Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2016

Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2016 passed by the Parliament

Question: When did the Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2016 was passed by the Parliament?
(a) 8 March 2016
(b) 6 March 2016
(c) 9 March 2016
(d) 5 March 2016
Ans (a)
Related facts:

  • On 8 March 2016 Indian Parliament passed the Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2016.
  • The Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha on 8 March 2016 after getting the nod of Lok Sabha on 3rd December, 2015.
  • It is a major step forward in ensuring high quality products and services in the country.
  • Some of the salient features of the bill are:
  • The Bill empowers the Government to bring any article, process or service, which it considers necessary from point of view of health, safety, environment, prevention of deceptive practices, security etc, under the mandatory certification regime.
  • This will help consumers to get quality products and will also help in preventing import of sub-standard products;
  • In order to supplement ease of doing business by limiting unnecessary field inspections, the Bill has provisions for self-declaration of conformity of the Indian Standards for certain categories.
  • Simultaneously stringent penalty provisions have been made for violation of compliance to the standards.
  • Penalty includes imprisonment up to two years or with fine up to ten times of the value of goods produced or sold, or with both.
  • As per provisions of the bill, BIS can now order recall of products, not confirming to the standards, in addition to cancellation of the license of the manufacturer.
  • BIS can also order compensation to the consumers in case goods and services do not conform to the standards.
  • The Bill empowers the Government to implement mandatory hallmarking of precious metal articles such as Gold and Silver.
  • The Bill positions the Bureau of Indian Standards as the National Standards Body.
  • As the service sector in the country has grown and now become major part of the economy, so to ensure quality of key services such as health services, education services, now services and systems have also been included under the standardization regime in addition to articles and processes.

Reference:
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=137527
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/hindirelease.aspx?relid=46499
http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/parliament-clears-bureau-of-indian-standards-bill-2015-116030801430_1.html
http://www.newkerala.com/news/2016/fullnews-32305.html