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Standard is a document that provides agreed solutions to recurring problems. These could be specifications, procedures and guidelines to ensure that products, services and systems are safe, consistent and reliable.
Standards are developed by technical committees of Standards Developing Organizations, that comprises of stakeholders such as manufacturer, consumer, R&D and scientific institutions, academia, Govt. departments/ Ministries, Regulators and testing laboratories. The nominated experts of such organizations develop standards based on proposals received from any stakeholder following process and practices of good standardization through a process of consensus building aimed at arriving at a common stand point.
As per the BIS Act 2016, standard that is established and published by BIS (the National Standards Body) in relation to any good, process, system or service is an Indian Standard.
Division Councils are created by the Standards Advisory Committee, who decides on its composition in accordance with Rule 19 (2) of BIS Rules 2018. However, any individual/ organization can apply to BIS online for a membership in a Division Council of his interest which would then be considered by the concerned Division Council for co-option; keeping in consideration the balance of representation of various interest groups in the committee and maintaining a workable size of the committees.
Division Councils are created by the Standards Advisory Committee, who decides on its composition in accordance with Rule 19 (2) of BIS Rules 2018. However, any individual/ organization can apply to BIS online for a membership in a Division Council of his interest which would then be considered by the concerned Division Council for co-option; keeping in consideration the balance of representation of various interest groups in the committee and maintaining a workable size of the committees.
A Sectional Committee is constituted by its Division Council for the work of formulation of Indian Standards in specific areas defined in their scope of work. In accordance with Rule 17(2) of BIS Rules 2018, every Sectional Committee shall comprise of representative of various interest such as consumers, regulatory & other Govt. bodies, industry, testing organizations, laboratories or calibration laboratories, scientists, technologists, experts in personal capacity, consumer interests and concerned officers of the Bureau.
Any Organization/ individual (as an expert) can express their interest to become a member of a Sectional Committee for active involvement in standards development by applying to BIS online. The request is then considered by the Sectional Committee for co-opting the organization/ individual expert; keeping in consideration the balance of representation of various interest groups in the committee and maintaining a workable size of the committees.
Membership in Sectional Committees (or in Division Councils) are free of any fees/ charges. Therefore, an organization or individual does not have to pay to become a member of Sectional Committees.< /p>
Rule 22(1) of BIS Rules 2018 provides that any person being a Ministry of Central Govt., State Govt., Union Territory Administration, consumer organization, industrial unit, industry association, professional body, member of the Governing Council of BIS, member of a technical committee of BIS, or any individual who proposes for establishment of an Indian standard may submit a proposal to the Bureau. Such proposals may be submitted in writing or online in prescribed performa.
Standards are developed by technical committees of Standards Developing Organizations that comprises of stakeholders such as manufacturer, consumer, R&D and scientific institutions, academia, Govt. departments/Ministries, Regulators and testing laboratories. The nominated experts of such organizations develop standards based on proposals received from any stakeholder following procedures and practices of good standardization through a process of consensus building aimed at arriving at a common stand point. In BIS such technical committees comprises of Division Councils, Sectional Committees, Sub-committees, Panels and Working Groups. The procedure for formulation of standards in BIS is outlined under Rule 22 of the BIS Rules 2018. This broadly involves receipt of a proposal for development of standard, decision on necessity of standardization and acceptance of the proposal, preparation of a draft by concerned sectional committee, wide circulation of draft for critical review and suggestion and finalization of the draft by the concerned sectional committee, its adoption by the concerned Division Council and its notification.
It is the responsibility of BIS, being the National Standards Body to ensure that there is synergy in the standardization work taking place in the country and that there is no overlap or duplication of the work carried out by other Standards Developing Bodies (SDOs) in the country. BIS also endeavor to ensure coordination of work among standardization bodies in view of increasing convergence of technologies. Towards this objective. BIS maintain liaison with all SDOs and involve them in the development of Indian Standards. In some cases the standard of these bodies in due course are converted into Indian Standards.
Article 4 of the WTO-TBT Agreement stipulates that Central Govt. standardization bodies shall accept and comply with the Code of Good practices for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of Standards given in Annex 3 of the Agreement.
Annex-3 of WTO-TBT Agreement states that the code is open to acceptance by any standardization body within the territory of a member of the WTO, whether a governmental or non-governmental body or to any governmental regional standardizing body, one or more members of which are the members of the WTO; and to any non-governmental regional standardizing body one or more members of which are situated within the territory of a member of WTO.
The objective of the code is to minimize obstacles to trade that may arise from the preparation, adoption and application of standards. The code is open to acceptance by any standardization body within the territory of a WTO member. The standardizing body accepting (or withdrawing from) the code have to notify the same to WTO. BIS is the only standardizing body in India that has notified acceptance of the code to WTO.
Rule 22 (1) of BIS Rules 2018 provides that any person, being a Ministry of the Central Government, State Government, Union territory administration, consumer organization, industrial unit, industry-association, professional body, member of the Governing Council,member of a technical committee or any individual may submit a proposal in writing for revision of a Standard
Rule 24 of BIS Rules 2018 provides that Indian Standards (new or revised) are voluntary and their implementation depends on adoption by the concerned parties. An Indian Standard shall be binding if it is stipulated in a contract or referred to in a legislation or made mandatory by specific orders of the Government.
Section 16 of the BIS Act 2016 provides that if Central Government is of the opinion that it is necessary or expedient so to do in the public interest or for the protection of human, animal or plant health, safety of the environment, or prevention of deceptive practices, or national security, if may, after consulting the Bureau, by an order published in the official gazette notify that goods or article or process or system or service shall conform to a standard.
