National Standardization Bodies
There are five main standards making bodies of India,
- Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
- Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC)
- Telecommunications Standards Development Society of India (TSDSI).
- Automotive Research Association of India
- Research Designs and Standards organization (RDSO)
BIS is the National Standard Body of India established under the BIS Act 2016 for the harmonious development of the activities of standardization, marking and quality certification of goods and quality assurance of goods, articles, processes, systems and services.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the National Standards Body of India under Department of Consumer affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India. It is established by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 for the harmonious development of the activities of standardization, marking and quality certification of goods and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
BIS through its core activities of standardization and conformity assessment, has been benefiting the national economy by providing safe, reliable and quality goods; minimizing health hazards to consumers; protecting the environment, promoting exports and imports substitute; controlling over proliferation of varieties etc. The standards and certification scheme of BIS apart from benefitting the consumers and industry also support various public policies especially in areas of product safety, consumer protection, food safety, environment protection, building and construction, etc.
BIS formulates Indian Standards in line with the national priorities for various sectors that have been grouped under 16 Technical departments like Electro-technical, Electronics & Information Technology, Transport Engineering, Service-I, Service-II, Mechanical Engineering, Management & Systems, Metallurgical Engineering, Petroleum Coal & Related Products, Medical Equipment and Hospital Planning, Textile, Production & General Engineering, Chemicals, Food and Agriculture, Civil and Water Resources. Corresponding to these Departments sixteen Division Councils exist. Each Division Council has a number of Sectional committees working under it. The standards cover important segments of economy and help the industry in upgrading the quality of their goods and services. So far over 20,500+ standards have been formulated in different technology areas.
BIS also represents India in international standards bodies like International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and participates actively in the international standardization work undertaken in these bodies. BIS presents the national viewpoints on various draft international standards during the process of development of these standards so that the country’s interest is protected and reflected in these standards. This also enables the BIS technical committees to consider adoption of the international standards as Indian Standards with or without modifications, in order to enable our products and services to integrate with global trade and commerce. Recently, BIS has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with three key European standard development Bodies (CEN, CENELEC & ETSI). The MoU defines the scope of technical exchanges, knowledge sharing and training with provision to further strengthen the ongoing cooperation around standardization.
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Standards Formulation
For formulation of Indian Standards, BIS functions through the Technical Committee structure comprising of Sectional Committees, Subcommittees and Panels set up for dealing with specific group of subjects under respective Division Councils.
As a policy, the standards formulation activity of BIS has been harmonized as far as possible with the relevant standards as laid down by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). BIS, being a signatory to the ‘Code of Good Practice for the preparation, adoption and application of standards (Article 4 of WTO-TBT Agreement, Annex 3)’ has also accordingly aligned its standards formulation procedure. BIS also formulates special publications including handbooks.
There are more than 19500 standards formulated by BIS so far through about 1000 technical committees involving more than 15000 experts. These standards are subject to periodic review resulting in their reaffirmation, amendment, revision or withdrawal as may be required.
The Telecommunication Engineering Center is a body under telecom commission and a nodal agency of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India, which is responsible for drawing up of standards, generic requirements, interface requirements, service requirements and specifications for telecom products, services and networks.
TEC shall leverage its status as a “Centre of Excellence” in Telecom to position India as a “Lead Telecom Knowledge and Manufacturing Hub” of Asia-Pacific Nations by driving Telecom Standards, Manufacturing Support and Network Building Skill sets in the interests of this region and market.
TEC objectives are:
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- Develop new specifications and update the existing ones in order to keep pace with the global development.
- Establishment of state-of-art telecom laboratories.
- Active participation in professional bodies such as ITU, IETF, APT etc. to protect country’s interest.
Technology approval for C-DoT in order to develop telecom technology aimed specifically for local manufacturer.
TEC develops standards (as ERs/GRs/IRs/SRs/ SDs) in telecom areas such as Transmission, Radio, Fibre Optics, GPON, Telecom Switching, Next Generation Networks, Mobile Networks, Information Technology, IoT.
