Commerce Min to devise strategy on product standards

The commerce ministry has started an exercise to formulate a national strategy for standardisation of products and services with an aim to provide a level playing field to domestic industry and adopt best practices.
The Department of Commerce has floated a draft Indian National Strategy for Standardisation seeking comments from all concerned stake holders till March 30.
The ministry in a statement said that the rapid growth of the economy, its size and emerging relevance in global trade, make it essential to establish a robust quality infrastructure in India with a harmonised, dynamic, and mature standards ecosystem for goods.
This would fuel economic growth and enhance the Made in India label, it said.

It said that standards have been widely recognised as catalysts for technical development, industrial growth, well-being of the society and more recently for convergence of new and emerging technologies.
Countries are accordingly evolving strategies to synergise standardisation work with technological, social and economic development at the national level, the ministry said.

"The strategy considers the current state of development across sectors, the existing quality infrastructure and the policy directions in relation to domestic economic developments and trade in goods and services," it said.
The key objectives of the draft strategy includes positioning standards as a key driver of all economic activities relating to goods and services; developing a comprehensive ecosystem in India for standards development taking into account the diversity of interests and expertise available, it said.

The other objectives are using standards as enhancer of competitiveness of Indian goods and services in domestic and international markets; providing level playing field to domestic industry; and adopting best practices in standardisation, conformity assessment and technical regulations and creating an integrated infrastructure, roadmaps and institutions for their effective management.
The strategy, it said, would play an active role and take leadership positions in apex international forums in the related areas besides creating response mechanisms to global developments on standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment practices that impact market access of Indian goods and services.