BIS has published 21,890 standards so far: Consumer Affairs Minister to RS

Ashwini Kumar Choubey says the standards also facilitate trade, provide investment confidence, foster innovation and support govt policies and regulations

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) published 21,890 Standards for products, process specification, service sectors, code of practice and methods of test terminology, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution told Rajya Sabha on Friday.

BIS, the National Standards Body of India, formulates Indian specifications in various sectors. Through its standards, BIS ensures quality consciousness amongst manufacturers, industry, consumers & various government departments.

"These standards benefit all industries regardless of size, and across all sectors by ensuring efficiency in processes and quality of products/services, help in adoption of new technologies, build productivity, reduce costs and enable access to markets," the minister said.

He added that the standards provide a range of other benefits such as facilitating trade, providing investment confidence, fostering innovation and supporting government policies and regulations.

As a policy, while developing any Indian Standard, BIS technical committees consider the availability of an international standard on the subject, such as those by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

"The committees try to align the specification with the international standards to the extent possible. At times, ISO/IEC standards are not adopted in totality by the concerned technical committee, which also takes into account country-specific concerns on health, safety, environment, national security and prevention of deceptive practices," Choubey said.

At present, 87 per cent of the Indian standards are harmonised with ISO/IEC for which the International Standards exists.

The Government has identified twelve Champion Services Sectors (CSS) including Medical Value Travel Services and Environmental Services in the Indian National Strategy for Standardization (INSS) for focused attention so as to realise their full potential.

Considering this and to give due importance to the services sectors, the Standards Advisory Committee(SAC) of Bureau of Indian Standards created the Services Sector Division Council in the field of services sectors. The Division Council has been functional since 2020.

The Central Government has also notified several products mandating BIS Standards in considering issues like human health/ safety, protection of environment, public interest etc. During the last three years, 197 products have been notified by the Central Government for compulsory BIS certification.