discussion on the bill was, however, not taken up as members wanted adequate time to debate it while some wanted it to be sent to the Standing Committee.

The bill was listed in today's business and was taken up late, but members did not want to sit beyond 8 PM and thus it will be taken up later.
Moving the bill for consideration, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said, "this is a very important bill as it seeks to replace the old BIS Act of 1986.
This bill was given a new shape and it was during Congress government that this bill was brought and the reccomendations made by Lok Sabha Standing Committee have already been included in it.

Once the Bill is approved by Parliament, the BIS would get the legislative backing to formally represent India abroad. At present, the BIS is not formally recognised as a national standards body of the country, though it has been representing India in various international bodies.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi insisted that the bill be passed and the House was ready to sit till and reminded the members that there was consensus that they will pass a bill everyday.
Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said this bill was included in the day's business and should be taken up, but there was no consensus in the House as members did not want to sit late.