Indian-Standards

International Cooperation


India has since long been actively involved in the matters of international standardization and was one of the founding members of International Organization for Standardization (ISO). In its capacity as the National Standards Body of India, BIS is actively involved in matters of international and regional standardization. BIS is a member of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and through the Indian National Committee (INC) is a member of International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). BIS is also a member of regional standards bodies like Pacific Area Standards Congress (PASC) and South Asian Regional Standards Organization (SARSO).

BIS and ISO

Since inception of ISO, the then Indian Standards Institution (ISI) and now BIS, has been an active member and has been contributing in policy as well as in technical matters related to international standardization. BIS has also been to the extent possible harmonizing its standards with the standards of ISO by adopting these standards as Indian standards.

At the policy level, India:

  • periodically served as a member of the ISO Council and is currently its member for the term 2017-19 and also represented in Council Standing Committees on Finance and Council Standing Committee on Oversight

  • periodically served as a member of the ISO Technical Management Board (TMB).

  • Participating member of the its Policy Development Committees on Developing Country Matters (DEVCO), Committee on Conformity Assessment (CASCO), and Committee on Consumer Policy (COPOLCO).

  • Holds the Convenorship of the DEVCO Working Group on ‘Resources to enhance NSB capabilities in standards development and use

India (BIS) is also actively involved in the international standardization work in the various technical committees and working groups of ISO by participating in these committees, proposing and leading new subjects of standards development, holding Secretariat responsibilities of technical committees, holding Chairmanships or Convenorships of Committees/Working Groups, etc. At present India is a Participating (P) member of 449 committees and Observer (O) member in 212 committees. India participates in the ISO technical committees through corresponding National Mirror Committees of BIS. Participation in ISO work is through participation of delegation of experts where important in the committee meetings, by commenting on documents and by voting on documents through electronic voting system. Indian experts are participating in work of over 400 different working groups of ISO TCs.

India also holds the Secretariat of 10 ISO committees and Convenorship of 19 ISO working groups.
The committees for which BIS holds the Secretariat are as follows:
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 IT – Software and systems engineering
ISO/TC 34/SC 7 Food products- Spices & Condiment
ISO/TC 113 Hydrometry
ISO/TC 113/SC 1 Velocity area methods;
ISO/TC 113/SC 6 Sediment transport
ISO/TC 120 Leather
ISO/TC 120/SC 1 Raw hides and skins, including pickled pelts
ISO/TC120/SC2 Tanned leather
ISO/TC 120/SC 3 Leather products
ISO/TC 146/SC 1 Air Quality – Stationery source emissions

BIS and IEC

India started taking part in IEC from 1911 and subsequently the then Indian Standards Institution (now BIS) took over the responsibility of Indian National Committee of IEC(INC-IEC) in 1949 from Institution of Engineers. Since then the INC-IEC is actively participating in the activities of the IEC both at the policy level and technical work and carrying out the responsibilities as member body of IEC Council.

India is a member in Standards Management Board (SMB) of IEC since 2015 and has been elected for the second term 2018-2020.

India has participating member status in 92 Technical Committees and observer member status is 74 Technical Committees of IEC. India holds the convenorship on 6 IEC committees. Participation in IEC work is done through participation of delegation of experts in the committee meetings, by commenting on documents and by voting on documents through electronic voting system.

India holds the Chairmanship of the IEC Systems Committee on ‘Low Voltage Direct Current (LVDC) and LVDC for electricity access’ and of IEC/TC 33 ‘Power capacitors and their applications’.

Bilateral Co-operations

BIS is also actively involved in bilateral cooperation with National Standards Bodies of other countries and with other Standards Developing Organizations for co-operation in areas of standardization, testing, certification, training etc. BIS has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the fields of standardization and conformity assessment and is in the process of having such arrangements with several other countries. In addition, BIS has also signed Bilateral Cooperation Agreements (BCA)/Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRA) with the National Standards Bodies of several countries. For details please click here.

Last Updated on November 10, 2019

national portal logo
consumer affairs logo
relief fund logo
iso
isro logo
iec image
niti ayog logo
digital india logo
swach bharat logo
make in india logo
ghtc
(Hindi) Yogo
75BISLOGO
Skip to contentBIS