A standard is a document that provides agreed solutions to recurring problems. These could be specifications, procedures and guidelines to ensure that products, services and systems are safe, consistent and reliable.
Standards are developed by technical committees of Standards Developing Organizations, that comprises of stakeholders such as manufacturer, consumer, R&D; and scientific institutions, academia, Govt. departments/ Ministries, Regulators and testing laboratories. The nominated experts of such organizations develop standards based on proposals received from any stakeholder following process and practices of good standardization through a process of consensus building aimed at arriving at a common stand point.
As per the BIS Act 2016, standard that is established and published by BIS (the National Standards Body) in relation to any good, process, system or service is an Indian Standard.
There are a few other dedicated standards bodies in India that also develop Standards in their specific domains, such as: Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) in the telecommunications sector Indian Road Congress (IRC) in the area of roads and bridges Directorate of Standardization, Ministry of Defence for defence standards Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO) for standardization of railway equipments & applications Automobile Research Association of India (ARAI) for automotive industry standards Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) for standards on telecom/ICT products & services. There are a few others Ministries/Departments and Regulators who also develop standards for their respective statutory/ regulatory provisions/purposes. These include Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for standards on food safety Indian Road Congress (IRC) in the area of roads and bridges Central Pollution Control Board [CPCB] for standards on emission or discharge of environmental pollution Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) for safety requirements & guidance for utilities and users of atomic energy Directorate of Marketing Inspection (DMI) for grading standards of agricultural commodities Central Drugs Standards Control Organization [CDSCO] the standards for drugs and medical devices
BIS standards development processes are open to participation by anyone interested. Any individual/organization that is interested has different options of participation. These are: By commenting on our published standards and/or draft standards. All published standards and draft standards are accessible on BIS website with a provision to also comment on such document. By proposing a subject for standardization – Any individual/organization can propose a subject for development of a new standard to BIS, on BIS Website By becoming a member of a technical committee - Any organization can express their interest to play an active role in standards development and membership of a technical committee. The request is then considered by the technical committee for co-option, subject to limitations on maintaining balance of representation of all interested groups and a workable size of committees.
Application/ Implementation of all standards are voluntary but may become an obligation/ mandatory requirement when a standard (in part or whole) referenced in a regulation or in procurement processes adopted by public authorities. A standard becomes mandatory also when contractually agreed between two parties.
All Indian standards are accessible and freely downloadable from BIS website, except for Indian Standards that are adoptions of international standards.
You can search for an Indian Standard on BIS website using the ‘Search for Standards’ facility by entering a title, key word or Indian Standard number in the Search Box.
You can forward all your technical queries to Technical Information Services of BIS at ird@bis.gov.in. In case, you are aware of the concerned technical department of BIS dealing with the standard in question, you can also send your query directly to the department over email. Information about technical department and their contact details are available on BIS website.