BIS announces simplified procedure for certification programme

• JSL becomes the First recipient in stainless steel segment to get this certification in India

Bureau of Indian Standards, the National Standards making body in the country today announced a series of changes including the much sought after simplified procedure for its ISI mark certification programme. Director General – BIS, Alka Panda announced that simplified scheme to grant license to the products under mandatory certification will greatly reduce the time taken for grant of license.

Announcing this at a joint session organized by BIS and the Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA) here in New Delhi, she reiterated the need to have more BIS standards for commonly used products so that the consumer is not cheated into buying sub standard, spurious products which have now flooded the markets. She also added that BIS and industry association such as ISSDA should conduct more awareness programs in order to bring to the knowledge of the common man the existence of such standards. In fact the BIS slogan of “jago grahak jago” is a step towards educating the common man into buying good quality products irrespective of whether they are ‘over the counter products’ or manufactured goods like stainless steel.

During the function she also handed over to Shri Abhyuday Jindal, Vice Chairman, Jindal Stainless (Hisar) Limited the BIS certificates for being the ALL INDIA FIRST in securing the BIS certification under the two BIS standards for manufacture of stainless steel flat products in the country. 

The need for a quality control order in stainless steel was driven by the ministry of Steel as it had already successfully notified the quality control order of carbon steel products.  Therefore, the quality control order was a natural progression in the order.  By this recent notification of the Ministry of Steel, the GOI has brought three BIS standards (namely IS 6911, IS 5522 and IS 15997) into the ambit of the quality control order which means that all grades of stainless which have been mentioned in the three BIS standards must be certified by BIS irrespective of whether it is manufactured in India or imported into the country. Out of these three standards, two standards are for utensils and kitchenware application.

This move to include utensil grades was necessitated by the fact that over 52% of the stainless consumption in the country is towards utensil and kitchenware application. Keeping in view the large population that is exposed to stainless steel through cooking utensil, it became imperative for the Ministry to protect the consumer in terms of the stainless steel that one uses.  Therefore, the stainless steel standards for utensil were brought under the ambit of the QCO.