Path breaking standards

ISO 1: 2002


INDIAN STANDARDS INSTITUTION (ISI)


Indian Standards Institution (ISI)-----
World Standards Day is celebrated the world over to raise awareness and focus on the need for global standardization and its role in meeting the needs of consumers, trade and industry. It is celebrated on October 14 every year to mark the foundation of the International Organization for Standardization, popularly known as the ISO.-----
It was on this day in 1946 that 25 countries met in London and decided to create an international organization with the objective of facilitating international coordination and unification of industrial standards. The ISO started functioning in 1947 with the Indian Standards Institution as one of the founder members. Over the years, the membership of ISO has gone up with 130 member countries representing developed and developing economies.-----
The Bureau of Indian Standards-----
In the twilight years of the British rule in India, when the country was faced with the gigantic task of laying the industrial infrastructure, it was the institution of Engineers (India), which prepared the first draft of the constitution of an Institution which could take up the task of formulation of National Standards. This led to the Department of Industries and Supplies issuing a memorandum on September 3, 1946 formally announcing the setting up of an organisation called the Indian Standards Institution. It was on January 6, 1947 that the ISI came into being and in June 1947 Dr. Lal C. Verman took over as its first Director. Symbolic of the role, the Indian Standards Institution (I.S.I.) was to play the first standard drawn was for the National Flag of India.-----
Considerable progress has since been made by the Indian Standards Institution with its multifarious activities like standards formulation, certification, testing of products international cooperation and standards promotion. However, a need was felt to provide recognition and status to the organisation to enable it to discharge its functions effectively. Thus the Government enacted the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986 which led to the establishment of the Bureau of Indian Standards as a statutory body on April 1, 1987.-----
Standardization is intrinsic to life and we see its many manifestations in nature and life around us. Standardization encourages improvement in the quality of life and makes major contributions to safety, public health and environment protection.-----
Standardization is based on the experiences of daily life itself. They are results of a cooperative effort, and revised from time to time to keep in step with technological progress. They provide us with a criteria for judgement, a measurement of quality and a certain guarantee of compatibility and interchangeability.-----
In the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), similar to standards bodies the world over, standards are formulated through technical committees which have representatives from the manufacturers, technical experts and users. The standards are documents of consensus which are finalized after taking the views of all those who may have an interest in it.-----
BIS plays the key role of holding the secretariat for the Technical Committees and collating and analysing the data and other information which may be required for formulating the standards. BIS has formulated nearly 17,000 standards which may be categorized as basic standards, product specifications and methods of test and codes of practices.-----
ISI Standard Mark-----
With the objective of satisfying the consumer in terms of product quality, the BIS has undertaken various quality certification activities. The domestic consumer is familiar with the ISI mark on a product which is an assurance that the product conforms to the requirements as laid down in the specification. Conformity to the standard is ensured through regular surveillance of the manufacturing process, surprise inspections and testing of samples drawn from the factory as well as from the market. Fraudulent and unauthorized use of the ISI mark is a violation of the law punishable under the BIS Act.-----
Quality Management System-----
There is a world-wide movement for installing Quality Management Systems in accordance with the IS/ISO 9000 series. In India also this has become a prime requisite for manufacturers and service sector units which wish to make an impact in the domestic and global markets. The concept of Quality Management Systems aims at quality control mechanism at every stage of a manufacturing or a service system and not just the quality of the end product as is the case with product certification.----
With the growing concern for environment-friendly industrial activity, the ISO 14,000 series of standards were developed. After adopting these standards as national standards the BIS has also launched the Environment Management System Certification under which units may demonstrate their compliance with the ISO 14000 standards. The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) Certification which again has acquired international recognition for certifying the safety of food manufacturing process has also been undertaken by the BIS. The Bureau of Indian Standards has also formulated IS 15000 : 1998 which is equivalent to the internationally accepted Codex standards.----
Product Testing-----
BIS has established a chain of laboratories at different centres in the country for testing the conformity of certified products and also samples offered by applicants for grant of ISI mark. It also offers specialized services of calibration of test equipment and instruments and procurement of standard reference materials. They also undertake research and development for evolving speedy and effective test methods.-----
As a founder member of International Organization for Standardization (ISO), BIS continues to actively participate in international standardization. As a member of the ISO Council it participates in its policy-making bodies like the Committee on Developing Country matters (DEVCO), Committee on Conformity Assessment (CASCO), Committee on Information (INFCO) and Committee on Consumer Policy (COPOLCO). Besides, it also holds secretarial responsibilities of various Technical Committees and Subcommittees and maintains participation status and observer status on most of the Technical Committees.----
BIS is also actively involved in International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and has participation status or observer on all the important Technical Committees


