The standards process in India is largely government led, with Bureau of Indian Standards publishing majority of voluntary products and services related Standards. Other specialist bodies develop and publish standards in their domain areas. A few large public-sector organizations also publish Standards for their own use. A list of the Standards bodies and their areas of work is provided on this portal.
National Standards Body
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the National Standards Body of India established under an Act of Parliament (The Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986, revised as The Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 12016). Only standards published by BIS have the status of Indian Standards. The BIS follows the Code of Good Practice for the preparation, adoption and application of standards (Article 4 of WTO-TBT Agreement, Annex 3)’. The standards development work is distributed over 14 Division Councils that have in turn established over 650 Technical com mittees. Many of these committees act as shadow or mirror committees of their international counterparts at the ISO / IEC. More information on participation on international committees and technical secretariat held by BIS can be seen at the BIS web page .
Regulatory mechanism for standards development
There is currently no regulation or prohibition on voluntary standards development or promotional activities by organizations, except that they cannot claim their standards to be Indian Standards
Regulatory standards
Regulatory Bodies notify technical regulations either through specific technical requirements developed through their own consultative processes or, by adopting relevant Indian or other standards. Wherever Indian Standards have been adopted, the Regulatory body is invariably involved in the work of the technical committee responsible for the development of the related standards. Regulatory Bodies involve stakeholders in the development of technical regulations or adoption of standards either through structured committees or through wide stakeholder consultation. Prior notification of the draft regulations in the form of public notifications as well as the WTO TBT / SPS notifications is practised by all technical regulators. In some areas, such as Food safety, scientific risk evaluation is carried out by the relevant committees. Detailed information on the regulatory bodies and regulated sectors is hosted on this website.
Occupational Standards
National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) is a competency-based framework notified by the Ministry of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship development for certification of individuals for vocational competencies. The NSQF is being implemented through the National Skills Qualifications Committee (NSQC) that is responsible for approving National Occupational Standards (NOS) and Quality packs (QPs).
The National Occupational Standards (NOSs) specify the standard of performance, knowledge and understanding when carrying out a particular activity in the workplace. Each NOS defines one key function in a job role. NOSs are developed by notified Sector Skills Council. Updated lists of Sector Skills Councils and NOSs published can be accessed through the NSDC wesbite
International Affiliations
The Bureau of Indian Standards is the National Standards Body of India and represents as the India member on ISO. BIS has set up National Mirror Committees to shadow the work of ISO CASCO and COPOLCO.
The IEC National Committee of India having its Secretariat at the Bureau of Indian Standards, is the Indian member on the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
Department of Telecommunications under the ministry of Communications is the nodal agency for coordinating with ITU from India. Several Indian Industry members, Associations are also members of ITU.
The National Codex Contact Point (NCCP) for India,"Codex India" is located at Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare). It coordinates and promotes Codex activities in India in association with the National Codex Committee and facilitates India,s input to the work of Codex through an established consultation process. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has constituted The National Codex Committee for keeping liaison with the CAC.
Bureau of Indian Standards is also member of the Pacific Area Standards Congress (PASC) and South Asian Regional Standards Organization (SARSO)
Recognition of Standards Developing organizations
The newly published Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 provides for accreditation of Standards Developing organizations (SDOs. However the Rules for the accreditation have not yet been notified. The Quality Council of India (QCI) has published a voluntary Scheme Scheme for Accreditation of SDOS. However, no accreditation has been granted till date.
Overseas Standards Bodies present in India
In addition to the national Standardization system, several overseas standards organizations have established Indian offices to assist Indian industry in adoption of their standards, especially to meet international trade obligations. Notable among these are :