The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with IIT Guwahati, IIT Gandhinagar, and NIT Calicut to establish 'BIS Standardization Chair Professor' positions at these institutes.
This is an initiative to institutionalise its engagement with the country's eminent institutes in order to secure active participation of academia in standards formulation and to make teaching of Indian standards an integral part of the curriculum.
The BIS Standardization Chair was established to conduct research and development, as well as teach and train people in the field of Standardization and Conformity Assessment in the country, with a focus on Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, Earthquake Engineering, Development and Management of Water Resources and Renewable Energy Projects, Infrastructure Development, Medical Biotechnology & Nanotechnology, Biomaterials, and other areas. This will encourage excellence and leadership in teaching as well as research and development in science and other disciplines.
Pramod Kumar Tiwari, Director General, BIS, stated on this occasion that the MoUs between the premier academic institutes and BIS would strengthen and enhance the standards formulation activity by facilitating R&D projects, encouraging young minds to participate in the standardization process, and jointly organizing seminars, conferences, workshops, symposia or lectures, training, and short-term education programmes.
He also emphasized the importance of working with start-ups and incubation centres at academic institutions to develop new standards and ensure compliance with existing ones. He also expressed his hope that technological innovation and standard development would be seamlessly intertwined to promote development.
Prof. Parameswar K. Iyer, Officiating Director of IIT Guwahati; Prof Rajat Moona, Director of IIT Gandhinagar; and Prof Prasad Krishna, Director of NIT Calicut (connected through VC) all expressed their support for this initiative and consented to move forward with the close cooperation with BIS.
