India has since long been actively involved in the matters of international standardization and was one of the founding members of International Organization for Standardization (ISO). In its capacity as the National Standards Body of India, BIS is actively involved in matters of international and regional standardization. BIS is a member of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and through the Indian National Committee (INC) is a member of International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). BIS is also a member of regional standards bodies like Pacific Area Standards Congress (PASC), South Asian Regional Standards Organization (SARSO) and under the framework of IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa).
Since inception of ISO, the then Indian Standards Institution (ISI) and now BIS, has been an active member and has been contributing in policy as well as in technical matters related to international standardization. BIS has also been to the extent possible harmonizing its standards with the standards of ISO by adopting these standards as Indian standards.
At the policy level, India:
- periodically served as a member of the ISO Council.
- currently a member of TMB for the term 2020-2022.
- Participating member of ISO Policy Development Committees on Developing Country Matters (DEVCO), Committee on Conformity Assessment (CASCO), Committee on Consumer Policy (COPOLCO), Committee on Reference Materials (REMCO) and Technical Management Board – Groups (TMBG).
- Holds Convenorship of the DEVCO Working Group on ‘Resources to enhance NSB capabilities in standards development and use.
India (BIS) is also actively involved in the international standardization work in the various technical committees and working groups of ISO by participating in these committees, proposing and leading new subjects of standards development, holding Secretariat responsibilities of technical committees, holding Chairmanships or Convenorships of Committees/Working Groups, etc. At present India is a Participating (P) member of 470 committees and Observer (O) member in 194 committees. India participates in the ISO technical committees through corresponding National Mirror Committees of BIS. Participation in ISO work is through participation of delegation of experts where important in the committee meetings, by commenting on documents and by voting on documents through electronic voting system. Indian experts are participating in work of over 400 different working groups of ISO TCs.
India also holds the Secretariat of 11 ISO committees and Convenorship of 21 ISO working groups.
| S.No | BIS Committee No. | BIS Committee Title | International Committee No. | International Committee Title |
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India started taking part in IEC from 1911 and subsequently the then Indian Standards Institution (now BIS) took over the responsibility of Indian National Committee of IEC(INC-IEC) in 1949 from Institution of Engineers. Since then the INC-IEC is actively participating in the activities of the IEC both at the policy level and technical work and carrying out the responsibilities as member body of IEC Council.
India is a member in Standards Management Board (SMB) of IEC since 2015 and has been elected for the second term 2018-2020.
India has participating member status in 92 Technical Committees and observer member status is 74 Technical Committees of IEC. India holds the convenorship on 6 IEC committees. Participation in IEC work is done through participation of delegation of experts in the committee meetings, by commenting on documents and by voting on documents through electronic voting system.
India holds the Chairmanship of the IEC Systems Committee on ‘Low Voltage Direct Current (LVDC) and LVDC for electricity access’ and of IEC/TC 33 ‘Power capacitors and their applications’.
(i) SARSO
South Asian Regional Standards Organization (SARSO) is the Regional Standards Body of SAARC comprising the National Standards Bodies of the 8 SAARC member states and is headquartered at Dhaka, Bangladesh. BIS represents India in SARSO.
The objective of SARSO is to achieve and enhance coordination and cooperation among SAARC Member states in the fields of standardization and conformity assessment and is aimed to develop harmonized Standards for the region to facilitate intra-regional trade and to have access in the global market.
SARSO has the following two Agreements:
(a) the SAARC Agreement on Implementation of Regional Standards
(b) the SAARC Multilateral Arrangement on Recognition of Conformity Assessment (MARCA)
Currently, SARSO is developing standards in 5 areas through the following five Sectoral Technical Committees:
a) Food and Agriculture Products,
b) Electrical, Electronics, Telecoms and IT
c) Jute, Textiles & Leather
d) Building Materials
e) Chemical and Chemical Products
(ii) PASC:
Pacific Area Standards Congress (PASC) is a regional standards body comprising Standards Organizations from 24 Pacific-RIM countries. Membership in PASC is open to any country or territory:
- Bordering on the Pacific Rim whose standards organization is full, subscriber,associate, affiliate or correspondent member of ISO and IEC; or
- With a national organization that PASC determines is capable of making a contribution to the purposes and objectives of PASC
BIS represents India in PASC and participates regularly in PASC annual meetings as well its executive committee meetings.
PASC works to strengthen international standardization programs and improve the ability of Pacific-RIM standards organizations to participate in these programs effectively. The members of PASC have adopted, by consensus, a number of important resolutions concerning international standardization, the work of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC).
BIS is also actively involved in bilateral cooperation with National Standards Bodies of other countries and with other Standards Developing Organizations for co-operation in areas of standardization, testing, certification, training etc. BIS has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the fields of standardization and conformity assessment and is in the process of having such arrangements with several other countries. In addition, BIS has also signed Bilateral Cooperation Agreements (BCA)/Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRA) with the National Standards Bodies of several countries. For details please click here.
The International Relations & Technical Information Services Department of BIS is the nodal department in BIS providing the technical information services to interested parties. The services provided are as given below:
- In compliance with the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO-TBT Agreement) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Government of India, Ministry of Commerce has designated two WTO-TBT Enquiry Points to answer all reasonable inquiries from other members and interested parties in other countries concerning standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures:
i. Bureau of Indian Standards – For all queries except those related to the Telecom Sector, and
ii. Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) – for all queries related to the Telecom Sector The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) of World Trade Organisation (WTO) mandates member countries of the WTO to notify other member countries through the WTO Secretariat, all proposed technical regulations that could affect trade. For India, Ministry of Commerce notifies all such proposed technical regulations, standards & conformity assessment procedures relating to technical regulations through WTO Secretariat, Geneva. Parties in other member countries that wish to make comments on such notifications can obtain copies of the text of the proposed technical regulations from the relevant notifying authorities or WTO-TBT Enquiry Point(s). Other member countries and interested parties in these member countries can also seek response to all reasonable queries related to standards and conformity assessment procedures referred in the existing technical regulations from the WTO TBT Enquiry Point(s). Being one of the WTO-TBT Enquiry Point in India, BIS provides information sought on relevant technical regulations from India to other member countries.
