What this document is
This is MeitY’s set of frequently asked questions on the Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirements for Compulsory Registration) Order. The version on the BIS CRS portal is marked “modified as on date 28.09.2022”, has 157 questions over 28 pages, and is digitally signed by a MeitY officer. It is a newer edition of the June 2018 FAQs, and several answers have changed since then.
It is the most useful single document for working out whether a product is covered, and how registration, testing and series grouping work in practice.
Who registers and with what
- Dates. The order applies by date of manufacture for goods made in India and by date of landing for imported goods. Stock made or imported before an order took effect is not caught (Q1 to Q3).
- Who registers. The manufacturer gets the registration number. It is tied to the manufacturer, the factory location, the product and the brand (Q4).
- Test reports. Only reports from BIS-recognised laboratories against the notified Indian Standard are accepted. CE, UL, FCC or CB reports from abroad are not, and the report must be no more than 90 days old when you apply (Q6, Q7).
- Marking. The Standard Mark goes on both product and packaging, or only on the packaging where the product is too small. E-labelling is allowed for products with a display (Q8).
- Brands. Each brand is registered separately, but one test report can support several brands when the product and factory are the same (Q10).
Series and model inclusion
- For near-identical models, the FAQs point to MeitY’s series guidelines (Q21). Those are the first 15 products, Phase II and Phase III documents.
- New models can be added to an existing series of up to ten after grant. The laboratory validates the new model against the existing series and report, and the validation goes to BIS with a fee (Q37).
- Samples of every model in a series are not needed. The sample with the highest configuration is tested and the series formation is justified on paper (Q51). The 2018 edition said “worst case sample” here.
ADP machines and borderline products
The FAQs settle many scope questions for IT equipment:
- ADP machines cover data preparation, data processing and data storage equipment. Desktop computers are specifically exempted (Q53, Q62).
- Products treated as ADP machines include data, cinema and meeting-room projectors (Q80), network attached storage (Q81), hard disk media players (Q82), and all-in-one computers, workstations, thin clients and mini PCs, which are not treated as desktops (Q83).
- Networking devices. Wireless access points, controllers and switches are networking devices and are not covered. Mobile computers and RFID devices are (Q67).
- Servers and large equipment. Testing must still be done at a BIS-recognised laboratory, but the power supply and other safety-critical parts can be taken out and tested separately (Q50).
- Video walls. Display panels of every size are covered as video display units, and the controller that drives them as an ADP machine (Q75).
- Embedded printers. A printer built into a notified product, such as an ATM, is covered as part of the host product (Q65). The 2018 FAQs said such printers were not covered.
- HSN codes do not decide coverage. Notified product categories need registration whatever their HSN code (Q157).
Exemptions
- Spare parts and components used to make a finished product are outside the order unless notified as products in their own right (Q34).
- Goods imported for demonstration, R&D or testing are outside the order (Q35).
- Highly specialised equipment: this FAQ refers to S.O. 2844(E) of 1 July 2021 (Q38). MeitY’s later HSE exemption FAQs refer to the criteria in S.O. 1246(E) of 10 March 2026 and an annual limit of under 100 units per model, with applications made through ICEGATE.
Reading it with later documents
Some answers refer to IS 13252 (Part 1) and IS 616, which are being replaced by IS/IEC 62368-1:2023 for most IT and audio-video products. For anything on that change, read the BIS migration guideline and the migration FAQs of 2026.