Centre is actively considering the possibility to bring gold bullion under compulsory certification to improve quality. With the HUID (Hallmark Unique Identification) mandate for gold jewellery kicking in from the 1st of April, Director General of the Bureau Of Indian Standards (BIS), Pramod Kumar Tiwari feels that there shouldn't be any problem in implementing the order as jewellers were given a period of over one and a half years to comply. Only 43,000 jewellers were registered when HUID hallmark became mandatory and in July 2021, Centre had asked them to clear the existing gold stock.

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With around 16,000 jewellers clearing prior stocks, Tiwari said that he doesn't feel there will be any problem in implementing the order as jewellers were given a period of over one and a half years to comply. It is also likely that the government will bring in a mandate to imprint or emboss the weight of the gold being sold in the retail market. With old hallmarked gold jewellery already present in large numbers with the general public, Tiwari clarified that they won't be impacted as HUID is valid only for sellers and not common consumers.

To facilitate and encourage domestic manufacturing of freight containers, BIS has formulated standards for use of weather resistant steel for which it has requested the Ministry of Shipping and Waterways to mandate implementation of standards. Concor has informed the BIS that 15 to 20 manufacturers are registered for manufacture of containers, including SAIL and Jindal Steel which have already taken licenses to manufacture weather resistant steel.

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With a list of 650 products shared with ministries for compulsory certification, Tiwari said that India will have 400 to 500 more products under compulsory certification in another 2 to 3 months. He stated that Indian experts are leading working groups at the IEC in almost all emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain and computer brain mapping; as India aims to to host the ISO General Assembly meeting in 2025 and IEC General Assembly meeting in 2027.

While the government has taken up the ambitious exercise of mapping standards against all the government schemes and programs under the National climate action plan, an inventory of important standards, standards under development and proposed standards will be prepared. While 88 percent of Indian Standards have been harmonised with their ISO and IEC counterparts, BIS is looking for standardisation at the outset for emerging technologies, like the audit of audit of blockchain systems and making educational degrees tamper-proof. Even for many existing practices and businesses, standards are being prepared or being proposed.

Tiwari said that the Department of Financial Services (DFS) has asked the RBI to adopt financial security standards, while the BIS has been working on standardising botanical names, trade names, properties of medicines and health informatics for AYUSH. Standards for yoga mats, system standards for centres and cleanliness standards for street vendors are also being prepared, even as the BIS is looking to address lack of standard practices for operation of lifts for which only 11 states have certification authorities as of now.

17 standards on herbs under publication while 17 have already been published.

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First Published:Mar 28, 2023 7:59 PM IST