BUREAU OF INDIAN STANDARDS (BIS)

About:

• Status: It is a statutory body established in 1987 under the BIS Act 1986. It replaced the Indian Standards Institution (ISI), a body set up under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
  
  
• Parent ministry: Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
  
  
• HQ: New Delhi.
  
  
• Objective: BIS is the National Standard Body of India for achieving harmonious development of the activities of standardization, certification marking and quality certification of goods.
  
  
• Functions: BIS is involved in various activities such as Standards Formulation, Product Certification Scheme, Hall Marking Scheme, Laboratory Services etc.
  
  

Benchmarking of services:

• To ensure quality in the services sector, BIS has decided to establish a framework for quality services and benchmarks to deal with consumer complaints
  
  
• For this, a separate ‘divisional council’ for services will be setup. Under this, technical committees will be set up for each service, having representation from govt. and industry.
  
  
• The initial focus will be the 12 champion services sectors identified by the government (which includes IT, tourism, transport, finance services, legal services etc).
  
  
• Need for benchmarking of services: According a survey by ‘Local Circles’ –
  • In the absence of defined customer service standards in the country, a majority of consumers were not happy with after-sales services.
    
    
  • Customer service numbers of many companies do not work.