IT industry confident of meeting BIS deadline

An order, issued last year, makes it mandatory for certain electronic products being sold in the Indian market to comply with BIS specifications


Despite extending the deadline for implementation of the Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirement for Compulsory Registration) Order twice, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has registered only 10 per cent of the products so far. However, the industry is hopeful another extension wouldn’t be required.

On condition of anonymity, a BIS official said the department had received 225-230 product applications. Of these, 23 have been registered so far. The official added the department expected to fast-track the process by adding more officers to clear the applications.

“I don’t think we will need another extension.” the official said.

The order, issued last year, makes it mandatory for certain electronic products being

sold in the Indian market to comply with BIS specifications. These products include laptops, notebooks, tablets, desktops, printers and scanners. Earlier this year, the government had extended the deadline for implementation of the order twice.

As of now, the deadline to meet the norms is October 3. The Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology (MAIT) is confident there wouldn’t be a need to extend the deadline further. “Whatever products were to be tested have been tested. There is no additional stock or existing product that needs to be tested,” said MAIT executive director Anwar Shirpurwala.

“Now, what we are waiting for is the registration; we have worked out a mechanism with BIS under which the registrations are now being expedited. So, hopefully by the first week of September, the registrations would be done,” he added.

Conformity assessment advisor, UL India, which has been working with leading IT product manufacturers to help them meet government norms, believes there might not be a need to extend the deadline.