India has reportedly undertaken one of its most extensive standards overhauls in recent years, withdrawing 22 quality control orders (QCOs) over the past month while introducing upgraded technical norms across telecom networks, fibre optics, lifts, domestic gas stoves and cybersecurity. The dual measures aim to reduce compliance burdens on industry, particularly smaller manufacturers while modernising India’s standards regime in line with global benchmarks.
The rollback has centred on petrochemical intermediates used in downstream industries such as plastics, polymers, textiles and engineering, where mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification was proving difficult to obtain and threatened to disrupt supply chains. QCOs make adherence to specified Indian Standards mandatory and require manufacturers and importers to secure BIS licences and use the ISI mark, a framework that trade partners and industry bodies have often criticised as a non-tariff barrier when applied to basic industrial raw materials. As per recent government notifications, the withdrawal of another seven chemical QCOs has brought the total number of items covered by mandatory norms down to about 736, even though the Centre had earlier considered extending QCOs to hundreds more products.
Further, officials said these rescissions were executed in the public interest following consultations with BIS and a Niti Aayog-led committee, which cautioned that rigid certification requirements were raising costs for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) heavily dependent on imported inputs. The move also follows concerns flagged in the United States Trade Representative’s National Trade Estimate report over India’s extensive use of QCOs in plastics and chemical supply chains. Industry analysts expect the easing of import certification on key petrochemicals to reduce raw-material costs, cut port delays and improve working-capital cycles for user industries including packaging, coatings, textiles and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products.
In parallel, BIS has issued a series of revised and newly introduced standards across critical infrastructure and digital sectors, replacing norms that in some cases were more than two decades old. Recent notifications include updated specifications for fibre-optic connectors and transmission equipment, cybersecurity protocols such as secure time-stamping, and safety requirements for lift, including evacuation lifts in high-rise buildings along with upgraded standards for domestic gas appliances. Many of these align with ISO and IEC benchmarks for telecom, internet of things (IoT) and digital systems, a shift trade experts say will simplify certification for imported equipment while enabling Indian manufacturers to better meet export-market requirements.
Moreover, policy advisers view the combination of withdrawing hard-to-implement QCOs and tightening norms in areas where safety and reliability are crucial as a more balanced regulatory approach. Testing laboratories and conformity-assessment bodies expect increased demand as companies transition to the updated telecom, fibre, lift and gas-stove standards, even as chemical and polymer-based industries adjust to a more liberalised import-certification environment. With India deploying millions of kilometres of fibre and preparing for denser 5G networks and initial 6G trials, officials argue that modern, globally harmonised standards are essential to bridge the gap between domestic norms and those followed in advanced telecom markets.
