Technical Information Services

 The world trade is growing bigger day by the day and with it comes the increased number of standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures. The exporters and importers, user organizations & Government agencies are today faced with lack of information / clarity on the above. 

Well, the help is at hand. 

The Technical Information Services Centre of BIS offers a range of services and publications as enumerated below: 

  • WTO-TBT Enquiry Point: The Government of India, Ministry of Commerce has designated BIS as the WTO-TBT Enquiry Point under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
  • Technical Enquiries: The Centre also acts as a national clearing house for information on standards, technical regulations, conformity assessment procedures and related matters. The professional staff of the Centre responds to enquiries received telephonically, personally, through letters, fax, e-mail, etc both from within and outside India on related subjects such as existence, applicability and correspondence of standards on a product, requirements therein, technical regulations applicable in a country, etc.  (website email address: info@bis.org.in ).
  • WTO TBT Notification: Ministry of Commerce notifies the proposed technical regulations, Standards & Conformity Assessment Procedures to WTO, Geneva. Parties in other member countries wishing to make comments on the above notifications can obtain copies of the text from the Enquiry Point. 

The WTO Secretariat compiles the notifications about proposed overseas technical regulations and certification requirements received from the countries which are signatories to the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). The WTO-TBT notifications can be accessed directly from the WTO website (www.wto.org). However to provide the interested organizations and individuals an opportunity to review and comment on notifications which can affect their trade interests, the WTO TBT Enquiry Point electronically disseminates the TBT Notifications to the national stakeholders. Besides, BIS also publishes abstracts of these notifications in Standards Monthly Additions. Copies of the text of the notifications can also be obtained from the WTO website or from WTO-TBT Enquiry Point, International Relations & Technical Information Services Deptt. (IR&TISD), Bureau of Indian Standards, Manak Bhavan, 9 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi-110 002 or email at info@bis.org.in . The number of the concerned TBT Notification should be stated in the request. Comments on the documents should be sent to the Enquiry Point as soon as possible preferably a fortnight before the expiry of the period of comments. The comments would be communicated to the Ministry of Commerce for onward transmission to the concerned Government.

BIS has also accepted the Code of Good Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of Standards. In order to fulfill the resultant obligations, BIS provides a detailed Work Programme for each of the 14 Division Councils (under which standards are formulated) and these are updated periodically. The Work Programme, besides giving scope of Division Council and Sectional Committees, contains committee-wise position of standards published and draft standards (like preliminary, wide circulation and finalized draft standards) at different stages of preparation. The copies of Work Programme (and also of wide circulation drafts for comments during the wide circulation period) and are also available on the BIS website www.bis.org.in .

The Work Programme is updated through Standards Monthly Additions (SMA), a monthly publication which contains information on standards published (new and revised), Dual number standards, amendments to standards, draft standards for comments, standards withdrawn and standards proposed for withdrawal upto 15th of the preceding month. LIST OF WIDE CIRCULATION DRAFTS FOR COMMENTS

  • ISONET ACTIVITIES: BIS is a permanent Member of INFCO and ISONET. The member bodies of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have entered into an Agreement by which each of them receives information about new standards published by other members as well as their information bulletins and catalogues. BIS, as an ISONET member, makes available such information to Indian exporters and industry regularly. 
  • WMI CODE: BIS has also been entrusted with assigning the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI) Code to Indian Automobile Manufacturers exporting vehicles to the international market. The Code is assigned to vehicle manufacturer in order to allow identification of the manufacturers and when used in conjunction with the remaining sections of Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), ensures uniqueness of the VIN for all vehicles as manufactured in the world. Technical Information Services Centre of BIS provides the service of assigning WMI Code to Indian automobile manufacturers engaged in exports. BIS charges a nominal fee of Rs 5000/- + 10.3 % service tax for this service.  (Documents required for getting the WMI code) . 
  • IIN NUMBER: ISO/IEC 7812 specifies a numbering system for the identification of issuers of identification cards used in international interchange. BIS, as the National Standards Body, is responsible for issue of Issuer Identification Numbers (IIN) to various card issuers for operation within the country. For Card issuers involving international interchange, BIS acts as the sponsoring authority to sponsor the application of Card Issuers to the Registering Authority appointed by ISO. BIS charges a nominal fee of Rs 5000/- + 10.3% service tax for this service. (Documents required for getting the IIN number)
  • RID CODE: Registered Application Provider Identifier (RID) is a part of an Application Identifier (AID), which is structured and assigned according to ISO/IEC 7816-5 and consists of two parts

a) The RID, and
b) Proprietary Application Identifier Extension (PIX) used to identify different applications or products.

In a multi-application environment, an application provider needs to be able to uniquely identify itself and its application in the card and the terminal needs to be able to support the application.

In case application is to be used internationally, one needs to apply for an international RID. Each Application Provider is assigned one unique RID. The Application Provider uses the PIX to identify its different applications or products.

To obtain an international ISO/IEC 7816-5 RID, a completed request for a Registered Application Provider Identifier should be sent to Bureau of Indian Standards along with registration fee. After verifying the request, the same is approved and forwarded to Registration Authority. BIS charges a fee of Rs 5000/- + 12.36% service tax for this service.

To obtain service or any related information about the above services, please contact: Head (IR&TISD), Bureau of Indian Standards, Manak Bhawan, 9 B.S.Z Marg, New Delhi – 110 002 or email at info@bis.org.in .

UPDATE BULLETINS 

To keep the industry and users abreast with the latest developments in standardization and quality systems, BIS brings out a number of update bulletins to cater to the requirements of various segments of industry and users. "Standards India" and "Manakdoot" (in Hindi) are house magazines. "Standards World-over Monthly Additions" and "Current Published Information on Standardization" serve as basic source of information on new standards and developments in the field of standardization all over the world. "Standards Monthly Additions (SMA)" contains information on standards published (new and revised), Dual no. standards, amendments to standards, draft standards for comments, standards withdrawn and standards proposed for withdrawal upto 15th of the preceding month. "BIS Catalogue" is catalogue of all Indian Standards. 

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