About BIS

Bureau of Indian Standards (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 for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. BIS has been providing traceability and tangibility benefits to the national economy in a number of ways – providing safe reliable quality goods; minimizing health hazards to consumers; promoting exports and imports substitute; control over proliferation of varieties etc. through standardization, certification and testing.

Keeping in view, the interest of consumers as well as the industry, BIS is involved in various activities as given below:
  • Standards Formulation
  • Product Certification Scheme
  • Compulsory Registration Scheme
  • Foreign Manufacturers Certification Scheme
  • Hall Marking Scheme
  • Laboratory Services
  • Laboratory Recognition Scheme
  • Sale of Indian Standards
  • Consumer Affairs Activities
  • Promotional Activities
  • Training Services, National & International level
  • Information Services

BIS has its Headquarters at New Delhi and its 05 Regional Offices (ROs) are at Kolkata (Eastern), Chennai (Southern), Mumbai (Western), Chandigarh (Northern) and Delhi (Central). Under the Regional Offices are the Branch Offices (BOs) located at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Lucknow, Nagpur, Parwanoo, Patna, Pune, Rajkot, Raipur, Durgapur, Jamshedpur and Vishakhapatnam, which offer certification services to the industry and serve as effective link between State Governments, industries, technical institutions, consumer organization etc. of the respective region.

For more information, kindly visit www.bis.gov.in

ISO COPOLCO

ISO International Standards touch everyone. From enabling you to use your bank card overseas to ensuring your child's toys don't have sharp edges, they are used everywhere. Followed by companies all over the world, ISO standards provide specifications to ensure products and services work the way you expect them to. What's more, they help to improve customer satisfaction. In a world where the customer's voice is increasingly prominent, this is an essential business requirement. That's why consumer representatives play an integral role in the development of standards. ISO's committee on consumer policy (COPOLCO) provides resources for getting consumers involved. ISO's Committee on Consumer Policy (COPOLCO) is dedicated to promoting consumer participation in standards.

Consumers and standards development

Integrating the view of the consumer is important in standards development because it offers a real-life perspective, helping to ensure that issues such as safety and quality are adequately addressed. In addition, it helps to ensure that products and services perform as expected and improves:

  • quality and reliability
  • consistency in the delivery of services
  • choice and fair competition
  • transparency in production information
  • suitability of products for vulnerable populations
  • credibility of standards to support consumer protection laws

For more details, kindly visit www.iso.org/copolco.html

Message from DG BIS

Pramod Kumar Tiwari

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the National Standards Body of India, feels privileged and honoured to welcome the ISO COPOLCO to New Delhi, India in May 2023 for the 44th ISO COPOLCO Plenary and related events. BIS has been working tirelessly to make this mega event a memorable experience for all the participants. We are confident that the Plenary 2023 will be a grand success.

BIS is an active and permanent member of the ISO and has played an important role in both the technical work and the governance of the ISO. BIS approach to standards development reflects country’s commitment to UN SDG 2030 and Paris Agreement on Climate Action. Climate change mitigation and adaptation through reduction in carbon emissions, carbon foot-printing and life cycle analysis, carbon capture and storage, application of circular economy, ensuring resource efficiency, promoting alternate fuel technologies and renewable energy use, reducing embodied energy and improving thermal performance in buildings through building design and construction, etc., are some of the considerations in standards development activity in BIS. A more and broad range of subjects that help in addressing sustainability and climate change through standards is also being worked out. These include topics like ‘use of natural resources, ensuring energy efficiency and water efficiency, reducing wastes, use of waste and recyclable materials, reducing pollution in land, air and water, protection of natural habitats, protection of biodiversity, carbon neutrality and net-zero, carbon foot-printing and LCA, application of technology and innovation around these issues, economic performance and development, addressing health and safety, social equity (including concerns like gender responsiveness and accessibility for persons with disabilities and the elderly), quality of life, etc.’ Based on these transcending priorities, BIS has finalized Standard National Action Plan (SNAP) 2022, which will guide BIS standardization activity for next five years.

