The National Standards Body of India, Bureau of Indian Standards and IIT Bombay have planned to collaborate in standardisation and to develop conformity assessment through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU states that BIS will provide financial support to IIT Bombay while the institute will provide infrastructural support for R&D projects for BIS. The terms for sharing infrastructure and finances will be worked out together on the basis of requirements of projects, a statement from the institute said.

The MoU also tells that IIT Bombay will also be involved in developing technological solutions regarding activities of the Bureau which includes Conformity Assessment processes according to requirements of the regulatory body. Both of them have also agreed to appoint a common chair for Standardization and Conformity Assessment. The MoU was signed between and Surina Rajan, IAS, Director General, BIS and Prof. Devang V. Khakhar, Director, IIT Bombay.

Professor Khakhar during a joint address said that IIT Bombay and BIS has been associated together for a long time and an MoU for standardisation would strengthen the collaboration further. He further added that such joint collaborations would pave the way of Indian industries for the western market. Surina Rajan, Director General BIS, spoke about the significance of new areas such as ‘5G application layer standardization’, whereas BIS has set examples in ISO/IEC. Ms. Rajan further added that our country should get involved more with premium technological institutions to become a ‘standard maker’ from a ‘standard taker’. She also emphasised the involvement of young minds in the domain of standardisation.