Bureau of Indian Standards
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the National Standards Body of India under Department of Consumer affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India. It is established by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 which came into effect on 12 October 2017. The Minister in charge of the Ministry or Department having administrative control of the BIS is the ex-officio President of the BIS. BIS has 500 plus scientific officers working as Certification Officers, Member secretaries of technical committees and lab OIC's. The organisation was formerly the Indian Standards  Institution (ISI), set up under the Resolution of the Department of Industries and Supplies No. 1 Std.(4)/45, dated 3 September 1946. The ISI was registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. A new Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) Act 2016 which was notified on 22 March 2016, has been brought into force with effect from 12 October 2017. The Act establishes the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as the National Standards Body of India. As a National Standards Body, it has 25 members drawn from Central or State Governments, industry, scientific and research institutions, and consumer organisations. Its headquarters are  in New Delhi, with regional offices in Eastern Region at Kolkata, southern Region at Chennai, Western Region at Mumbai, Northern Region at Chandigarh and Central Region at Delhi and 20 branch offices. It also works as WTO-TBT enquiry point for India. Regulatory framework. National Building Code of India, 2005. It is a comprehensive building code for regulating the building construction activities across the country which was first published in 1970. Preliminary Draft Amendment No. 1 to NBC 2005 Part 11 "Approach to Sustainability" was put into circulation a preliminary draft amendment and BIS accepted the feedback from people till  15 March 2013. Indian Standards Bill, 2015. The Bill was passed on 8 March 2016 by the Rajya Sabha. The new Bill will repeal the existing Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986. The main objectives of the proposed legislation are: Organisation. National Institute of Training for Standardization (NITS). 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: Cells. Laboratories. 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 Laboratories) accredited. It operates a laboratory recognition scheme also. Small Scale Industry Facilitation Cell. 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. Grievance Cell. If any customer reports about the degraded quality of any certified product at Grievance Cell, BIS HQs, BIS gives redressal to the customer. Collaboration with international standards bodies. BIS is a founder member of International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It represents India in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the World Standards Service Network (WSSN). Activities. Standard formulation and  promotion. One of the major functions of the Bureau is the formulation, recognition and promotion of the Indian Standards. As on 1 January 2019, over 20,000 Standards have been 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 15 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. Product Certification. For Indian manufacturers. Product Certifications are to be obtained voluntarily. For, some of the products like Milk powder, Drinking Water, LPG Cylinders, etc., certification is mandatory. Because these products are concerned with health and safety. For foreign manufacturers. Foreign manufacturers of products who intend to export to India also may obtain a BIS product certification license. For some products various Indian government ministries/departments/agencies makes its compulsory to have BIS certification. Towards this, BIS launched its Product Certification Scheme for overseas manufacturers in the year 2000, which is called Foreign Manufacturers Certification Scheme. Under the provisions  of this scheme, foreign manufacturers can seek certification from BIS for marking their product(s) with BIS Standard Mark. The foreign manufacturer needs to appoint an Authorised Indian Representative who will be an Indian Resident to act as an agent between BIS and the manufacturer. Depending on the product, the manufacturer has to imprint one of two possible marks on the product label. The Standard Mark or the ISI Mark. The Standard Mark is compulsory for certain types of electronics and IT goods, whereas the ISI mark is mandatory for product categories such as cement, household electrical products, food products, steel  materials, etc. The ISI mark is also used for several voluntary BIS certification product categories. For Indian importers. Indian importers who intend to get Certification Mark may apply for the license. However, the assessment visit is paid to the original product manufacturer.