Check out the most recent post on this topic: https://www.wb-indien.de/2025/03/20/neue-regelungen-zur-bis-zertifizierung-fuer-maschinen-und-anlagen/
Since January 21, 2024, numerous other steel products (bolts, nuts, fasteners) from foreign manufacturers require BIS certification for import into India. Affected export products must therefore be registered under the ISI Mark Scheme [See also: ISI symbol] must be registered and certified. However, not only the product itself must be certified, the production plant must also be audited accordingly. Retailers of affected products must request the relevant certificates from their suppliers and then include them with the delivery of goods.
- What is BIS certification, what are the licensing requirements in India, etc.? See our article “Certification for India – New nuisance or nothing to worry about?"
Most of the products that India does not yet produce or cannot produce in the appropriate quality (e.g. steels in certain grades) are not affected so far. Technology leaders in German medium-sized companies in particular may benefit from this.
However, as we predicted on the occasion of the Indian parliamentary elections, certification requirements will continue to increase in the future and more and more foreign products will be affected [See also: News: Parliamentary elections]. The aim of protecting the domestic Indian market from being flooded with cheap products, especially from the Far East, is increasingly linked to the desire to promote the country's own industry and to make foreign know-how available in India itself. In this way, India wants to reduce its dependence on foreign technology in the medium and long term ("Make in India").
Uncertainties regarding certification requirements
Many of our (medium-sized) customers are affected by the certification requirements and there is great uncertainty as to exactly what these are and to what extent.
- Would you like to know if your product is affected? [See also: Foreign Manufacturers-IHK Düsseldorf]
If the Indian regulations state, for example, "...This applies to every production site", the question arises as to what is meant by the term "production site" in this context. Is every hall of the company affected, every enclosed space that is somehow related to product production? What applies if a manufacturer has several sites? Would a so-called group certification be sufficient there? What happens if, for example, only the alloy of a steel part differs, but the product is otherwise identical in its manufacturing process? Do I then need a separate certification for each alloy? Or are there perhaps so-called "analogy certificates"?
“To be on the safe side”
Many (Indian) service providers are not yet sufficiently familiar with BIS certification, they lack experience. If compliance with the relevant regulations is taken seriously at all, foreign exporters are often recommended requirements that are completely out of touch with reality, as if in an act of "preemptive obedience". "To be on the safe side" is a phrase that is often used by European companies to sell them measures that are excessive and therefore overpriced.
As a European manufacturer, you are rarely told that there is usually a range of legal solutions and not just the most conservative one.
That's why it's important to have contacts on the right technical side. Because not only excessive measures, but also incorrect or missing ones obviously pose a risk.
Finding the right certifier for a pragmatic solution
The question of whether and by which standard you as a manufacturer are affected is one thing. The question of who checks the standard conformity is another. Finding the right inspector for you, the right certification body that will work with you to develop a pragmatic legal solution is a task that requires experience.
- We would be happy to help you find the right certification partner because we are familiar with European and Indian quality standards.
In India, laws and regulations are typically published and formally come into force before their design has been regulated in sufficient detail. The standard requirements are then adapted later in practice through guidelines. In terms of the risk of corruption, this is a sensitive period because the responsible auditors have a great deal of discretion and leeway until the standard is finally formulated.
In order to remain unassailable, it is therefore extremely important for you as a manufacturer to prepare documents meticulously in order to make the exchange with stakeholders technically comprehensible and to avoid getting into trouble by having to rely on favors.
- Do you need someone to guide you through the certification jungle in a practical way? Our senior expert Volker Klosowski, as a member of the board of TÜV Rheinland AG, helped to establish and expand large-scale testing laboratories in India.
