In sensational news, India has started exporting bulletproof jackets according to its own standards, which comply with international norms, to over 100 nations, including European nations, as per the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
A top BIS official added that India is the fourth nation after the likes of US, UK and Germany to have its own national standard on bulletproof jacket which offers 360-degree protection.
The BIS is a national body that sets quality norms for several products and services. It has set more than 20,000 standards by far.
“I understand that bulletproof jackets are not only produced and procured in India as per the BIS standards but also being sold in 100 other countries,” BIS Deputy Director by the name of Rajesh Bajaj told on the sidelines of an event.
India is the fourth nation in the world to have its own national standards on this product. “We brought all stakeholders together and decided on a national standard, which is of international quality. Armed forces are now procuring as per this standard,” he said.
Adding further, J K Gupta who is a scientist at BIS and also a member secretary on making national standards for the bulletproof jacket, said, “India was not able to procure quality bulletproof jackets in the absence of standards. So, there was a long pending demand from the armed forces to set quality standards for this product.”
In December 2018, the BIS had framed a national standard for bulletproof jacket after a direction from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Niti Aayog, he said.
“The standard on bulletproof jacket was published in December 2018 and now everybody is implementing it. Under the Make in India programme, we have the world-class facility and design capabilities. We are exporting these jackets to more than 100 countries even in Europe…,” he said.
Two PSUs- Medani and Ordnance factory at Avadi, Chennai and private firms SNPP (Palwal), Starwire (Faridabad) in Haryana and MKU (Kanpur) in UP are manufacturing bulletproof jackets according to the BIS norms, Gupta said.