As a follow-up to 4th National Standards Conclave, Commerce & Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman took review meeting of all the relevant ministries, regulators and organizations today. The purpose of the meeting was to address the regulatory deficit in various product categories in the country. The Minister reviewed participation of experts in international setting bodies and their contribution in appropriate standards setting in the sectors that are important/relevant to India. Smt. Sitharaman assigned both short term and medium term agenda to line ministries for further follow up on the issues that were discussed and coordinate with Department of Commerce for time bound progress in issuing a new regulation and upgrading current ones.

It was noted with concern that non-tariff barriers in other countries on one hand cause suffering to our exporters, whereas on the other hand without adequate technical regulations in the country, our domestic consumers, indigenous industry and largely, economy suffers due to import of sub-standard and unsafe products. This has caused severe damage to our domestic manufacturing over the years and has led to tremendous loss of jobs.

Regulatory framework strengthening: time bound issuance and upgrade of technical regulations to curb substandard imports and protect industry. The ministerial review directed line ministries to coordinate with the Department of Commerce for time-bound issuance of new technical regulations and upgrades, stressing that inadequate domestic regulations allow substandard imports that damage domestic manufacturing, industry and employment.