Indian Standards are formulated through specialist technical committees (functioning under the Division Councils) namely, Sectional Committees which may be supported by other technical committees like subcommittees and panels set up to deal with specific group of subjects. The committee structure is designed such as to bring together all those with substantial interest in a particular field, so that standards are developed keeping in view the balance of interests among the relevant stakeholders like manufacturers, users, technologists and regulators and after taking into account all significant view points through a process of wide consultation. Decisions in BIS technical committees are reached through consensus. As a policy, the standards formulation activity of BIS has been harmonized as far as possible with the relevant standards as laid down by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). BIS, being a signatory to the ‘Code of Good Practice for the preparation, adoption and application of standards (Article 4 of WTO-TBT Agreement, Annex 3)’ has also accordingly aligned its standards formulation procedure. BIS also formulates special publications including handbooks.