World Standards Day

In News

  • Recently, World Standards Day (or International Standards Day) was celebrated internationally  on 14 October. 
    • In India, it was celebrated by BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards).

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)

  • It came into existence, through an Act of Parliament in 1987.
  • It was established by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act 2016 as the National Standards Body of India.
    • It is the only national body that frames standards.
  • It works under the aegis of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India.
  • It aims for the harmonious development of the activities of standardization and marking and quality certification of goods.
  • Major Initiatives:
    • BIS-Care App: It provides a platform to consumers for grievance redressal and feedback through the portal. 
    • Quality Control Orders (QCO): It is formulating the standards of manufactured products.

Important initiatives taken for effective implementation of the BIS Act, 2016

  •  The  Central Government has notified “Gold jewellery and gold artefacts” and “Silver jewellery and silver artefacts” to be marked with Hallmark.
  • The BIS (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018 has been notified under the Act. The Regulations provide for multiple types of simplified conformity assessment schemes including Self Declaration Of Conformity (SDOC) against any standard which will give multiple simplified options to manufacturers to adhere to the standards and get certificate of conformity, thus improving the “ease of doing business”.
  • Penal provisions for better and effective compliance and to enable compounding of offences for violations have been made stringent under new regulation.

About the Day

  • Aim: 
    • To raise awareness among regulators, industry, and consumers as to the importance of standardization to the global economy.
  • Theme: 
    • Shared Vision for a Better World’ Standards for Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Background:
    • The date marks the day in the year 1946, when delegates from 25 countries gathered in London for the first time and decided to conceive an international organization focused on facilitating standardization.
    • While ISO was formed one year later, the first World Standards Day was celebrated in the 1970s.
  • The day honours the efforts of the thousands of experts who develop voluntary standards within  organizations such as the ASME, IEC, ISO, ITU, IEEE and IETF.

Source:PIB