State to set up lab at city IIT to certify electronic goods

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury

Bhubaneswar, Jan 9:

The state government has decided to set up an Electronics Product Quality Lab to issue BIS number to new electronic products at IIT, Bhubaneswar.

Under the Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirement of Compulsory Registration) Order, 2012, manufacturers and traders dealing in electronic goods will now have to get their products certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). It has 15 consumer electronic goods under its ambit, including computer games, laptops and CD players.

“Manufacturers who want to sell electronic wares have to get their products tested at BIS-approved labs and get a registration number from the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), which will finance the state government to set up the lab,” said an official of the IT department.

IT secretary Madhu Sudan Padhi has recently intimated the DeitY to set up the lab at IIT being set up at Argul, on the outskirts of the capital city.

The Centre had passed an order to issue BIS number to the manufacturers in July, 2013 to control the sale of substandard electronic goods.

Electronic goods consumption in the country is expected togo up from $45 billion in 2008-09 to $400 billion by 2020. The estimated production will reach USD 104 billion by the year 2020, creating a gap of USD 296 billion between demand and production. This creates a unique opportunity for companies in the Electronic System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) sector to look at India as their next destination to cater to the domestic Indian demand as well as act as an exports hub.

The amount spent on the import of such goods will exceed that on importing crude oil and this order is the first step towards ensuring their quality, said sources.

While some manufacturers claim to be currently following global standards, there was a need for India-specific guidelines, he explained.