76th Foundation Day of BIS

• 07 Jan 2023

Why in News?

Recently, the 76^th Foundation Day of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) was celebrated in New Delhi and various initiatives were launched by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.

What are the Various Initiatives Launched?

• Portal for Mapping of Industrial Units and Laboratories:
  • This is a centralized platform for information on industrial units and laboratories across the country.
  • This will enable analysis of test facilities in the country and help entrepreneurs in accessing information about testing facilities.
• Standards National Action Plan (SNAP) 2022- 27:
  • This is a document to serve as strong foundation for standardization to meet the emerging technologies and concerns of sustainability and climate change.
  • SNAP 2022 - 27 will play an important role in steering the national standardization efforts which would lead to standards becoming a key enabler of India’s economic aspirations.
  • The implementation of key recommendations and strategies of the document will be pivotal in enriching and strengthening “Quality Culture” in the Nation.
• Revision Exercise of National Building Code of India 2016 (NBC 2016):
  • Published by the BIS, NBC is a “recommendatory document”, and state governments are expected to incorporate it into their local building by laws, making the recommendations a mandatory requirement.
    • BIS is initiating the Exercise of Revision NBC 2016 to include:
      • Sustainable City Planning Norms
      • New and Sustainable Building Materials
      • Design Concepts
      • Construction Technologies
      • Building and Plumbing Services
• Revised National Electrical Code of India 2023 (NEC 2023):
  • NEC 2023, a comprehensive electrical installations Code prepared by BIS, is a national instrument providing guidelines for regulating the Electrical Installations practices across the country.
    • India’s first National Electrical Code was formulated in the year 1985, which was subsequently revised in the year 2011.
    • The current revision includes the requirements of electrical installation as per the latest International best practices.
      • Some of the important new chapters added in the revised NEC are requirements related to Electrical installations at special locations like Hospitals, Community facilities, Hotels, Swimming Pools, Amusement Parks, Supplies for Electric vehicles, multi-storied buildings etc.
• Training Courses on National Building Code of India 2016 and National Electrical Code of India:
  • BIS through its training arm, the National Institute of Training for Standardization (NITS) has designed training courses on NBC 2016 and NEC 2023 for national capacity building.
• Standards Clubs in Schools:
  • Through Standards Clubs, BIS aims to expose science students of class 9th and above to the concepts of Quality and Standardization through student centric activities.
  • BIS has till date established over 4000 Standards Clubs across India and upon realizing the potential and success of the novel endeavor, the target is ambitiously enhanced to creating 10,000 clubs by the end of 2022-23.

What is BIS?

• It has been established for the harmonious development of the activities of standardization, marking and quality certification of goods and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
• It was established by the BIS Act, 1986 which came into effect in December 1986. It works under the aegis of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution
• A new BIS Act 2016 has been brought into force with effect from October 2017.
  • The Act establishes the BIS as the National Standards Body of India.

Source: PIB