Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA), in a bold move benefitting small businesses, announced of slashing down fees for obtaining BIS Certifications to 50 per cent for select categories. The move is aimed at aiding MSME sector and entrepreneurs. Leena Nandan, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) and Pramod Kumar Tiwari, Director General, Bureau of Indian Standards virtually addressed a press conference about the new initiatives of BIS recently.

Explaining the new BIS initiatives, Leela Nandan said that BIS have achieved many milestones in its journey of development and played important role in the growth of our country. She said that the BIS has taken up many new initiatives and these new initiatives will improve efficiency of our manufacturing sector, standardisation and Quality of products. She said that BIS is working very closely with many ministries in developing and coming out with many new standards. A booklet on BIS reforms was also launched on this occasion.

PK Tiwari, in his address to media said that the services of BIS standards are now available free of cost for everyone. In the area of Standardization, this is planned to be achieved through a   combination of processes engineering, automation and manpower augmentation. Some of the initiatives are like Quarterly meeting of Sectional Committees, Stage-wise timeframe for every Standard under development or revision, Action Research to be an integral part the process, Broad-banding of consultation process through Standardization Cells in Ministries and Industry Associations, Better provisioning of Human Resources to ensure that one Scientific Officer does not deal with more than 30 standards in a year and Initiation of revision of standards parallel to formulation or revision of corresponding ISO/IEC standards for prompt harmonization.

He informed that BIS have nearly 21000 Indian Standards. The objective is to ensure genius standard for every product relevant for the national economy and consumers. He said for the benefit of industry, particularly the MSME sector, Indian Standards are now available free of cost, and can be downloaded from the Standardization Portal of e-BIS.

He further informed that the Scheme of One Nation One Standard has been launched to harmonize the standard formulation work happening in various organizations. Process of consultation is on with SDOs like RDSO, Indian Road Congress, and Directorate of Standardization under Ministry of Defence etc.

As regards Conformity Assessment, he informed that several steps have been taken to ease the compliance burden on the stakeholders like Automation of entire process of certification, including grant of license, renewal of license, and inclusion is automated through Manak Online Portal of e-BIS, Strict timelines for the disposal of applications and real-time basis  monitoring of compliance, Introduction of the system of automatic renewal of licenses, Substantial reduction in the Minimum Marking fee i.e 50 per cent for Micro industry and start-ups and women entrepreneurs and old licence holders will also get additional 10 per cent rebate, More than 80 per cent products being brought under Simplified Procedure. This means license for the manufacturing of these products will be granted within a period of one month, System of consultation with applicants introduced at the stage of Scrutiny of Application to avoid delay in processing. He informed that as a result of these initiatives, it has been possible to dispose of more than 90 per cent applications within the prescribed timeframe.

Further briefing the media, he said Factory and Market Surveillance are critical to creating Quality Consciousness in the country and following initiatives have been taken to strengthen the surveillance system:

• Engagement of five NABCB accredited agencies for carrying out Factory Surveillance.
• Engagement of two outside agencies to carry out Market Surveillance.
• Development of Mobile App based surveillance system for greater speed and transparency.
• Integration of ICEGATE of Customs with Foreign Manufacturers Certification Module of e-BIS for surveillance of imported goods.
• Module for regular feeding of production and consignee details introduced in Manak Online.

Briefing about the LIMS system, he said to make the laboratory operations more efficient, following steps have been taken like Development of LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) to automate the entire process of testing of product samples in BIS and recognized private labs, LIMS ensure tracking of the progress of each and every sample on real-time basis, Integration of LIMS with Manak Online and CRS portals, Automation of Laboratory Recognition Scheme, Integration of the accreditation and recognition processes of NABL and BIS, Renovation of BIS lab infrastructure, Plan of action for expansion and upgradation of testing facilities based on a scientific gap analysis. DG BIS also briefed about the guidelines issued for setting up cluster-based laboratories and satellite laboratories.

Further in his briefing about the initiatives, he said to make Hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts a credible and transparent process, BIS has taken following steps like Online and automatic system of jeweller registration, Automation of the entire process of the assaying and Hallmarking, Mobile App based system of Market Surveillance and audit of Assaying and Hallmarking Centres and Launch of Certificate Course in Hallmarking to ensure the availability of qualified manpower.

In his address, he further informed about the creating quality consciousness in the country, among the consumers, industry, Govt. departments, academic and research institutions, is of primary importance to create demand for standards. He further informed that several steps that have been taken includes Standardization Cells in Ministries and Industry Associations, Focus on increased consultation with Industry in a structured manner, MoUs with premier educational institutions like IITs, IIMs and NLUs, Creation of an Expert Group for integration of standards with the curricula of engineering and professional institutions, Creation of Standards Clubs in High Schools and colleges. Development of Consumer Engagement and Training Portals as part of  eBIS, Development of educational videos under the title BIS TALKS, Direction to Govt. organizations and PSUs to use only Indian Standards and certification by BIS and List of standards shared with Ministries to bring more products under Quality Control Orders (QCOs).

In his concluding remarks DG, BIS said that the BIS is alive to the need of the emerging needs of the national economy and  the interests of the consumers, and has a roadmap in place to address these needs.