Study sought on SME labs

The Federation of Indian Small and Medium Enterprise (FISME) has invited proposals from consultancy firms to carry out a study that would, for the first time, identify the number and location of testing laboratories, across the country.

This would solve many of the problems that SMEs face in identifying laboratories in the absence of a proper listing," Anil Bhardwaj, secretary general, FISME said.

The initiative is being supported by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the Department for International Development (DFID).

"The overall objective of the study is to improve the capability of SMEs to produce goods of international standards which are required in the markets of their choice.

On a functional level, the study aims to map all testing laboratories in India relevant to industry and services sector, excluding the medical testing labs," Bhardwaj said.

SMEs in India have suffered due to their small size and inherent weaknesses in accessing international markets and withstanding volatility of international trade such as fluctuation in currencies, raw material prices, political and social upheavals, among others.

"One of the biggest challenges before SMEs in exporting today is producing goods of an international standard. This would require awareness of required standards and access to related testing labs whose tests are recognised by the importing countries and whose services are affordable by SMEs," Bhardwaj added.

Lack of consolidated information has led to the establishment of similar types of labs by different agencies, thereby duplicating efforts and wasting resources.

Also, without a comprehensive database of labs, it becomes difficult to make efforts for extracting mutual recognition for these labs during bilateral and multi-lateral trade negotiations, Bhardwaj added.

In India, such labs are established by various agencies. These include the Bureau of Indian Standards, ministries such as Science and Technology, Commerce, Agriculture, Food Processing, Railways, independent regulating agencies established under different Acts, state governments, universities and institutes.

In spite of the large network, these testing facilities have not been able to keep pace with the continuous rise of technical standards given that three-fourths of the standards produced since the 1990s are essentially international standards requiring new tests and advanced facilities.

Moreover, the problem is compounded because there is no single accreditation authority where all of these laboratories are registered and their testing facilities, test processes and services benchmarked, Bhardwaj added.