Shri Pramod Kumar Tiwari, Director General, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) said that standards set benchmarks for quality, thereby ensuring availability of high quality products to all consumers. Addressing the media in New Delhi today, Mr. Tiwari underlined the importance of the Quality Control Orders (QCOs) issued by the Government of India recently for footwear and other products.

The BIS DG said that the QCO will be made applicable from July 1, 2023, for 24 footwear products falling under footwear made of leather and other materials and footwear made of all polymeric and all rubber materials. Thereafter, BIS license will become mandatory for manufacturing, importing or selling products under these QCOs. However, manufacturers will be given another six months till January 1, 2024, to comply with the 5 standards as per the revised specifications. These standards were recently revised.

Shri Tewari said that standards for footwear products are developed only after consultation with representatives of trade and industry bodies, consumer organizations and other relevant stakeholder groups with the objective of ensuring quality and authenticity.

He said that with a view to facilitate compliance for small and micro enterprises, the implementation date would be January 1, 2024 and July 1, 2024, respectively. He also informed that testing facilities have been created at two BIS laboratories, two Footwear Design & Development Institute (FDDI) laboratories and Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), while 11 private laboratories have been accredited for footwear testing. Notably, the government has recently announced an 80 per cent reduction in testing fee for footwear products under QCO for certified start-ups and micro industrial units.

The BIS DG also informed that the Ministry of Textiles had issued the Geo Textiles (Quality Control) Order, 2023 and the Protective Textiles (Quality Control) Order, 2023 on 10 April 2023. He said that 19 geo textile products and 12 protective textile products are being brought under mandatory BIS certification from 10 October 2023.

Shri Tiwari emphasized that the latest initiative of BIS ‘Public Call Facility’ is a proactive initiative of BIS towards making the process of standardization more inclusive. He said that modern communication techniques are being leveraged to invite views, feedback, suggestions etc. from all the stakeholders. For this purpose, a virtual dialogue platform has been created, which will be open from 10 am to 11 am on all working days. Anyone can join the ‘Public Call Facility’ through the VC link- https://tinyurl.com/PublicCF .

Discussing the initiatives of BIS, Shri Tiwari informed that BIS has recently launched Manak Rath, an online exchange forum for mentors and students of Standard Clubs. The objective of this initiative is to groom students as brand ambassadors of quality. The Standard Chariot will be used for conducting quiz, standard writing and other competitions on science and quality topics for the students of Standard Clubs.

In addition, Standard Chariot will provide a facility for an online classroom which will provide access to lesson plans under Learning Science through Standard Initiative, informative videos and live classes of experts.

Shri Tiwari said that Manak Rath also has a dedicated section for interesting and informative articles for continuous learning of students and mentors. In addition, students and mentors can also share their experiences with others through Standard Chariot, which can be accessed through www.exchangeforum.bis.gov.in . He said that the Manak Rath also has a wonderful photo and video gallery of various activities.

The recently released BIS theme song ‘Manak Geet’ was also played during the press conference.