India Inc must prepare to benchmark products with global standards: Senior Commerce Ministry official

New Delhi [India], December 19 : Industry must prepare products in a manner that they are all benchmarked to the best of international standards, a senior Commerce Ministry official said on Monday, noting that this is the only way to create and build a "brand India".
Speaking at the industry body Confederation of Indian Industry's 'CII Standards Conclave', Rajesh Agarwal, Additional Secretary in Department of Commerce said that standards are sometimes used as a non-tariff barrier to divert trade or control trade by some of the countries.
"But largely, these are designed keeping in mind the larger public interest and consumer interest. Therefore, if quality regulation standards are becoming the norm across the world, India must not lag behind others," the top official said at the Conclave.
The conclave witnessed the participation of several eminent panellists and marked the unveiling of the Handbook on Standards prepared by the Centre for Trade and Investment Law, IIFT.
Speaking at the event, Anil Agrawal, Additional Secretary at the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), said the role of standards and technical regulations would be critical for integration into global value chains and the same will improve if the Indian industry invests in innovation.
He said standards are the solution for current challenges and also are the way forward for achieving USD 5 trillion economy.
He spoke about the various recent initiatives taken up by the government to strengthen compliance with standards, besides mentioning that the government is looking at implementing a robust market surveillance system -- a framework has been drawn and it is in the initial stage of implementation.
Pressing the need for the industry to look at opportunities for products being imported in huge numbers, he said the industry has opportunities to augment the testing infrastructure requirement across all its domains.