PIB – 03 September 2021

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BRICS “MINISTERS OF ENERGY” MEETING

Focus: GS II- International Relations

Why in News?

Union Minister of State for Power and Heavy Industries chaired the “Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Energy” under the Chairmanship of India.

The Energy Ministers of BRICS Countries and delegates attended the virtual meeting.
During the Meeting, BRICS Energy Report 2021, BRICS Energy Technology Report 2021 and BRICS Energy Research Directory 2021 were launched virtually in the presence of the Energy Ministers of BRICS Countries.

BRICS is the international grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
This was set up as a move towards greater multipolarity; hence the spread across three continents and both hemispheres.
In terms of GDP, China occupies the second position; India the fifth; Brazil the ninth; Russia the 11th; and South Africa the 35th.
In terms of growth rates, China grew at 6%; India at 4.5%, Russia 1.7%, Brazil 1.2% and South Africa 0.1%.
BRICS does not exist in form of organization, but it is an annual summit between the supreme leaders of five nations.
The Chairmanship of the forum is rotated annually among the members, in accordance with the acronym B-R-I-C-S.
The BRICS seeks to deepen, broaden and intensify cooperation within the grouping and among the individual countries for more sustainable, equitable and mutually beneficial development.
BRICS takes into consideration each member’s growth, development and poverty objectives to ensure relations are built on the respective country’s economic strengths and to avoid competition where possible.
BRICS is emerging as a new and promising political-diplomatic entity with diverse objectives, far beyond the original objective of reforming global financial institutions.

Focus: GS II- Governance, Facts for prelims

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.

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.