Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & PD, Ram Vilas Paswan inaugurates celebration of 60th ‘World Standard Day’ by Bureau of Indian Standards; Says BIS must become synonymous with trust & take the lead in setting global standards

New Delhi: Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan inaugurated the celebrations of ‘World Standard Day’ by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) on the theme “Video Standards create a global stage” in New Delhi today. The theme is highly relevant in the Indian context as India is the fastest growing entertainment and media market globally and is expected to keep up the momentum by growing at a compounded annual growth rate of more than 11%. With this spectacular growth, media and entertainment industry in India will become a Rs. 4,51,373 crore industry by 2023.

Delivering his Presidential address, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan congratulated everyone on the occasion of 60th ‘World Standards Day’ and appreciated the efforts of all officials of BIS and said that we have some of the best laboratories in the world. The Minister encouraged that BIS must take the lead in making global standards & benchmarks and it should look for ways and means to become synonymous with trust and quality. Paswan said that he has been closely monitoring the work of BIS in minute details and it is quite important on multiple levels but their work does not get the appreciation it rightly deserves. The Minister asked officials to suitably highlight their work and also spread more awareness among the masses about BIS and quality products.

Talking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of providing tap water to all households by 2024 Paswan said that BIS, which sets quality standards for piped water, has a huge role to play in this regard. The Minister talked about the quality of Delhi water and said that the Ministry is awaiting the final report of the 11 samples collected from various places in Delhi and once the report is out it will be made public. Paswan said that it is the right of every citizen to get clean drinking water and asserted that nobody, especially the poor people who do not have access to water filters, should fall ill or become victims of water borne diseases. He further said that the Ministry will come out with Water Quality Rankings beginning with 100 Smart Cities and all State Capitals in the next 3 months and this will be extended to all districts in 6 months. Paswan said that access to clean drinking water will become a popular movement. The Minister further said that he has written to all State Chief Ministers to make drinking water Standards mandatory for tap water.

Paswan also spoke about how BIS should create Standards that are strong and perfect. Taking the example of the Election Commission and how it curtailed the use of Money and Muscle power in Elections and improved its own stature and independence, Paswan exhorted BIS to work on similar lines. The Minister said that during Diwali a lot of sub-standard products enter the Indian market and our standards are not being implemented and that we should together work out a way for taking things forward for making Indian Standards valuable.

Delivering the keynotes address Secretary, Consumer Affairs Avinash K Srivastava highlighted the road map for BIS including ‘One Nation One Standard’, working on reducing ‘Single Use Plastic’, enforcing standards for piped drinking water, implementing Gold Hallmarking etc. Srivastava congratulated all the scientists who have been promoted in BIS and said that it was a long pending demand which has now been fulfilled and further assured all other scientists that their hard work and determination will continue to be rewarded by the Government.

The Director General of BIS, Rohit Kumar Parmar delivering the welcome address after the lamp lighting ceremony said Standardisation of products play a key role. He said that the theme of the 60th World Standards Day is very relevant as mobile phones and other electronic devices and IT has boosted video production and it is estimated that by 2020, 80% of all internet traffic will be consumed by ‘Video Streaming Data’. There will be technical sessions and panel discussions later in the day which will be an enriching experience for the participants with many eminent speakers addressing them.