As an initiative to serve the national stakeholders, BIS as the WTO-TBT Enquiry point provides the interested parties (organizations/individuals) in India an opportunity to review and comment on notifications of other members which can affect their trade interests, by electronically disseminating the TBT Notifications of other countries to the national stakeholders. The information can also be accessed from the WTO-TBT webpage and comments uploaded. Comments on the documents should be made as soon as possible but at least a fortnight before the expiry of the period of comments for these to be communicated to the Ministry of Commerce for suitably taking up with the concerned regulating authority.
For more details about the WTO-TBT Enquiry Point and to see WTO-TBT Notifications please click here.
Standards, Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment are defined as under:
Standard:
A document, established by consensus and approved by a recognized body, that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context [NOTE – Standards should be based on the consolidated results of science, technology and experience, and aimed at the promotion of optimum community benefits] [ISO/ IEC GUIDE 2:2004]
Technical Regulation:
Regulation that provides technical requirements, either directly or by referring to or incorporating the content of a standard, technical specification or code of practice [NOTE A technical regulation may be supplemented by technical guidance that outlines some means of compliance with the requirements of the regulation, i.e. deemed-to-satisfy provision] [ISO/ IEC GUIDE 2:2004]
Conformity Assessment:
Demonstration that specified requirements relating to a product, process, system, person or body are fulfilled [ISO/ IEC 17000:2004] BIS provides technical information services in the field of standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures to industry, Indian importers, exporters to India and government agencies in response to enquiries received from them. Such enquiries could be on existence and applicability of standards, requirements in standards, technical regulations applicable in the country, conformity assessment procedures in relation to technical regulations, general information on activities of BIS, etc. Enquiries can be made by email at: ird[at]bis[dot]gov[dot]in
Globally, automotive manufacturers utilize a numbering system called the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) to uniquely identify a vehicle. The VIN comprises of 17 characters that uniquely identifies the vehicle as provided in ISO 3779 and ISO 4030. The first 3 characters of VIN that uniquely identifies the manufacturer of the vehicle is called the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI). The next 6 characters of VIN is known as the Vehicle Descriptor section and the last 8 characters is known as the Vehicle Indicator Sector.
BIS being the National Standards Body of India and the member of the International Organization for Standardization, acts as the WMI coordinator in India and issues the WMI code to vehicle manufactures in India after these are assigned by Society of Automotive Engineers Inc., USA, the international agency responsible for the maintenance of the WMI codes. BIS charges a nominal fee of Rs 5000/- + applicable Taxes for this service.
To apply for a WMI code download the application and checklist below:
APPLICATION FOR WORLD MANUFACTURER IDENTIFIER (WMI) CODE
CHECKLIST FOR WORLD MANUFACTURER IDENTIFIER (WMI) APPLICATION
To apply for inclusion of new variety of vehicle, new plant or change in plant address or change in name of plant download the application below:
APPLICATION FORM FOR INCLUSION OF VARIETY PLANT ADDRESS CHANGE IN NAME ADDRESS
The applications may be forwarded to the following address:
.International Relations & Technical Information Services Department
Bureau of Indian Standards
ManakBhawan, 9 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002.
E-mail: ird[at]bis[dot]gov[dot]in
Issuer Identification Number (IIN)
ISO/IEC 7812 specifies a numbering system for the identification of issuers of identification cards used in international interchange. BIS, as the National Standards Body, is responsible for issue of Issuer Identification Numbers (IIN) to various card issuers for operation within the country. For Card Issuers involving international interchange, BIS acts as the sponsoring authority to sponsor the application of Card Issuers to the Registering Authority appointed by ISO. BIS charges a nominal fee of Rs 5000/- + applicable Service Tax for this service.
For further information and for downloading application please click here (Documents required for getting the IIN number).
The applications may be forwarded to the following address:
International Relations &Technical Information Services Department
Bureau of Indian Standards
ManakBhawan, 9 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002.
E-mail: ird[at]bis[dot]gov[dot]in
Registered Application Provider Identifier (RID)
Registered Application Provider Identifier (RID) is a part of an Application Identifier (AID), which is structured and assigned according to ISO/IEC 7816-5 and consists of two parts:
- The RID, and
- Proprietary Application Identifier Extension (PIX) used to identify different applications or products. In a multi-application environment, an application provider needs to be able to uniquely identify itself and its application in the card and the terminal needs to be able to support the application.
In case application is to be used internationally, one needs to apply for an international RID. Each Application Provider is assigned one unique RID. The Application Provider uses the PIX to identify its different applications or products.
To obtain an international ISO/IEC 7816-5 RID, a completed request for a Registered Application Provider Identifier should be sent to Bureau of Indian Standards along with registration fee. After verifying the request, the same is approved and forwarded to Registration Authority. BIS charges a fee of Rs 5000/- + applicable service tax for this service.
The applications may be forwarded to the following address:
International Relations &Technical Information Services Department
Bureau of Indian Standards
ManakBhawan, 9 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002.
E-mail: ird[at]bis[dot]gov[dot]in