Friday, July 26, 2013: As electronics and its manufacturing takes centrestage in India, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) is in the process of coming up with a proposal, which will provide financial support to state governments and state government-run academic institutions for setting up testing laboratories for electronic goods.
The move comes at a time when more than 15 Indian and overseas manufacturers of high-end electronics need to get their products tested and registered with the Bureau of Indian Standards. The extended deadline for this is October 3.
At present, India has nine BIS-recognised laboratories that handle testing of over 1,500 different models. “We are working on a proposal for financial support to government-run institutions. This will not cover private companies willing to set up laboratories for the moment,” says Asha Nangia, Additional Director of the department.
The investment for the implementation of these proposals is in excess of Rs 500,00,000 per laboratory. Interestingly, Anil Chawla, Director has already ruled out any extension of the 3 October deadline to get BIS registration. ”As of today, there is not going to be any further extension of the deadline. We feel manufacturers have been given adequate time and there is adequate capacity with the existing laboratories today,” he said.
It’s not as if no work has been done on the requirements of the proposal. Laboratories have already received and tested 1,100 models and have sent reports out on the same as well. Chawla said he was confident that the laboratories would complete reports on the remaining models well before the 3 October deadline.
The electronics under the scanner include items like the plasma/LCD/LED televisions of screen size over 81.2-cm (32-inch), laptop/notebooks/tablets, electronic games, microwave ovens, wireless keyboards, printers, electronic musical systems with input power of over 200 W and set top boxes.
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