Bureau of Indian Standards (B.I.S): Bureau of Indian Standards is a national standards body of India that is responsible for formulating National Standards for various types of articles (both edible & non-edible i.e. food & non-food articles e.g. livestock feed, cattle housing, equipments, dairy products, food additives, food hygiene), testing apparatus and methods, etc.
The old name of this organization was ISI (Indian Standards Institution), which was established in 1947. The new name i.e. BIS came into existence on 1st April 1987 under the BIS Act 1986.
Structure of BIS/ Members of BIS
Membership of BIS is broad-based and all-important interests are represented. Minister for food and civil supplies is the President of BIS.
Members of BIS include:
- Members of Parliament,
- Ministers of state govt.
- Nominees of central Govt. Ministries and departments,
- Farmers community,
- Consumers organizations,
- Academic institutions,
- Research institutions,
- Industry and
- Professional Associations.
Objectives and functions of Bureau of Indian Standards
- To formulate Indian standards for various articles, processes, methods of test, codes of practices, etc, and promote their implementation.
- To promote the Concepts of standardization and Quality control in industries.
- To coordinate the efforts of producers and users for making improvements in the materials, products, processes, and methods.
- To operate 151 certification schemes.
- To establish testing laboratories of its own.
- To operate a laboratory recognition scheme to meet the requirements of testing. To offer technical and consultancy services within and outside the country.
- To have cooperation and coordination with international standard-making bodies like ISO.
The process to get authority to use ISI mark
For getting an authority/or license to use the ISI mark on the products, the manufacturers have to apply to BIS for permission.
BIS people then send a team to inspect the factory, verify the capabilities of the manufacturer to produce and also test the products. continuous basis by the relevant Indian standards.
They also check the quality of the products and other facilities and after satisfying themselves they give permission to use the ISI mark.
BIS gives a well-defined quality control system to the manufactures and tells them to exercise control measures at various stages like,
- Raw material,
- Diff. stages of production,
- Finished product stage.
BIS keeps a supervisory control to ensure that the ISI marks product are always in conformity with the relevant Indian standards
BIS also has an elaborate Quality Audit System under which they draw the samples
- From the factory production line
- From factory store
- Purchase them from the open market.
And then test the samples in their labs or recognized labs to check the conformity with the relevant Indian standards.
BIS also entertains complaints from consumers and arranges free replacements of defective ISI-marked goods.
BIS also provides training in statistical quality control to its applicants and licensees for improving their technical skills.
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