India / BIS / MeitY
India's Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) already gates market access for 76+ categories of electronics and IT products under its Compulsory Registration Scheme (CRS). On 5 May 2026, MeitY's Gazette Notification S.O. 2204(E) added standalone hard disk drives to the list — effective 5 November 2026 — the latest reminder that CRS scope is not fixed. A product outside it today can be inside it next year.
Last updated 21 August 2026
On 5 May 2026, MeitY published Gazette Notification S.O. 2204(E), amending the 2021 Electronics and Information Technology Products (Requirement for Compulsory Registration) Order. The amendment revises Serial No. 50 of the Order's Schedule to read "Standalone Hard Disk Drives (HDDs)". Covered drives must be tested against IS 13252 (Part 1):2010 and hold valid BIS registration before the requirement takes effect on 5 November 2026. External hard drives with a USB interface were already inside BIS's regulatory perimeter; this amendment is aimed at bringing internal and bare-drive units in alongside them.
Source: C-PRAV Group, "MeitY Expands Compulsory Registration Scope to Cover Standalone Hard Disk Drives in India"; GMA Labs, "India: Standalone Hard Disk Drives Need BIS Registration".
BIS's Compulsory Registration Scheme began with around 15 product categories and has since grown to cover 76+, including smartphones, laptops, power banks, smartwatches, LED lighting, printers, CCTV cameras and solar PV modules. CRS runs on a self-declaration model — test the product at a BIS-recognised lab against the applicable IS/IEC standard, submit the report with the registration application, then carry the BIS Standard Mark and R-number once approved — which is lighter-touch than a full factory-audit scheme, but selling a notified product without a valid registration is a legal violation in India, not a soft compliance gap. The HDD amendment is one instance of a pattern: MeitY adds categories and revises existing entries on an ongoing basis, so a product line's CRS status is worth rechecking on a schedule, not assumed to be settled once and left alone.
Source: Elitas RCS, "BIS CRS Registration for Electronics and IT Products in India"; Comercinate, "BIS CRS — Compulsory Registration Scheme for Electronics".
Any manufacturer or importer placing standalone HDDs — or any of the other 76+ notified categories — on the Indian market. Storage and component suppliers who assumed only finished consumer devices needed BIS registration are exactly who this amendment catches: a bare or internal drive sold as a component can now trigger the same registration duty as a finished laptop or external drive. Anyone exporting consumer electronics or IoT hardware into India should treat CRS scope as a standing check against each new product line, not a one-off lookup.
The Compulsory Registration Scheme (CRS) is run by the Bureau of Indian Standards under India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). It requires notified electronics and IT products to be tested at a BIS-recognised lab, meet the applicable Indian Standard, and be registered with BIS before they can be manufactured, imported or sold in India. It started with around 15 product categories and has since expanded to 76+, including laptops, mobile phones, power banks, smartwatches, LED lighting, printers and CCTV cameras.
MeitY issued Gazette Notification S.O. 2204(E) on 5 May 2026, amending the 2021 Compulsory Registration Order to revise Serial No. 50 of its Schedule to read "Standalone Hard Disk Drives (HDDs)". Covered drives must meet IS 13252 (Part 1):2010 and hold valid BIS registration before the requirement takes effect on 5 November 2026. USB-interface external hard drives were already inside BIS's regulatory perimeter; this amendment brings internal and bare-drive units in as well.
It keeps expanding. CRS began with roughly 15 categories and has grown to 76+ over successive orders and amendments, with new products (and new sub-categories of existing entries, as with HDDs in 2026) added on an ongoing basis. A product that was outside CRS scope last year is not guaranteed to stay outside it.
CRS operates on a self-declaration model: the product is tested at a BIS-recognised laboratory against the applicable IS/IEC standard, the manufacturer submits the test report with its registration application, and once approved the product carries the BIS Standard Mark with a registration (R-) number. It is lighter-touch than schemes requiring routine factory inspection, but selling a notified product without a valid registration is a legal violation, not just a market-access inconvenience.
Exporting into India alongside the EU, UK, US or Korea usually means adding a separate CRS scope check to whatever regulatory review already covers those markets — and rechecking it as BIS's list grows. We fold India's CRS scope and standard-conformity check into the same market-access review we run for the other jurisdictions we cover, so it's one process per product, not a separate one to track per country.
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