NEW DELHI. The first-ever Indian Standard (IS) on Bullet Resistant Jacket (BRJ) for protection against small arms and ammunition for the defence, paramilitary and police forces was released at a meeting jointly organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in New Delhi on January 10.

The standard has been adopted by BIS after the draft finalised by the Textiles Protective Clothing Sectional Committee was approved by the Textile Divisional Council.

The adoption of the standard is considered as a milestone in setting minimum performance requirements of bullet resistant jackets and screen their supply so that only acceptable quality reaches the user.

The standard has been customised to Indian needs and would eventually lead to reduction in fatal casualties to the security forces wearing such jackets.

Prof K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, speaking on the occasion said that the action now would be on addressing the queries and concerns of industry by BIS and DRDO labs and equipment and methodologies for testing the standard which falls into the broader category of technical textiles.

He said that the challenge was reducing the weight of the jacket from 10.5 kg to 6 kg in consonance with scientific criteria.

Surina Rajan, Director General, BIS, said that the Indian Standard for bullet resistant jackets will help in speeding up procurement by the user agencies and in testing of materials.

The standard should be adopted in all procurement orders of the security forces, she added. “Our work begins now as we have the indigenous capacity to go to the next level, i.e. use of lighter material for jackets”.

Ms Rajan said the standard could become a base to supply the jackets to South East Asia where the requirements as similar as that of India.

Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO, said the new standard marks a good beginning and hoped that the Indian security forces adopt the standard expeditiously.

He said the new standard may not be uniform for different security forces operating in different types of terrain. Therefore, standards have to be dynamic and change with the change in conditions.

He added that the standard has been developed and there is now a need for more independent testing labs.

Mr Shishir Jaipuria, Chairman, FICCI Textiles Committee and CMD, Ginni Filaments Ltd, said that it was a matter of great pride for the country to have its own standard for bullet resistant jacket, something which continues to be primarily the domain of the developed countries.

He said that the new standard would benefit the security forces and enable the domestic industry to fulfil their requirements and provide quality products. This would also enable uniform texting protocol and help in further enhancing the safety of security personnel.

The meeting was also addressed by Dr Manjit Singh, Director, Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL); Mr J K Gupta, Scientist ‘D’, BIS and Mr Vaibhav Gupta, Co-Chair, FICCI Homeland Security Committee and Director, MKU.