Essential requirements are specific requirements that a product must comply with, according to and as specified in a Technical Regulation. These may cover general health, safety, performance or packaging requirements. A standard on the other hand provides guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes with which compliance is not mandatory. Essential requirements being part of technical regulations, are to be mandatorily complied with. Further, compliance to essential requirements may be demonstrated through compliance to a standard.
Standards that are product specifications lay down requirements that define the quality characteristics of a product and the methods of testing to ascertain conformance to such defined requirements. The test methods/norms for testing, either form a part of the product specification or are defined in separate test method standards.
An explicit set of requirements are given in product Standards where as other types of standards are for test-method, Code of practice and terminology standards.
Product Standard-Standard that specifies requirements to be fulfilled by a product or a group of products, to establish its fitness for purpose.
Basic Standard – Standard that has a wide-ranging coverage or contains general provisions for one particular field. Basic standard may function as a standard for direct application or as a basis for other standards.
Test Method – Standard that is concerned with test methods, sometimes supplemented with other provisions related to testing, such as sampling, use of statistical methods, sequence of tests
Code of Practice – A compendium of information or series of options that may not recommend a specific course of action.
Terminology – Standard that is concerned with terms, usually accompanied by their definitions, and sometimes by explanatory notes, illustrations, examples, etc.
Process Standard- Standard that specifies requirements to be fulfilled by a process, to establish its fitness for purpose
Service Standard – Standard that specifies requirements to be fulfilled by a service, to establish its fitness for purpose. Service standards may be prepared in fields such as hotelkeeping, transport, car-servicing, telecommunications, insurance, banking, trading etc.
The ISO/IEC Guide 21-1:2005 and ISO/IEC Guide 21-2:2005 outline procedure following which, standard bodies that are members of International standards bodies like ISO or IEC can adopt the international standards of such bodies.
BIS, in its capacity as the National Standards Body of India, is a Full member of International Organization for Standardization (ISO). By virtue of being a full member, BIS has the right to participate and vote in ISO technical and policy meeting and to adopt and sell ISO International standards nationally. BIS actively participates in the activities of ISO inter alia at the governance level and in the technical work. BIS is involved in the development of International Standards as Participating (P) members or Observer (O) members on various Technical Committees and Sub-Committees, and has nominated technical experts in Working Groups of these committees.
BIS, actively participates in the activities of International Electro-technical Commission (IEC), through the Indian National Committee (INC), the secretariat of INC is with BIS. By virtue of being a full member of IEC, the INC has access to all technical and managerial activities and functions, at all levels of the IEC, including voting rights in IEC council, including the right to sell and adopts international standards of IEC. BIS is involved in the development of International Standards of IEC as Participating (P) members or Observer (O) members on various Technical Committees and Sub-Committees, and has nominated technical experts in Working Groups of these committees.
Indian National Strategy for Standardization (INSS) addresses three broad pillars of the Quality infrastructure, viz Standardization, Conformity assessment, and Technical Regulations. It determines the critical role for each and sets goals in each area. Each goal is supplemented by a brief description of the background conditions and recommends specific activities that need to be undertaken for its realization. It takes into account the needs and expectations of all stakeholders, and accords the interests of MSMEs a high consideration.
In order to effectively perform its responsibility as the NSB of India, the Standards National Action Plan (SNAP) has been evolved by BIS. Through a process of extensive stakeholder consultation and according due consideration to government policies and priorities. To prioritize the standardization work on the identified subjects/ topics of standards development, an assessment of national socio-economic requirements was made through a process of secondary research. The action plan proposes a set of actions that would enable BIS to fulfill specific objectives, and drive the national standardization work and participation in international standardization work. The actionable points emanating from the study as provided in the document are expected to help meet the objectives of making standardization processes efficient and fast, increase awareness and implementation of standards, increasing participation and involvement in national and international standardization and ensure harmonious standardization activities in the country. The action plan has prioritized standardization issues ranging from engineering to services, IOT to AI and smart cities to e-mobilities. ‘Smartness’, ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Services’ would be the key to future standardization.
The Standards National Action Plan (SNAP) of BIS envisages the creation of standardization cells in Ministries/ Departments and Industry Associations for the purpose of seeking timely inputs on standardization, identification of new subjects for standardization, identification of relevant experts and enhance participation and contribution in standards development and in implementation of standards.
Department of Commerce has identified 12 Champion Services Sectors for promoting their development, and realizing their potential. Based on this BIS has identified the following service sector areas for standards formulation:
IS 1:1968 Specification for the National Flag of India (Cotton Khadi) was the first Indian Standard published in the year 1951.
As on 31 March 2020, 20845 Indian Standards have been developed by BIS
BIS standards development processes are open to participation by anyone interested. Any individual/organization that is interested has various options of participation, one of which is by commenting on draft standards. All wide circulation drafts are accessible on BIS website and there is a provision to also comments on such documents.
All Indian standards are accessible and freely downloadable from BIS website, except for Indian Standards that are adoptions of international standards.
You can search for an Indian Standard on BIS website using the ‘Search for Standards’ facility by entering a title, key word or Indian Standard number in the Search Box.
You can forward all your technical queries to Technical Information Services of BIS at ird@bis.gov.in. In case, you are aware of the concerned technical department of BIS dealing with the standard in question, you can also send your query directly to the department over email. Information about technical department and their contact details are available on BIS website.
