The Centre has issued mandatory quality norms for nuts, bolts and fasteners to curb the import of sub-standard goods and enhance quality of the domestically manufactured products.

The Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Union Ministry of Commerce, on 21 July, notified Quality Control Orders (QCOs) for nuts, fasteners and bolts.

The QCOs shall come into force six months from the date of publication of the notification. In addition to development of a quality ecosystem in India, these QCOs will also ensure public health and safety of the consumers.

While QCO shall be mandatory for Small Enterprises in 9 months, the same shall be effective for Micro Enterprises in 12 months, the order said.

The QCO mandates compulsory certification under IS Standard for the products manufactured for domestic market or imported into India.

While Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Standards are voluntary in nature, QCO is a mandatory certification scheme, whereby compliance to specified list of Indian Standards applicable to the concerned product is made compulsory by the Central Government.

Rising Demand

Nuts and Bolts are type of industrial fasteners used in various products, machines, structures, etc. There are many industries producing these nuts and bolts of various sizes, but the demand too is increasing day by day.

The versatile nature of the nuts and bolts used in every industry including domestic use has fueled the growth of the nuts and bolts making business in India considering the easy and indigenously available raw material for the product.

Asia alone is expected to give a major boom to the nuts and bolts businesses in the next 4-5 years adding up about $7.5 billion to the fastener manufacturing industry as well.

Many Indian nuts and bolts manufacturers have managed to influence and put their mark on global platform due to high market potential of the nuts and bolts making business.

The mounting demands of the automobiles and the construction industries are expected to expand the global nuts and bolts making business by 5.5 per cent by the year 2026.

The latest initiative, coupled with development quality testing labs, product manuals etc. shall aid in the development of a quality ecosystem in India.

IS Standard

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