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BIS unveils silver refinery scheme, new standards
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Friday, 16 October, 2026, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has unveiled a silver refinery certification scheme, introduced seven new Indian Standards and released standardisation roadmaps for sustainable agriculture and manufacturing to strengthen India’s quality infrastructure and support its clean energy transition.
The initiatives were announced at the national-level celebration of World Standards Day 2026 in New Delhi, organised around the theme ‘Shared Vision for a Better World: SDG 7 (Clean & Affordable Energy)’.
Addressing standardisation professionals, academicians, industry representatives and senior officials, Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, New & Renewable Energy, and Education, said quality would remain central to India’s journey towards Viksit Bharat. He highlighted the role of Indian Standards in supporting the country’s energy transition.
B L Verma, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Social Justice & Empowerment, emphasised the role of standards in improving citizens’ quality of life. Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhaniya, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, stressed the need to expand standardisation into emerging sectors while balancing industrial growth with consumer protection.
Nidhi Khare, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, highlighted the importance of standardisation in ensuring consistency in public procurement and regulation. She also emphasised preventive consumer protection through robust testing, digital enforcement and conformity assessment.
Welcoming delegates, Sanjay Garg, Director General, BIS, said standards were essential enablers of innovation, technological development and industrial competitiveness. He highlighted BIS’s digital initiatives and reforms aimed at improving ease of doing business.
The newly launched BIS Silver Refinery Scheme extends structured purity assurance and hallmarking to silver bullion and coins, establishing a national framework modelled on the existing gold refinery certification scheme.
Following an amendment to Indian Standard IS 2112:2025, silver bullion and coins with purity grades of 999.9, 999.5 and 999.0 parts per thousand have been brought within the standard’s scope, with provisions for hallmarking by BIS-licensed refineries and mints.
Under the scheme, BIS will license eligible refineries and mints after assessing their technical competence, refining processes and testing infrastructure. Licensed facilities will be authorised to apply the BIS hallmark to compliant silver bullion and coins.
The hallmark will include the BIS Standard Mark, the word ‘SILVER’, the applicable purity grade, the manufacturer’s identification mark and a unique serial number for batch traceability.
The standard also prescribes sampling and testing procedures to determine silver content, including gravimetric testing, ICP-OES and Spark-OES methods. The framework is intended to strengthen authenticity, transparency and consumer confidence across the precious metals supply chain.
BIS also launched the Digital Standard Reader, a web-based platform that converts XML-formatted Indian Standards into interactive digital standards. The platform enables users to search technical content, navigate linked references, access an in-built dictionary and translate text into Indian languages.
Available across mobile devices, tablets and desktops, the tool also includes an analytics dashboard to track usage and establishes an AI-ready repository for future digital services. The initiative is expected to make Indian Standards more accessible and easier to use across industries.
BIS announced seven new standards covering clean mobility, robotics, healthcare products, textiles and building materials. In clean energy mobility, IS 19967:2026 specifies safety, construction and testing requirements for electric vehicle charging cables operating under AC and DC charging systems. IS 19891:2026 establishes requirements for electrically power-assisted bicycles, including electrical safety, protection against overheating and anti-tampering measures.
For healthcare and assistive technologies, IS 17192 Part-6:2026 sets testing criteria for lower-limb wearable service robots used in assistance and rehabilitation. IS 19960:2026 specifies safety and structural requirements for paediatric Panchakarma Droni treatment tables, while IS 19956:2026 covers therapeutic footwear for people with diabetes and neuropathy, addressing pressure relief, moisture management and other features aimed at reducing foot ulceration risks.
In building and industrial materials, IS 19952:2026 specifies requirements for flexible plywood, including bonding grades and formaldehyde emission limits. IS 19825:2026 establishes requirements for PVC-coated fibreglass insect screens, covering mesh strength, ultraviolet resistance, flame propagation and durability.
BIS released a standardisation roadmap for sustainable agriculture developed by its Environment and Ecology Division Council. The roadmap addresses challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, land degradation, post-harvest losses and inefficient nutrient use.
Covering 15 categories, it identifies standardisation priorities in soil management, water use, agricultural inputs, emerging technologies, climate services and socioeconomic support. Aligned with the National Action Plan on Climate Change, the roadmap proposes short-term targets within one-year, medium-term priorities over two to three years and long-term initiatives over four to five years.
A separate roadmap for sustainable manufacturing identifies low-carbon technologies, resource efficiency, circular economy practices, sustainable product design, digitalisation, sustainability reporting and supply-chain management as key areas for developing standards.
BIS brought six additional academic institutions into its standardisation framework through memoranda of understanding. The institutions are IIT Ropar, NIT Manipur, NIT Meghalaya, Assam Textiles Institute, IIT Dharwad and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT).
The partnerships aim to integrate Indian Standards into academic curricula, encourage collaborative research and development, and provide internships and industry exposure. BIS said it now has 98 academic partner institutions working towards these objectives.
The bureau also published a handbook titled Good Practices for Safety in Laboratory, drawing on relevant Indian Standards, including IS 4209, IS 4906 and IS 9457. The handbook covers hazard identification, protective equipment, contamination control and safe waste disposal in chemical, radiochemical and microbiological laboratories.
Two new educational comic books on Indian Standards for toys and hallmarking were also released to promote awareness of quality and consumer protection among children. The additions take BIS’s comic book collection to 13 titles.
BIS presented Best Technical Committee Awards to 16 technical committees in recognition of their contributions to developing Indian Standards. On World Standards Day, international standardisation organisations ISO, IEC and ITU also issued a joint video message highlighting the role of shared standards in building trust, accelerating innovation and supporting sustainable trade.
BIS participates in more than 600 technical committees across ISO and IEC, contributing to international standardisation while representing India’s strategic interests.
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