BIS announces simplified procedure for ISI-mark certification

Government's quality certification arm Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) today announced a simplified procedure for its ISI-mark certification programme to reduce the time taken for granting licence and improve the ease of doing business.
"This simplified scheme to grant license to the products under mandatory certification will greatly reduce the time taken for grant of licence and will improve the ease of doing business," BIS Director General Alka Panda said here.
Speaking at a joint session organised by BIS and Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA), she stressed on the need to have more standards for commonly used products so that consumers are not cheated into buying sub-standard, spurious products which have now flooded the market.

BIS and industry associations such as ISSDA should organise more such awareness programmes in order to bring to the knowledge of the common man the existence of such standards, she added.
"In fact, the BIS slogan of 'jago grahak jago' is a step towards educating the common man into buying good quality products irrespective of whether they are over the counter products or manufactured goods like stainless steel," Panda said.
During the event, Panda handed India's largest stainless steel maker Jindal Stainless (Hisar) Vice Chairman Abhyuday Jindal BIS certificates for being the first in the country in securing the certification under the two BIS standards for manufacture of stainless steel flat products.

The need for a quality control order (QCO) in stainless steel was driven by the Steel Ministry as it had notified the quality control order of carbon steel products.

By this notification, the ministry has brought three BIS standards into the ambit of quality control order, which means that all grades of stainless that have been mentioned must be certified by BIS irrespective of whether it is manufactured in India or imported into the country.
Out of these three standards, two are for utensils and kitchenware application.
This move to include utensil grades was necessitated by the fact that over 52 per cent of the stainless consumption in the country is towards utensils and kitchenware application, ISSDA said.

Keeping in view the large population that is exposed to stainless steel through cooking utensils, it became imperative for the Ministry to protect the consumer in terms of stainless steel use. Therefore, stainless steel standards for utensils were brought under the ambit of the QCO, it added.