The Bureau of Indian Standards: assistance to the country's exporters.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has been developing its services for India's industry since its inception in 1947. As the country's national standards body, the BIS has undertaken various measures to assist Indian exporters in developing and managing the quality of their goods and services, to make them increasingly competitive on the international market. It has adopted internationally accepted practices in the formulation of standards and operates a third-party certification scheme of both products and quality systems for the benefit of exporters. In addition the BIS plays a general educational role in promoting the concept of quality and standardization in the business sector.

Government support

These efforts to upgrade the quality of the country's goods and services have received an impetus from national policies to increase exports and strengthen the economy. The Government's Import-Export policy (1992-97) was one such measure. Recognizing that quality through standards and certification systems has an important role to play in the country's export expansion, the policy focuses on building international competitiveness in goods and services. Quality has a prime place in the policy to win over international customers' confidence.

The Government's policy to support and promote quality programmes has involved various activities, including a quality awareness campaign, state-level quality programmes, special forms of recognition to manufacturers and upgrading of testing facilities.

To encourage manufacturers and exporters to attain internationally accepted quality standards for their products, the Government is assisting trade and industry associations to conduct a nationwide programme of quality awareness and promote the concept of total quality management. The Prime Minister launched a National Quality Campaign in April last year. Developing a national quality policy is one of the elements of the programme. A national quality award was also instituted by the BIS as a part of the campaign. The first such award, for 1992-93, will be given out shortly.

State governments are being encouraged and assisted to launch similar programmes, particularly for the small-scale and handicraft sectors. Most state governments have taken steps to start such activities. At the initiative of the BIS, state-level committees for standardization and quality systems have been established to oversee the implementation of the programme.

The central government is introducing a scheme to recognize and reward manufacturers who meet the requirements of the ISO 9000 series of standards (of the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO) or the IS 14000 (series) (of Indian Standards) or any other internationally recognized equivalent quality certification system. Such manufacturers are eligible for special import licenses, in proportion to the value of their exports.

Assistance is likewise being provided by the central government in modernizing testing centres and laboratories to bring them up to international standards, so that certificates that they issue are recognized abroad. As part of the cooperation programme between India and the European Community (EC) several sectors have been identified on which these efforts will be focused, namely, food processing, automobile components and domestic electrical appliances. The national and state laboratories are taking similar measures so that their test certificates are recognized internationally.

A scheme has been launched by the Government for accreditation of laboratories in the country. The criteria for accreditation are in line with ISO Guide 25 entitled "General Requirements for the Competence of Calibration and Testing Laboratories," with guides brought out by International Laboratory Accreditation Conference and with relevant European Standards (EN 45001, 45002 and 45003).

Harmonization of standards

The BIS has carried out the following activities to harmonize Indian standards with international ones:

ISO and IEC standards:

The BIS started to harmonize Indian standards with international standards in 1984 for the following purposes:

1. Facilitate imports and promote exports of goods and services.

2. Assist in the transfer of technology.

3. Raise the status of national standards.

4. Optimize resources of the BIS by avoiding prolonged deliberations in the committees preparing standards.

   Over 800 standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) have been totally adopted as Indian standards under a dual numbering system, in which the Indian standards carry identification numbers of the BIS, ISO and IEC. In addition over 3,500 Indian standards have been aligned with international ones.

   The standards adopted under the dual numbering scheme cover the following categories: chemicals, electrotechnical products, food and agriculture, light mechanical engineering goods, medical equipment and hospital planning systems, petrochemicals, river valley systems, textiles, civil engineering, electronic goods, heavy mechanical engineering products, management systems, metallurgical engineering goods, production engineering goods and transport engineering equipment.

   The goods produced and the processes followed in accordance with harmonized Indian standards have better acceptability in the world market than those not in compliance and thus enhance the country's competitive position.

   European standards:

   The European Community is an important trading partner for India, accounting for 25% of its exports. An increasing emphasis is therefore being laid on aligning Indian standards and certification systems with those used and accepted by the EC. Harmonization is in particular being stressed in areas with export potential. These are textiles and ready-made garments, gems and jewellery, computer software, chemicals and allied products, leather items, agricultural products, processed foods, minerals and ores, engineering goods and handicrafts...