Key officials pitch for eco-system with efficient Standards in India

The Department of Commerce should prepare a time-bound action plan in four weeks to stress the urgency of reforms in the area of Standards, says the Cabinet Secretary.

The Dollar Business Bureau ISO A strong pitch on the need for maintaining an efficient standards eco-system in India was made by the key officials of the Government of India (GoI), on Saturday. Addressing the Standards Conclave 2015, jointly organised by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), various officials from key ministries of GoI urged on need to work on right standards agenda. Speaking at the event, Ajit Seth, Cabinet Secretary, GoI, stressed the importance of a strong standards ecosystem under the ‘Make in India’ campaign and for India to become a manufacturing hub. In this regard, the Cabinet Secretary called upon the need for Indian manufacturers to stay in compliance with the right standards to export value-added products. In view of India’s current standards regime standing at nascent stage with low awareness and adoption, there is an opportunity to build a progressive and futuristic standards eco system, including standards in services, he added. In this regard, the Cabinet Secretary directed the Department of Commerce to prepare a time-bound action plan in four weeks to stress the urgency of reforms in the area of standards. In his address, Rajeev Kher, Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, called upon all the government agencies to start working on creating a standards ecosystem around the relevant products with identified tasks. The standards agenda now has political endorsement, but, the industry must take ownership and drive it further, he noted. The Commerce Secretary further informed that a Standards Training Institute that will involve multiple stakeholders from the government as well as industry is getting materialized and this will help in better achievement of standards agenda. It is important to expedite the services standards agenda, given the very important part it plays in the economy and in improving efficiency of the manufacturing sector, he added. Meanwhile, M Gurucharan, Additional Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, in his address, informed various legislative reforms to modernize the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act, 1986 and the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The comprehensive reforms, in this regard, have been got approval from a group of ministers and are ready to be tabled in the Parliament, he informed, adding that these reforms would improve the ease of doing business, bring greater coherence with international standards and make the mandatory standards broader, among others.