Govt to prepare 5-year strategy paper on national standards

Seeking to improve quality of goods and services, the government will prepare a five-year strategy paper focusing on national standards.
Contours of the paper along with other issues related to standards of products will be deliberated upon in the forthcoming 'Standards Conclave' later this month here.
The two-day conclave, starting June 23, is organised in partnership with CII.
Besides Commerce and Industry ministry, other ministries including Consumer Affairs would be involved in the process.
The Commerce Ministry and chambers including the CII is working on ways to sensitise people and industry and enhance awareness about the standards of products to enhance competitiveness of domestic products in global markets, an official said.

There is a need to atleast mandate the domestic industry to follow basic standards so as to provide safe and secure products to people.

The conclave is being held at a time when internationally the tariffs have been going down and focus has been completely shifted on standards, the official said.
In the recently concluded Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) mega deal, the members have focused on harmonising their standards. And to access the TPP markets, India needs to work on quality and standards of its products.
The objective of the conclave is to bring awareness among industries, ministries, state governments, regulatory setting and conformity assessment bodies about importance of 'standards' in the changing scenario of the global trade.

The main outcomes of the last two conclaves include identification of 137 products to bring them under technical regulations.
According to a CII note, the impact of making standards mandatory has been to some extent assessed by DEITY, according to which import from China and the US of some electronic goods have come down.
Further, India has raised around 30 new sanitary and phyto-sanitary/technical barriers to trade issues after last year's conclave as specific trade concerns in the WTO.