Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) should ensure that every citizen of India has access to safe, reliable and highly quality products and services, said Union Minister of Consumer Affairs Pralhad Joshi.
While addressing the keynote address on World Standards Day here, he said the well-being of consumers depend on the access to quality products while the growth and profitability of the industry is directly linked to the demand for these high–quality goods. He emphasised PM Modi’s vision for the country to be recognised for its best quality and for India to strive to make itself synonymous with the world standards.
The minister asked the BIS to focus on quality as India’s economy is rapidly growing along with its contribution in global trade, and stressed that the BIS has a huge role to play in enriching economic growth, enhancing the ‘Made in India’ label and establishing Brand Bharat at a global level. He said that under the guidance of PM Modi, the new BIS Act of 2016 will further strengthen ease of doing business and will provide a fillip to the ‘Make in India’ campaign.
Praising the BIS for its relentless efforts in standardisation of products, Joshi said that today more than 22,300 standards are in force and 94% of Indian standards are being harmonised with ISO and ISE standards. He mentioned that today 174 QCOs of 732 products have been notified for compulsory BIS certification, while till 2014 there were only 14 Quality Control Orders (QCOs) of 106 products.“We have to set a standard where awareness is created among consumers to verify ISI and BIS certification before buying any product, that is the challenge for us,” he said.
He also took the opportunity to applaud other standard development organisations (SDOs) like Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) and Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) operating across sectors. During the event, not only he launched BIS Care App 3.0, a one stop utility platform to empower consumers but also a film on the Standards Promotion Activities of BIS along with a Quality Quest Game for consumers to enhance their knowledge on quality.