The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is preparing to scale up testing of silver jewellery as demand shifts from gold amid a spike in prices, a senior BIS official said, adding that referral and assay laboratories for silver will expand nationally within two years.
Silver hallmarking has been voluntary since 2005, and from September 2025 onwards, hallmarked silver articles carry a Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number, enabling buyers to verify purity.
“Last year, we introduced HUID for silver jewellery as well, and demand is increasing. We have taken stock of the requirements and are ready to take up silver jewellery testing in a big way in our laboratories,” BIS Deputy Director General (Laboratories) Nishat S Haque told PTI.
“We will be able to handle the requirement within our own labs for roughly the next two years. Within that period, we will be expanding referral and assay laboratories across the country,” she said.
The number of silver jewellery articles hallmarked rose to 5.9 million in the 2025-26 fiscal year from 3.2 million in 2024-25, according to official data. There are currently around 230 Assaying and Hallmarking Centres recognised by BIS for testing silver jewellery.
Gold hallmarking surveillance kept in-house
BIS, the government’s national standard-setting body, runs all market surveillance testing of hallmarked gold jewellery through its own laboratories rather than outsourcing it, Haque said, describing the scheme as one of the regulator’s biggest consumer-confidence successes.
“This is the one product where we have set up a referral and assay laboratory within BIS’s own lab setup. We do not outsource this market surveillance activity of hallmarked jewellery to any outside lab,” she said.
Laboratory network has nearly tripled since 2014
BIS tested nearly 270,000 product samples in the past year, Haque said, as its laboratory network has expanded sharply to meet rising certification demand. BIS now operates 10 of its own laboratories nationwide, backed by a wider network of recognised private and empanelled government labs built under a Laboratory Recognition Scheme introduced in 1985.
“In 2014 we had around 147 recognised laboratories and only 24 government laboratories empanelled with us. Today we are having 440 recognised laboratories and 350 empanelled laboratories,” Haque said.
BIS has set close to 23,000 standards in total, of which about 700 are mandatory, and the laboratory network will keep expanding to match the load, she said, citing recent empanelments for CCTV security, power-transmission-line and petrochemical testing.
Use of ai and robotics under trial
Haque said BIS viewed artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics as tools to increase testing speed, improve transparency and reduce human error. BIS is piloting a pick-and-place robotic arm for cement testing this year and plans to expand robotic features across laboratories depending on results, she said. The agency has also integrated test equipment directly with its Lab Information Management System (LIMS) to automatically capture and calculate readings, alongside CCTV monitoring of lab areas.
Unusual testing mandates
Among BIS’s more unusual mandates is a 2016 Indian Standard requiring mobile phones sold in India to support texting in English, Hindi and a regional language, and to display all 22 official languages, partly to ensure emergency alerts reach all users.
“There were no laboratories to carry out testing for language compatibility… BIS took up the challenge,” Haque said.
BIS’s Central Laboratory in Sahibabad has also been tasked by the Reserve Bank of India with testing note-sorting machines’ ability to detect counterfeit currency, after the RBI required such testing be done only at a government laboratory.
Market surveillance and exports
BIS conducts regular surveillance of ISI-marked products such as helmets and appliances, drawing samples from shops and online platforms, Haque said. Licenses continue only if products pass; non-compliant products can be blocked. Mandatory-standard testing is enforced through government Quality Control Orders, drawing on private, public and empanelled government labs at short notice.
BIS’s own laboratories test only for its own certification schemes, though most Indian standards are harmonised with international norms, she said.
BIS also funds outside and government laboratories to build critical infrastructure, including organic food testing facilities to support exports.
Consumer and manufacturer access
Consumers with complaints about BIS-certified products can file them through the BIS Care app, with BIS testing on their behalf, Haque said.
Manufacturers can check laboratory availability by standard and location on the agency’s Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) portal, lims.bis.gov.in, and flag gaps for new labs to be onboarded.
“Buy the BIS certified products… have confidence in that mark,” Haque said, urging manufacturers to seek certification through the BIS lab network.
