Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)

Manak Bhavan, 9 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi, Delhi 110002

                         The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the national standards body of India working under the aegis of Ministry of Consumer Affairs,Food & Public Distribution, Government of India. The organization was erstwhile known as the Indian Standards Institution which was founded in the year 1947.

                          As a corporate body, it has 25 members drawn from national and state politics, industry, scientific and research institutions, and consumer organizations. Its headquarters are in New Delhi, with regional offices in Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Delhi, and 19 branch offices. It also works as WTO-TBT enquiry point for India.

                          As on 31 March 2008, 18424 Standards formulated by BIS, are in force.

BIS Laboratories

 The network of eight BIS laboratories, spread throughout the country provide conformity testing of BIS certified products against relevant Indian Standards. Central Laboratory at Sahibabad (near Delhi) and the laboratories at Regional and some Branch Offices are engaged in testing primarily for operation of the BIS Certification Marks Scheme. The major areas covered under testing at the Central Laboratory are electrical, mechanical and chemical and under calibration, electrical and mechanical.

Product certification scheme introduced in 1956 called for reliable testing of a wide variety of products and raw materials for evaluating their conformity to the requirements laid down in Indian Standards as required for continuous surveillance of the scheme. Initially services of several independent laboratories in India were availed for the purpose. With rapid expansion of the certification scheme, the need  for expeditious testing of samples and for ensuring close conformity to the testing procedures laid down in various Indian Standards was strongly felt and the organization decided to have its own chain of laboratories mainly to cater to the needs of Certification Marks Scheme.

In-house testing of samples under Certification Marks Scheme started in 1963 in BIS HQ in Delhi. Subsequently with the number & variety of samples going up progressively, systematic expansion of lab activities had to be planned with a view to ensure availability of testing facilities close to its users, that is, BIS licensees. It was therefore decided to set up labs at various Regional Offices as well. To assist the organization  in this task, industry, Central and State Governments contributed generously. Today BIS has four Regional  Laboratories situated in different parts of the country. Simultaneously with the completion of these projects, the laboratory at HQ was shifted to its present premises near Delhi at Sahibabad(U.P.). All these five labs were commissioned with requisite test facilities under central assistance and were fully operational in their own premises by 1982.

Because of financial constraints with the organization at that time certain State Govts. came forward for funding the cost of land, building and the laboratory equipments for setting up Laboratory-cum-Office buildings in state capitals. Under this scheme laboratories were commissioned at Patna in Bihar and Bangaluru in Karnataka. 

To meet the special requirements of the North-Eastern Region, plywood testing lab was set up at Tinsukia in Assam state. Subsequently office and lab were shifted to Guwahati.

BIS Laboratories mainly cater to the needs of BIS certification Marks Scheme and accordingly tests are carried out on samples generated from the applicants, licensees operating under the Scheme. Out of more than 1000 products under Certification Marks Scheme, BIS Laboratories have test facilities for more than 700 products in electrical, mechanical, chemical & microbiological areas.

Accreditation of BIS labs

At present five BIS labs are accredited from NABL a Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India.  Details of accreditation can be had from NABL website (www.nabl-india.org).