Explanation:

Parliament passed this law to replace the BIS Act of 1986. It was brought into force with effect from 12th October, 2017.

Highlights of the act:

National standards body: The Act establishes the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as the National Standards Body of India.

Compulsory certification: The Act has enabling provisions for the Government to bring under compulsory certification regime any goods or article of any scheduled industry, process, system or service which it considers necessary in the public interest or for the protection of human, animal or plant health, safety of the environment, or prevention of unfair trade practices, or national security.

Hallmarking: Enabling provisions have also been made for making hallmarking of the precious metal articles mandatory.

Simplified conformity: The new Act also allows multiple type of simplified conformity assessment schemes  including self-declaration of conformity against a standard which will give simplified options to manufacturers to adhere to the standards and get certificate of conformity.

Authority for verification: The Act enables the Central Government to appoint any authority/agency, in addition to the BIS, to verify the conformity of products and services to a standard and issue certificate of conformity.

Repair or recall: There is also a provision for repair or recall, including product liability of the products bearing Standard Mark but not conforming to the relevant Indian Standard.