PIB Summary- 15th October, 2022 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

Bureau of Indian Standards

Why in News?
On the occasion World Standards Day, Bureau of Indian Standards, Mumbai  organized a Standards Conclave –“Manak Mahotsav” based on the theme ‘Standards for Sustainable Development Goals – A Shared Vision for a Better World’.

About BIS

• The Bureau of Indian Standards is the national Standards Body of India working under the aegis of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India.
• It is established by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986 which came into effect on 23 December 1986.
• The Minister in charge of the Ministry or Department having administrative control of the BIS is the ex-officio President of the BIS.
• The BIS Act, 1986 provides for the establishment of a Bureau for the harmonious development of the activities of standardization, marking and quality certification of goods and for connected matters.
• BIS has its Headquarters at New Delhi. 
• The Vision of BIS is to be the leader in all matters concerning Standardization, Certification and Quality.
• BIS thereby plays a very important role in the economic development of the country.
• BIS also operates Certification Schemes that assure quality, safety and reliability to the users.
• The BIS Product Certification Scheme is one of the largest in the world .
• BIS gives utmost thrust for safeguarding and protecting consumer interest.
• BIS has well laid down mechanisms and procedures to address public grievances related to consumer complaints against BIS services and ISI marked products.

Statutory Framework of BIS

• The Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016, has been implemented since 12 October 2017.
• The highlights of the new BIS Act are as follows;-
• Allows multiple conformity assessment schemes in line with global practices.
• Enables the Government to authorize any agency apart from BIS to certify and enforce conformity to a standard.
• Enables the Government to include products under mandatory certification on grounds of health, safety, environment, national security and prevention of deceptive practices.
• Enables the Government to bring Hallmarking of precious metal articles under mandatory certification.
• Provides consumer protection measures like recall of non-conforming standard marked products, compensation to the consumer and more stringent penal provisions.

United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress

Why in News?
Experts discussed how the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF), which provide a basis for developing, integrating, strengthening, and maximizing geospatial information management in all countries, could help supporting sustainable development and the well-being of society as well as overcoming challenges of the global village like flood, earthquake, pandemic, energy, digital security and so on at the 2nd UN World Geospatial Information Congress

What is UNWGIC?

• In 2018, Deqing, Zhejiang Province, China hosted the inaugural World Geospatial Information Congress of the United Nations.
• The UNWGIC is organised every four years by the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM).
• It is hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of India.
• The goals are to improve global cooperation between Member States and pertinent stakeholders in the management and capabilities of geospatial information.
• The theme of UNWGIC 2022 is ‘Geo-Enabling the Global Village: No one should be left behind’.

Objectives of UNWGIC

• The initiative intends to offer reliable and high-quality geospatial data to serve national and international policy goals.
• Additionally, it emphasises global coordination and cooperation in the creation of geospatially connected human data.
• It supports social growth and wellbeing, tackles environmental and climate change issues, and embraces technological advances.

Advantages of geospatial technology

• Geospatial technology can be used to create intelligent maps and models which help to collect geographically referenced data.
• Decisions based on the value and importance of resources, most of which are limited, can become easy through geospatial technology.
• Intelligent maps and models can be created using geospatial technology.
• It can be used to reveal spatial patterns hidden in large amounts of data that are complex to access collectively through mapping.