- What is the current state of testing labs in India?
When government came up with National Policy on Electronics in 2012 for promoting manufacturing of Electronics in India, they announced the “Compulsory Registration Order 2012 (CRO)” for mandatory testing of Electronic products manufactured or being imported to India. Till date Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) have brought 30 products including Biometric Scanners and Power Adapters under it.
As per the Order, no person shall manufacture or store for sale, import, sell or distribute goods which do not conform to the Indian Standard specified in the Order. Manufacturers of these products are required to apply for registration from Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) after getting their product tested from BIS recognized labs.
So, multiple labs have been set up including one by UL for testing of Electronic products as per Indian Standards. Many of these labs are now equipped with testing of Electronic Security Products.
Last year DGS&D came up with Rate Contract for CCTV and Adhaar based Fingerprint Scanner and Adhaar based Attendance machine. For registration in DGS&D for Rate contracts testing from NABL approved lab is mandatory and hence multiple labs upgraded themselves for testing of these equipment.
- What are the challenges and opportunities in Testing Lab segment?
Challenges for Testing labs are that since Indian Standards for Security Equipment is not mandatory and hence very few brands go for it. It is a misfortune that till date for most of the requirements, we are dependent on International Standards.
With Govt. intend to make Indian Standards mandatory, sooner or later all Electronic Security Product including CCTV, Alarms, etc. will be covered under CRO and the labs will have huge inflow from all brands to get their products tested as per Indian Standards.
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- How government can help Testing Labs?
As per National Policy on Electronics, already government has announced 75% subsidy if Electronic testing lab is setup in Cluster in any of the Electronic Clusters across India. This scheme brings in huge opportunity for Electronic Security industry to come up together as Cluster and put up labs for testing of products and take Indian Security industry to next level.
- How industry can benefit from quality and standards Testing labs?
The sooner the CRO is implemented on Electronic Security Products, it would help in controlling the inflow of cheap low cost imported products. It would help in making Security industry more organized. In most of the government purchases, different standards are being demanded, with Indian Standard in place, this confusion can be avoided. It will also bring in level playing field for Indian Electronic Security products manufacturers against imported products.
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