BIS To Promote Adoption Of Indian Standards In Developing Countries

Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) has offered to provide standards and quality related solutions to developing and least developed countries.

The national standards body, which is under the administrative control of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, has asked the Ministry of External Affairs to promote indigenous Indian Standards in these countries through Indian missions.

BIS has been providing complimentary copies of Indian Standards for reference and/or adoption purposes to the developing and least developed countries, on request.

Standards bodies play a key role in facilitating trade and in the socio-economic development of countries by promoting adoption of their standards at international/regional level.

According to the ministry, Indian Standards can provide solutions free of cost to other countries that are at the same level of technological advancement and have similar climatic and socio-economic conditions.

“BIS has been providing complimentary copies of Indian Standards for reference and adoption purposes to the developing and least developed countries. It has shared Indian Standards and quality norms for adoption with National Standard Bodies (NSB) of 21 countries with whom India has cooperation arrangements, in June 2019,” said a BIS official.

BIS has published over 20,000 Indian Standards encompassing various sectors out of which 15,000 are indigenous standards.

The official said that countries like Haiti and Democratic Republic of Congo have reached out to BIS to consider cooperation agreements in standardisation and conformity assessment.

“We have held meetings with NSBs of Suriname and Indonesia while meetings with Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Slovenia are being scheduled,” the official said.

BIS has been mandated to roll out quality norms at par with global standards. In the past few months, the national standards body has come out with strict quality guidelines for toys and other imported items like aluminium scraps.

Since Indian Standards have gained global acceptance, the government is concerned about the quality of imports and has tightened norms to prevent cheap imports.

BIS shared the Indian Standards Catalogue and Guidelines for Adoption of Indian Standards with NSBs of 21 countries with whom India has cooperation arrangements in June 2019.

In order to create awareness about indigenous Indian Standards among developing and least developed countries, and to encourage them to use Indian Standards wherever suitable, Ministry of External Affairs was requested through Consumer Affairs Ministry to disseminate information on free availability of indigenous Indian Standards in countries through Indian Missions in these countries.

Simultaneously, it was also suggested that MEA hold virtual international training programmes in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"In response to our initiative for promotion of Indian Standards, we have started receiving requests for virtual meetings to discuss and explore possibilities for future collaborations," the official said.