Quality control norms play a strategic role, says Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: Amid intense lobbying to hold up quality control orders (QCOs), commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said the norms play a strategic role. "These QCOs will play a strategic role in enhancing consumer safety, boosting industry competitiveness, and advancing Bharat's rise as a global hub for high-quality products and sustainable manufacturing," the minister said in a social media post after a meeting with stakeholders. In last few years, govt, through BIS, imposed QCOs on a host of products - from steel to plywood, furniture, and footwear. According to data on the BIS website, between Apr 2025 and 2028, there are 68 products where QCOs are to be implemented. Goyal's meeting comes days after Niti Aayog's Suman Bery criticised QCOs that apply to domestic and imported products. "It takes a certain genius for the bureaucracy to come up with an intervention which is even more malign (than tariffs) because of arbitrariness," Bery said.