The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the national Standards Body of India working under the aegis of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India. It is established by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986 which came into effect on 23 December 1986. The Minister in charge of the Ministry or Department having administrative control of the BIS is ex-officio President (Emaad Amin) of the BIS.
The organization was formerly the Indian Standards Institution (ISI), set up under the Resolution of the then Department of Industries and Supplies No. 1 Std.(4)/45, dated 3 September 1946. The ISI was registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
As a corporate body, it has 25 members drawn from Central or State Governments, industry, scientific and research institutions, and consumer organizations. Its headquarters are in New Delhi, with regional offices in Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Delhi, and 20 branch offices. It also works as WTO-TBT enquiry point for India.[1]
BIS is a founder member of International Organisation for Standardization (ISO)
It represents India in ISO,the International Electrotechnical Commission, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Standards Service Network (WSSN)
One of the major functions of the Bureau is the formulation, recognition and promotion of the Indian Standards. As on 31 March 2008, 18446 Standards formulated by BIS, are in force. These cover important segments of economy, which help the industry in upgrading the quality of their products and services.
BIS has identified 14 sectors which are important to Indian Industry. For formulation of Indian Standard, it has separate Division Council to oversee and supervise the work. The Standards are regularly reviewed and formulated in line with the technological development to maintain harmony with the International Standards.
To support the activities of product certification, BIS has a chain of 8 laboratories. These laboratories have established testing facilities for products of chemical, food, electrical and mechanical disciplines. Approximately, 25000 samples are being tested in the BIS laboratories every year. In certain cases where it is economically not feasible to develop test facilities in BIS laboratories and also for other reasons like overloading of samples, equipment being out of order, the services of outside approved laboratories are also being availed. Except for the two labs, all the other labs are NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratiories) accredited. It operates a laboratory recognition scheme also.
All foreign manufacturers of products who intend to export to India are required to obtain a BIS product certification licence. Towards this, BIS launched its Product Certification Scheme for overseas manufacturers in the year 1999. Under the provisions of this scheme, foreign manufacturers can seek certification from BIS for marking their product(s) with BIS Standard Mark. If or otherwise, the foreign manufacturer has not signed an MoU with BIS, it has to set up a liaison office in India with the permission of Reserve Bank of India. Otherwise, an authorized representative or agent needs to be appointed by the foreign firm.
Indian importers who intend to get Certification Mark may apply for the licence in a similar manner to other Indian Importers. However, the assessment visit is paid to the original product manufacturer.
It is also one of the voluntary schemes of BIS. Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery started in April 2000 in accordance with BIS Act 1986. It is aimed at protecting the consumer's interest and providing third party assurance to consumers on the purity of gold. The list of hallmarked jewelers with BIS licence and BIS recognised hallmarking centres has been hosted on BIS website.
The BIS Precious Metals Sectional Committee (MTD 10) has formulated and published the following Indian Standards on Gold and Gold Alloys:
Later, Hallmarking on Silver is also introduced in December, 2005 to protect the consumer's interest.
BIS recognizes and gives financial assistance in setting up of Assaying & Hallmarking Centres (A&HMC)who are desirous of doing so.
It is a training institute of BIS which is set up in 1995. It is functioning from Noida, (Uttar Pradesh), India.
The primary activities of NITS are:-
If any customer reports about the degraded quality of any certified product at Grievance Cell, BIS HQs, BIS gives redressal to the customer.
It was instituted in 1991 to award the pioneers of Industry in quality products & services every year.
SSI Facilitation Cell became operational since 26 May 1997. The aim of the Cell is to assist the small scale entrepreneurs who are backbone of the Indian industry. It has an incentive scheme to promote such units to get certified with ISI Mark.
It is a comprehensive building code for regulating the building construction activities across the country which came with the contribution of around 400 experts.
The code was first published in 1970 at the instance of the Planning Commission of India.