Quality control and India’s manufacturing growth
India's Quality Control Order (QCO) regime, which mandates BIS certification for a growing list of products, is being reassessed amid a changing global trade environment.
QCOs, issued under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act, 2016, make compliance with Indian Standards compulsory for specified products before they can be manufactured, imported, or sold in India.
As of early 2025, BIS had notified 187 Quality Control Orders covering 769 products under compulsory certification, a sharp expansion from just over a hundred a decade earlier.
In June 2026, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) notified the Transition Facilitation (Quality Control) Order, 2026, easing compliance timelines for manufacturers and importers transitioning into QCO-covered categories such as electrical appliances, toys, footwear, and air conditioners.
The discussion centres on whether the QCO framework should evolve further to balance domestic quality/manufacturing goals against India's trade-facilitation obligations.
Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 and Quality Control Orders
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is India's national standards body, and BIS-formulated Indian Standards are voluntary by default. Under Section 16 of the BIS Act, 2016, the central government (through the concerned administrative ministry, in consultation with BIS) can issue a Quality Control Order making conformity to a specified Indian Standard compulsory for a product, backed by mandatory BIS certification/licensing before manufacture, sale, or import.
Key Details
- QCOs are issued by sectoral ministries/departments (e.g., DPIIT, Ministry of Steel, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers) in consultation with BIS, not by BIS alone.
- Violation of a QCO is a criminal offence under the BIS Act, 2016, with penalties including imprisonment and fines, unlike the largely civil-consequence regime for voluntary standards.
- The number of QCOs in force has grown substantially over the past decade, extending compulsory certification to sectors like steel, chemicals, electronics, toys, and electrical appliances.
The QCO "reset" being discussed is precisely about how this Section 16 power should be exercised going forward, both to protect consumers/domestic industry and to avoid becoming an unjustifiable trade barrier.
WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)
The WTO's Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) permits member countries to set technical regulations and standards for legitimate objectives — such as consumer safety, health, and prevention of deceptive practices — but requires that such regulations not be more trade-restrictive than necessary and be notified to the WTO's TBT Committee. Trading partners have periodically flagged India's expanding QCO regime as a potential technical barrier under this framework.
Key Details
- India, as a WTO member, is obligated to notify draft QCOs to the WTO TBT Committee before implementation to allow other members to comment.
- Critics of rapid QCO expansion argue it can function as a de facto non-tariff barrier, raising compliance costs disproportionately for smaller exporters/importers, including MSMEs.
- The 2026 Transition Facilitation Order is a policy response aimed at easing compliance timelines, partly to address these trade-friction concerns.
The article's framing of the QCO "reset" needing to "go further in a changing global trade order" directly references this tension between domestic standards enforcement and WTO TBT-consistent trade practice.
QCOs and India's Manufacturing/Make in India Strategy
QCOs function as a complementary policy instrument to schemes like the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme and Make in India, by curbing the entry of substandard or dumped imports, thereby indirectly supporting domestic manufacturers who must comply with the same quality standards. This dual purpose — consumer protection and quality-linked import substitution — is often cited as the economic rationale for expanding QCO coverage rapidly since 2014-15.
Key Details
- PLI schemes (launched from 2020 onward) targeted 14 sectors including electronics, telecom, and white goods — sectors where QCOs have also expanded most rapidly.
- QCOs are sometimes described as a "non-tariff" complement to tariff-based protection, since they apply equally to domestic and imported goods but are harder for foreign suppliers unfamiliar with Indian certification to meet quickly.
- The Transition Facilitation Order, 2026 allows eligible companies a regulated interim window to supply BIS-conforming products while completing full certification, reducing sudden supply disruption.
The op-ed's core argument — that the QCO framework should evolve to keep supporting manufacturing growth without becoming counter-productive — sits at the intersection of these three concepts: standards law, WTO obligations, and industrial policy.
- Legal basis: Section 16, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act, 2016.
- As of March 2025: 187 QCOs in force, covering 769 products.
- Transition Facilitation (Quality Control) Order, 2026 notified by DPIIT via Gazette Notification S.O. 3417(E), dated 25 June 2026.
- Sectors most affected by the 2026 transition order: toys, air conditioners, compressors, footwear, and electrical appliances.
- QCOs must be notified to the WTO TBT Committee before implementation.