ISO is made up of national standards institutes from countries large and small, industrialized and developing, in all regions of the world. ISO develops voluntary technical standards, which add value to all types of business operations. They contribute to making the development, manufacturing and supply of products and services more efficient, safer and cleaner. They make trade between countries easier and fairer. ISO standards also serve to safeguard consumers, and users in general, of products and services – as well as making their lives simpler.
Headquarter
ISO Central Secretariat,
1, ch. de la Voie-Creuse, CP 56,
CH-1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
How it started
International standardization began in the electrotechnical field: the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) was established in 1906. Pioneering work in other fields was carried out by the International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA), which was set up in 1926. The emphasis within ISA was laid heavily on mechanical engineering. ISA’s activities came to an end in 1942.
In 1946, delegates from 25 countries met in London and decided to create a new international organization, of which the object would be ‘to facilitate the international coordination and unification of industrial standards’. The new organization, ISO, officially began operating on 23 February 1947. ISO currently have members from 164 countries (out of 205 total countries in the world) and 3335 technical bodies to take care of standards developed. ISO is a nongovernmental organization and its members are not, therefore, national governments, but are the standards institutes in their respective countries.
Every participating member has the right to take part in the development of any standard which it judges to be important to its country’s economy.
ISO standards are market-driven. They are developed by international consensus among experts drawn from the industrial, technical or business sectors, which have expressed the need for a particular standard.
ISO standards are technical agreements, which provide the framework for compatible technology worldwide.
Since 1947, ISO has published some 19000 International Standards (as of 2011). ISO’s work programme ranges from standards for traditional activities, such as agriculture and construction, through mechanical engineering to the newest information technology developments, such as the digital coding of audio-visual signals for multimedia applications.
Identification Number
ISO's main products are the International Standards which are identified in the format
ISO[/IEC][/ASTM] [IS] #####[:yyyy] Title
where ##### is the number of the standard, yyyy is the year published, and Title describes the subject. IEC for International Electrotechnical Commission is included if the standard results from the work of ISO/IEC JTC1 (the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee). ASTM is used for standards developed in cooperation with ASTM International. The date and IS are not used for an incomplete or unpublished standard, and may under some circumstances be left off the title of a published work.
ISO also publishes Technical Reports, Technical Specifications, Publicly Available Specifications, Technical Corrigenda, and Guides.[
ISO documents are copyrighted and ISO charges for copies of most.
Conformity assessment
It is not the role of ISO to verify that ISO standards are being implemented by users in conformity with the requirements of the standards. ISO develops ISO/IEC guides and standards to be used by organizations which carry out conformity assessment activities. The voluntary criteria contained in these guides represent an international consensus on what constitutes best practice. Their use contributes to the consistency and coherence of conformity assessment worldwide and so facilitates trade across borders.
Certification
When a product, service, or system has been assessed by a competent authority as conforming to the requirements of a relevant standard, a certificate may be issued as proof. For example, many thousands of ISO 9000 certificates have been issued to businesses around the world attesting to the fact that a quality management system operated by the company concerned conforms to one of the ISO 9000 standards. Likewise, more and more companies now seek certification of their environmental management systems to the ISO 14001 standard. ISO itself does not carry out certification to its management system standards and it does not issue either ISO 9000 or ISO 14000 certificates.
Bureau of Indian Standards
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the national Standards Body of India engaged in the preparation and implementation of standards, operation of
certification schemes both for products and systems, organisation and
management of testing laboratories, creating consumer awareness and
maintaining close liaison with international standards bodies. As on 31 March 2008, 18424 Standards formulated by
BIS, are in force. Its head office is at Manak Bhavan, 9 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi
- 110002. The regional offices are in Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai,
Chandigarh and Delhi, and have 19 branch offices. As a corporate body,
it has 25 members drawn from national and state politics, industry,
scientific and research institutions, and consumer organizations
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) came into existence, through an Act of Parliament on 1 April 1987. It works under the aegis of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India. The Minister in charge of the Ministry or Department having
administrative control of the BIS is ex-officio President (Emaad Amin)
of the BIS. The organization was formerly the Indian Standards Institution
(ISI), set up under the Resolution of the then Department of Industries
and Supplies No. 1 Std.(4)/45, dated 3 September 1946. The ISI was
registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
For further details refer the wikipedia
American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
Deutsches Institut für Normung, German Institute for Standardization (DIN)
British Standards Institution (BSI)
Countries in International Organization for Standardization
Canadian Standards Association
European Committee for Standardization (CEN)
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) set of standards (GOST)
International Classification for Standards
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and ISO/IEC standards
International healthcare accreditation
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