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Indian flag, representing India's long struggle for freedom is a national treasure. It signifies the status of India as an independent republic. The Indian National Flag came into being in its present form at the meeting of Constitutional Assembly on 22nd July 1947. Since then it has first served as the National Flag of Dominion of India from 15 August 1947 to 26 January 1950 and thereafter, National Flag of Republic of India. The Indian National Flag was designed by "Pingali Venkayya". The flag contains three equal strips of Saffron, White and Green colors respectively. The ratio of its width to its length is two is to three.

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A navy blue color "Chakra" known as 'Ashoka Chakra' having twenty-four spokes, is present in the middle of the white strip. According to standard set down by ISI (Indian Standard Institution) it should occupy seventy five percent of the space of the white strip.The National Flag is one of the most respectable national symbols. There are strict laws regarding its manufacturing and its hoisting. The official flag specifications require flag to be made up of just 'Khadi'. It is a special hand spun yarn made up of cotton, silk and wool. History
1904 History of Indian flag dates back to pre independence era. It was in 1904 that first Indian flag came into being. It was made by an Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda. Her name was Sister Nivedita and after some time this flag came to be known as Sister Nivedita's flag. This flag contained red and yellow color. Red signified freedom struggle and yellow color was a symbol of victory. It had words "Bonde Matoram" in Bengali written on it. Along with it the flag contained a figure of 'Vajra', weapon of god 'Indra', and a white lotus in the middle. The 'Vajra' is a symbol of strength and lotus depicts purity.
1906 After Sister Nivedita's flag another flag was designed in 1906. It was a tricolor flag with three equal strips of blue (top), yellow ( middle) and red ( lower) colors. In this flag blue strip had eight stars of slightly different shapes. The red strip had two symbols, first one was of sun. it was near hoist and the other one was contained a star and a crescent, near the fly. The yellow strip had 'Vande Mataram' written on it in Devnagiri script. In 1906 another version of this flag came. It was also tricolor but its colors were different. It had orange, yellow and green colors and came to be known as 'Calcutta flag' or 'Lotus flag', as it had eight half opened lotuses on it. It is believed to be designed by Sachindra Prasad Bose and Sukumar Mitra. It was unfurled on 7th August 1906 at Parsi Bagan Square, Kolkata. It was a "boycott day" against the partiton of Bengal and Sir Surendranath Banerjee hoisted this flag to mark the unity of India.
1907It is almost similar to the flag of 1906 with the exception of colors and the flower closest to hoist. This flag had three colors, blue, yellow and red and the flower was larger than others. Then came Madam Bhikaji Rustom Cama's flag. The flag was collectively designed by Madam Bhikaji Cama, Veer Savarkar and Shyamji Krishna Varma. The flag was unfurled by Madam Cama on 22nd of August 1907 at Stuttgrat, Germany, and attained the status of the first Indian flag to be hoisted at the foreign land. From this event onwards it is also referred as 'Berlin Committee flag'. The flag comsisted of three colors- the topmost being green followed by golden saffron in the middle and the red color at the bottom. It had 'Vande Mataram' inscribed on it.
1916 In 1916 Pingali Venkayya, a writer and a geophysicst, designed a flag with the intention to bring the whole nation together. He met Mahatma Gandhi and sought his approval. Mahatma Gandhi suggested him to incorporate 'Charkha' the symbole of economic regeneration of India, in the flag. Pingali made flag out of the hand spun yarn 'Khadi'. The flag had two colors and a 'Charkha' drawn across them but Mahatma Gandhi did not approve of it as he said that in red color Hindu community finds representation and in green Muslim, but all the other communities of India are not represented in this flag.
1917 The Home Rule League formed by Bal Ganga Dhar Tilak adopted a new flag in 1917. As at that time status of Dominion was being demanded for India. The flag had union jack at the top, near hoist. The rest of the flag contains five red and four blue strips. It had seven stars on it in the shape of 'Saptarishi' Constellation which is supposed to be the sacred one for the Hindus. It also had a crescent moon and a star at the top fly end. This flag did not became popular in masses.
