BIS Scales Up Silver Hallmarking Testing as Buyers Shift

The Bureau of Indian Standards, or BIS, is a group in India that makes sure products are safe and good quality.

It puts a special mark on gold and silver jewellery to show that the metal is really pure.

Lately, gold has become very expensive, so more people are buying silver instead.

Because of this, BIS now wants to test and check a lot more silver jewellery.

Since September 2025, every checked silver item gets a special number called the HUID, which is like an ID card for jewellery.

Buyers can use this number to check that their silver is real and pure.

In the last year, the number of silver items checked jumped from 3.2 million to 5.9 million.

BIS is planning to open more testing labs across India within two years so it can handle all the new checks.

It is also trying new tools like robots and computers to make testing faster, more transparent and less likely to have mistakes.