World Standards Day 2021: Theme, Date, History, Significance

World Standards Day is an awareness creation day for recognising voluntary technical agreements produced by highly deemed contributors. These agreements are industry-regulated compliance’s termed informal words as standardization.

When is World Standards Day 2021?

The member collaboration of IEC [International Electrotechnical Commission], ISO [International Organisation for Standardization] and ITU [International Telecommunication Union] celebrate the World Standards Day worldwide on 14th October every year. The day is meant for appreciating the efforts of the technical communities worldwide who contribute to creating “International Standards”. These “standards” are not just for the namesake. They are rigorously built, acclaimed through a scientific process of technical documentation cum agreement policies, after which they are released to the world for recognition.

World Standards Day 2021 – History

The first time the world felt a need to bring in standardization was in the year 1946. Well-known experts and delegates from around 25 countries collaborated in London in 1946 to impulsively create a high level; international organization exclusively dedicated to bring in the norms of standardization. Their efforts took off when the standardization entity’s actual formation came into effect almost twelve months later.

The first time World Standards Day was celebrated was on 14th October 1970. Faruk Sunter, the President of IES in the year 1970, formally inaugurated the proceedings of World Standards Day in the year 1970. The first batch of standardization was set out to specific units belonging to the industrial conglomerates. Consumers and regulators were educated and prepared for the future standardization process that was about to take wings.

World Standards Day 2021 Theme

• The theme for World Standards Day 2021 is undecided yet. The year 2020 theme was on ‘Protecting the Planet with Standards’.
• 2019 had a unique theme called ‘Video standards create a global stage’.
• The theme for 2018 was ‘International Standards and the fourth industrial revolution.’
• 2017 came more prominent and better with “Smart Health: Using Intelligent Systems to improve the quality and delivery of health care in a more integrated, focused approach”.
• ‘Standards Build Trust’ was the theme for the year 2016.

World Standards Day 2021 Celebrations

The celebrations for World Standards Day are mostly industry-oriented and conform to formal ways of conducting events. Some of the common forms of celebrations are highlighted below:

• Exhibitions rule the roost on this momentous day.
• Participation from various industries, business tycoons, education segments, the cinema world and essential government departments serve beautiful conferences worldwide. Huge spreads of receptions followed by formal meetings shall be announced for the day.
• International Standards Day is all about Presentations and structured discussions on international platforms.
• The day also recognizes immense contributions from stalwarts in the business industries and presents the leadership awards to deserving candidates.
• Committees and representatives across industry and trade verticals come forward and break the ice by clearing trade barriers that were long sustained due to business restrictions. The day could be anticipated to throw open some classic business ties and present new and innovative ideas for sprucing up the trade and commerce highways of respective nations.
• Other celebrations across different zones include competitions, demonstrations, support for emerging innovators, standardization of supply chains, relaxation for staff and communities concerned with these industries.
• India celebrates World Standards Day under the aegis of “Bureau of Indian Standards”. Standardization is an international process for providing reliable consumer right, safe products to customers, thereby reducing the onset of different types of health hazards.

Interesting Facts of World Standards Day

Below we shall discuss some salient facts and figures about World Standards Day:

• IEC was formed in the year 1906. The organization is mainly concerned with the publication of international standards for the electrical and electronic industry segments. All semiconductors, batteries, fibre optics, solar energy devices get their Standardization from this regulatory unit.
• ISO was formed in 1947 to cater to industrial and commercial standardization requirements. The ISO is relevant worldwide and has global working offices in more than 164 countries.
• ITU is mainly into regulating the telecommunication sector. Our mobile phone devices and networks, broadband types of equipment, satellites, meteorological establishments, internet, television networks, satellite systems and navigation equipment conform to ITU standards.
• IEEE was formed in 1963 and looked into the educational propagation of various branches of engineering.
• The IETF formally regulates the Standardization for TCP/IP Internet Protocol regimes.
• Both ISO and ITU have a very prominent presence in Geneva, Switzerland.