BIS should help facilitate zero defect, zero effect policy: Piyush Goyal

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) should become a benchmark for quality control, quality assessment and quality assurance and as the National Standards Body it should act as a facilitator for the industry by formulating Standards that support Zero defect, Zero effect, said Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Textiles and Commerce & Industry, in an event organised by BIS.

He added that the bureau should also emerge as a global player and pioneer in the field of standardisation, and said standards are the new patents and those who control standards, control markets, prices, processes, manufacturing and innovations.

In his message on further improvement in the functioning of BIS, the Minister said that BIS must look at the analysis and setup additional labs across the country and modernise the existing labs.

Goyal said that such mapping of labs has been done in past and he is confident that in next few months, BIS will ensure high quality modern labs for both the industry and consumers.

The inaugural function was presided over by Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution & Environment, Forest & Climate Change.

The minister of state appreciated the efforts made by BIS to involve stakeholders from government, industry, standard developers, academia, consumer groups etc in framing the comprehensive strategy document on national standardisation i.e. Standards National Action Plan (SNAP) 2022-27 which is an action plan identifying emerging areas of standardisation that support Government’s initiatives in the fields of Digital India, Smart Agriculture, Smart cities etc.

The action plan evolved in 2016 proposed a set of actions that would enable BIS to fulfill the specific objectives, and drive the national standardisation work and participation in international standardisation work.

The action plan has also prioritised standardisation issues ranging from engineering to services, IOT to AI and smart cities to e-mobilities. ‘Smartness’, ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Services’ would be the key to future standardisation.

SNAP 2022-27 would have a forced multiplier effect on the national growth, said Chaubey.