The Indian government has issued mandatory quality control orders (QCOs) for 145 iron and steel products, a government official said on Wednesday, February 27, quoting from the official notification.
The official said that the products covered under the QCOs included stainless steel pipes and tubes, steel wire used in making pins, clips and staples, mild steel for metal arc welding electrodes, mild steel wire rod for general engineering purposes, galvanized structural steel, structural steel bars with hot dip zinc coatings, steel bars for concrete reinforcement, ferrochromium and silicomanganese.
The QCOs for the products will come into effect in phases over the next three to six months.
Once the QCOs come into effect, no product can be manufactured, traded, stored, sold, imported without quality certification from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Violations of the QCOs attract penalties of imprisonment and fines.