BUREAU OF INDIAN STANDARDS( BIS)

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the National Standards Body of India, is a statutory body set up under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986. The Bureau is a body corporate and responsible for formulating National Standards. It comprises of members representing the Industry, Consumer Organizations, Scientific & Research Institutes and Professional Bodies, Technical Institutions, Central ministries, State Governments and Members of Parliament.

Indian Standards are formulated keeping in view national priorities, programmes for industrial development, technological needs, export promotion, consumer welfare, health, safety, etc. So far over 17000 standards have been formulated in different technology areas.

Product Certification - The product certification scheme is basically voluntary in nature and aims at providing quality, safety and dependability to the ultimate customer. Conformity is ensured by regular surveillance visits of the units Performance of licensee is monitored by surprise inspections and testing of samples, drawn both from the factory and the market.

Eco Mark - The Government of India had instituted a scheme in February 1991 known as ECO mark Scheme for labeling environment friendly products. This scheme is administered by the Bureau of Indian Standards.

BIS is a national agency authorized to operate Quality Systems Certification in India. It has adopted ISO 9000 series of standards as IS 9000 series Indian Standards, and aligned the procedure for operation of Quality Systems Certification, based on international criteria and is comparable to any other such systems being operated.

Now the Question before us is "What is ISO?"

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies, at present comprising 140 members, one in each country. The object of ISO is to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view to facilitating international exchange of goods and services, and to developing cooperation in the spheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity. The results of ISO technical work are published as International Standards.

What is ISO 9000?

The ISO 9000 family of standards represents an international consensus on good management practices with the aim of ensuring that the organization can time and time again deliver the product or services that meet the client’s quality requirements. These good practices have been distilled into a set of standardized requirements for a quality management system, regardless of what your organization does, its size, or whether it is in the private, or public sector. The family of ISO 9000 standards have been developed by ISO and it is made up of four core standards:

a) ISO 9000:2000 – Fundamentals and Vocabulary

b) ISO 9001:2000 – Quality Management Systems – Requirements

c) ISO 9004:2000 – Quality Management Systems – Guidelines for performance improvements

d) ISO 19011: 2002 – Guidelines for quality and/or environmental management systems auditing

What is the role of BIS in ISO 9000?

BIS is the National Standards Body of India and is a founder member of ISO. BIS represents India, in ISO. The Technical Committee (TC) number 176 (ISO/TC 176), and its Sub-committees of ISO are responsible for the development of ISO 9000 standards. Quality and industry experts from India including BIS officers nominated by BIS participate in the meetings of the Technical Committee ISO/TC 176 and its Sub-committees.

EMS Certification- With the growing concern for environment friendly industrial activity, ISO 14000 series of standards have been developed. BIS, after adoption of these standards as national standards, has launched Environment Management System (EMS) Certification (IS / ISO :

HACCP Certification:-BIS launched HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) based Quality System Certification Scheme as per the requirements of IS 15000 : 1998 standard (equivalent to Codex ALINORM 97 / 13A).

Hall Marking of Gold Jewellary:- In order to protect consumers against victimization of irregular gold quality.Hallmarking of gold jewellery was launched under BIS Act, 1986. This scheme is voluntary in nature.

With its headquarters at Delhi, BIS have five regional offices at Kolkata, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai. It has 33 branch offices in the country. The BIS is developing need-based standards in accordance with national priorities with the help of over 26,500 technical experts as members of the technical committees. The standardisation projects are properly screened within BIS to ensure their usefulness.