Bringing in a major law for the IT sector, the Indian government will ban all IT products, from July 3 2013, which do not carry Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) mark. The center is furthermore in no mood to make any relaxation in this rule.
The IT manufacturers are not happy with the move. They say the deadline is too short and it is impractical to stick on this dictate by July 3. Manufacturers also claim that Indian IT industry will face acute shortage of products in the coming months due to this rule.
"This policy is very good and it encourages only genuine products in the market. However, problem is the deadline. Executing this rule in this time frame is the problem. The sad thing is nobody is questing this duration," said Amar Babu, MD, Lenovo.
Once the BIS certifies a product, the company has to put the certification sticker on every box with the product, which Ramamurthy says could take 3-4 weeks.
The industry is trying hard to extend the deadline by six months.
According to JV Ramamurthy, president, MAIT, out of 1,400 products told to get BIS certification they have received only one with this certification.
Some of the products that fall under this law are tablets, laptops, plasma/LCD/LED televisions, set top boxes, optical disc players, microwave ovens, video games, printers, scanners.
Lenovo had submitted more than 70 products 5-6 months ago. The designated test lab also tested those products and provided reports for 50 products. However, none of these products have got BIS certification till now.
The government has assigned only 9 labs to dot the tests. "The labs must have thorough knowledge regarding the parameters of test and how to test. But they do not have clear awareness about these things," said Ramamurthy.
The government has reportedly taken the initiative to control he dumping of IT products in Indian industry.