Bureau of Indian Standards press release

Mangalore, Feb 7:  The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the National Standards Body working under the aegis of Ministry of Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs has been operating the Hallmarking Scheme for Gold Jewellery to protect the interest of consumers.

Hallmarking Scheme was launched by BIS as a voluntary scheme at the behest of Government of India in April 2000 and has since gained momentum and currently there are more than 1000 jewellers operating hallmarking scheme in the country.  The Government of India has now decide that the Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery would become mandatory for all jewelers with effect from January 1, 2008.

 Mangalore and Udupi being the hub of jewellery trade with many manufacturers / traders/ retailers of gold jewellery operating here, BIS is organizing an Awareness Programme on Hallmarking Scheme for Jewellers at Taj Manjarun Mangalore on February 10, 2006 at 10 am, to appraise the jewellers of the salient features of the Hallmarking Scheme so that they could prepare themselves to meet the mandatory requirements of Hallmarking. Senior officials from BIS headquarters at New Delhi would be addressing the jewellers in this programme.

Further enquiries can be had from:

P Sengupta, director and head or Mala Ayyappan, director, Bureau of Indian Standards, Bangalore Branch Office, Ist Stage, Peenya Industrial Area, Tumkur Raod, Bangalore 560 0058. Phone: +91 80 28394955 / 56  Fax: +91 80 28395541  Email: bnbo@bis.org.in