Page:Code Swaraj - Carl Malamud - Sam Pitroda.djvu/54

Code Swaraj Standards. You can find them on the Internet Archive and also on my server at law.resource.org.

Our world is a technical world today. Technical public safety standards cover areas such as the National Building Code of India, standards for the safe application of pesticides, standards for processing spices and food, standards for the proper operation of textile machines, the safety of bridges and roads, and much more.

Many of these standards are required by law or enacted into law. They are the law. There are dozens of products that you cannot sell in India unless they are certified to meet a particular Indian Standard, products such as cement, household electronic goods, food products, and automobile accessories.

Knowing the laws that keep the factories and products safe is essential to the conduct of business in India and overseas. You cannot make in India unless you make by these rules. These codes are law.

But, this is about much more than the economy. Indian Standards specify how to keep Indian cities and villages safe, how hazardous materials should be transported, providing proper exits in schools and public buildings in case of fire, how electricity should be safely wired. Every city official, school headmaster, building owner, and concerned citizen should have access to this important government information.

This is also not just about the economy and public safety, it is about education. Indian Standards represent the best codified knowledge of the technical world of India. The standards are created by eminent engineers, civil servants, and professors who volunteer their time. These standards are a crucial educational tool to be used by the six million engineering students in Indian universities.

For the Indian Standards, we have done more than simply scan and post the documents. Close to 1,000 key standards have been transformed into modern HTML. We have redrawn the diagrams into the open SVG format, we have reset the tables. This means you can view the standards on your mobile phone and it is easy to cut and paste high-quality diagrams and text into your paper or software program, they have become much more usable.

All across the world, not just in India, technical public safety laws are sold for very high prices and many of them bear stringent copyright notices prohibiting duplication. The National Building Code of India, for example, costs 13,760