1921 As Mahatma Gandhi wanted all the communities of India to be represented in the flag of tha nation, so a new flag was designed. This flag had three colors. At the top was white then green and at the bottom was red color. In this flag white symbolized minority communities of India, green was for Muslims and the red one was for Hindu and Sikh communities. The 'Charkha' was drawn across all the bands symbolising the unification of these communities. The pattern of this flag was based on the flag of Ireland, another nation which was struggling to get its independence from the rule of Britain. Although Congress Committee did not adopt it as its official flag but it was widely used as a symbol of nationality in India'freedom struggle.
1931 Some people were not at all happy with the communal interpretation of the flag. Keeping all this in view a new flag was designed which was of "Ochre" color. This color signified combined spirtit of both the religons as saffron was the color of Hindu yogis as well as Muslim darvesh. But Sikh community also demanded separate representation in flag or the complete abandonment of religious colors. This resulted in another flag by Pingali Venkayya. This new flag had three colors. Saffron was at the top followed by white in the middle and green being the lowermost. The 'Charkha' was at the center of white color. This flag was passed at the meeting of Congress Committee in 1931 and was adopted as the official flag of the Committee.
1947 When India got independence, a committee headed by Rajinder Prasad was formed to discuss the National Flag of India and they decided to adopt the flag of Indian National Congress, with suitable modifications, as the flag of India. As a result, the flag of 1931 was adopted as Indian flag but 'Charkha' in the middle was replaced by 'Chakra' (wheel) and hence our National Flag came into being.
Manufacturing There is a committee which sets standards for the manufacturing of the flag. It also lays out rules regarding hoisting of Indian flag. This committee is known as 'Bureaue of Indian Standards(BIS)'. It specifies the cloth, dye, color, thread count and each and every thing about the flag. The Indian flag can only be made up of 'Khadi'. It is made up of two types of khadi one for its main part and the other one for the cloth which holds flag to the staff. Code of Conduct Being a national symbol it is respected by every Indian . There are certain dos and don'ts laid down for common people regarding Indian flag
When the National Flag is raised the saffron color band should be at the top.
No flag or emblem should be placed either above the National Flag or to its right.
All other flags to be placed to the left of the National Flag if they are hung in a line.
When the National Flag is carried in a procession or parade, it shall be on the marching right or in front of the center of the line, if there is a line of other flags.
Normally the National Flag should be flown over important government buildings like the Rashtrapati Bhawan, the Parliament House, the Supreme Court of India, the High Courts, the Secretariats, the Commissioners' office etc.
The National Flag or any imitation of it must not be used for purpose of trade, business, or profession.
The National Flag should always be taken down in the evening at sunset. According to flag code of India citizens of India did not had the right to hoist the Indian flag except for some important days like Republic day, Independence day and Mahatma Gandhi's birthday. A renowned industrialist Naveen Jindal challenged this in the court as when he hoisted the flag on his office building he was told not to do so as it may be taken as a breach of code of Indian flag. Then he lodged a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) in the court now the decision of the court is pending in this regard but a temporary permission has been granted to Indian citizens to hoist the flag on any day but in a respectable manner. Some Interesting Facts
The Indian flag was hoisted on the highest mountain peak of the world, Mount Everest on 29th May 1953.
Madam Bhikaji Rustom Cama was the first person to hoist Indian flag on foreign soil on 22nd August 1907 in Stuttgrat, Germany.
The Indian National Flag flew to space in 1984 when Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma went to the space. The flag was attached as a medallion on the space suit of Rakesh Sharma..


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