TEC also acts as a nodal agency for Mandatory testing and certification of telecom equipment (MTCTE) against respective Essential Requirements. The testing is to be carried out by Indian Accredited labs and based upon their test reports, certificate shall be issued by TEC. Surveillance of products under MTCTE is carried out by Licensed Service Area (LSA) field units of Department of Telecommunications.
TEC is an associate member of ETSI as other government body. As associate member of ETSI, TEC participates in the ETSI meetings, submit contributions for the meetings, work with technical bodies work programme etc. Officers of TEC participates in the various Technical Groups/ Committees of ETSI.
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Telecommunication Standards Development Society for India (TSDSI)
Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI): Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) is an autonomous, membership based, standards development organisation (SDO) for Telecom/ICT products and services in India. TSDSI develops standards for access, core, back-haul, and infrastructure systems, solutions and services that best meet India specific Telecom/ICT needs, based on research and innovation in India. It works closely with global standards’ bodies to reflect Indian requirements into international telecom/ICT standards. TSDSI plays an important role in encouraging generation of Indian Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in this technology intensive field and get them incorporated into international standards. This in turn promotes indigenous research, product development and manufacturing. Department of Telecommunications & Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Govt. of India are jointly supporting TSDSI as India’s Telecom/ICT SDO. TSDSI is registered as a not-for-profit Society, under the Indian Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860.
TSDSI has MoU with major international Telecom Standards bodies like Association of Radio Industries and Business (ARIB)- Japan, Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS)-U.S., China Communications Standards Association (CCSA), Continua Health Alliance, USA (IoT in health), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA)-Korea, Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC)-Japan, Co-operation agreement with Global Certification Forum (GCF).
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Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI)
Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), established in 1966, is the leading automotive R&D organization of the country set up by the Automotive Industry with the Government of India. ARAI is an autonomous body affiliated to the Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India. The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, has recognized ARAI as a Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (SIRO). Further, ARAI is one of the prime Testing and Certification Agency notified by Government of India under Rule 126 of Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989.
ARAI has been playing crucial roles assuring safe, less polluting, more efficient and reliable vehicles. Working in harmony and confidence with its Members, Customers and Government it provides services and expertise in the areas of Engineering Services, Certification & Standardisation, Research & Development, Technology Development and Knowledge Initiatives. ARAI has been assisting Government in formulating automotive industry standards and harmonization of regulations.
The state-of-the-art Laboratories of ARAI are well equipped with the most advanced facilities in the areas of Emission Evaluation, Noise Vibration and Harshness, Structural Dynamics, Powertrain Engineering, Computer-aided engineering, Vehicle Evaluation, Active & Passive Safety, Material Evaluation, Automotive Electronics, Forging & Heat treatment Research, and Calibration, etc. ARAI also has a renowned Academy. E Mobility-Centre of Excellence, Environmental Research Laboratory, Virtual Calibration Centre, Futuristic Adaptive Smart Techniques (FAST) Laboratory is some of the recent additions to ARAI’s comprehensive capabilities.
ARAI is certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001; and is also accredited for it’s testing and calibration scope as per ISO/IEC 17025 by NABL.
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Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO)
In 1957, Central Standards Office (CSO) and the Railway Testing and Research Centre (RTRC) were integrated into a single unit named Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), under Ministry of Railways at Lucknow. The RDSO, Research and Design Wing of the Railway Ministry, is one of the nation’s leading standard formulating body undertaking standardization work for the railway sector. RDSO has recently become the nation’s first institution to be declared as Standard Developing Organization (SDO) under the mission called “One Nation One Standard” of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). With SDO recognition, standard formulation procedures of RDSO will become more focused on consensus-based decision making. It will extensively engage all stakeholders such as Industry, Academia, Test Houses, Users, Recognized Labs etc, in standard making process from initial stages. With this tag, competition among industries will increase resulting into reduction in cost & improvement in quality. It will also reduce import dependency and boost Make in India initiative. For more information, please click here