It is very apt that we all take care of the resources available today and participate in sustainable development activities. The world has 8 billion citizens today. The population of India is around 1.4 billion. And this number is going to increase in future. Considering all these people as consumers of the available resources, the load on these resources in future is anybody’s guess. The requirements will increase and so will the waste generated. It is our duty to act NOW and see if we can, together, deliver a sustainable world for future generations. Hence the uphill task of integrating requirements for sustainable world with ideas of consumerism need to be incorporated in standards and consumers policies. In these lines of thought, BIS proposed the theme ‘Sustainability in the age of consumerism- enabling the sustainable world’ and I am glad to announce that ISO COPOLCO secretariat has adopted this theme for discussion during international workshop on the first day of plenary.

India has had the honour of hosting the ISO/COPLOCO Plenary earlier in 2009. The global pandemic has prevented face-to-face meetings since 2020, I look forward to see you in-person in New Delhi in May 2023. I hope that the delegates would find the programme for the international workshop and Plenary interesting and the arrangements comfortable and satisfactory. Considering that Indian economy has made rapid strides in the recent past and the position it is in today because of its massive consumer base, I hope that all the 130 ISO COPOLCO member countries will take this opportunity to visit India to not only partake its growth story but also experience the Indian hospitality.

Once again, I welcome you to the ISO COPOLCO Plenary 2023 in New Delhi, India, the land of diverse cultures, rich heritage and inimitable hospitality.

Message from Chair COPOLCO

Sadie Dainton

I would like to offer my warmest thanks to the Bureau of Indian Standards for their kind offer to host this Plenary meeting in May 2023. It will be the first opportunity for members to meet in person since SAZ hosted in Zimbabwe in 2019. I, together with the COPOLCO Vice-Chair, Secretariat and members look forward to meeting in the wonderful city of Delhi which will give us the opportunity to share and collaborate with each other to ensure that ISO Standards can deliver their full potential in providing consumer protection to citizens and communities.

In the wake of the recent COP meetings hosted in the UK and Egypt, and the call for action on the ever-emerging crisis on climate change and biodiversity, consumers feel the sustainability imperative more keenly than ever. But they are still seeking their rightful place to be heard in the worldwide debate. Even as more and more consumers are becoming more aware of their carbon footprint, they often lack the means to make sustainable, considered choices amidst the ceaseless clamor and din of the marketplace. And millions of consumers still find themselves without choice, even lacking access to sustainable essential services.

ISO COPOLCO has fully embraced the sustainability movement through its commitment to supporting ISO's London Declaration, though sustainable consumption has long been a consumer policy priority, with COPOLCO initiating standards work with the ISO 14000 environmental management system series, and ISO 26000, Guidance on social responsibility. In 2022, we resolved to devote COPOLCO's efforts to finding international consumer policy-based standards solutions. We held regional workshops on All voices heard for a sustainable world, followed by an international virtual workshop, Raising the standards for sustainable consumption. The objectives were to raise awareness of the potential for the role of standards in driving sustainable goods and services and delivering credible sustainable claims to enable consumers to access sustainable lifestyles; both amongst our members and international partners, and amongst government, business and consumers themselves.

All need to play their part in enabling the 8 billion citizens of the world to access a sustainable future. The way 8 billion people live - the food we eat, our methods of transport, the products and services that we use, and our ability to make informed choices - will all have a major impact on whether, together, we can deliver a sustainable future for our planet.

Through its standards and policy, ISO can contribute so much to consumers’ ability to live sustainably: by understanding consumer needs, behaviors and experiences, through its national members and harnessing the wealth of policy experience and data held by international consumer protection organizations and agencies.

We urge you all to join us to consider the gaps that standards can fill, to provide much needed practical and actionable tools, to help all stakeholders contribute to a safe and sustainable world.