Does the ISI Mark guarantee your Safe Drinking Water?

What is ISI Mark?

(Indian Standards Institute) ISI Mark is a certification provided by Bureau of Indian Standards to ascertain the brand conforms to Indian Standards. It was originally used and is still mandatory in manufacture of electrical appliances like switches, motors, it is also mandatory in other products like cements, tyres, LPG cylinders. In other products  like packaged drinking water the ISI mark is optional. But for Indian customers it is a sign of quality they trust.

How is the ISI Mark awarded?

ISI mark is purely awarded on basis of manufacturing facilities and quality of raw materials used. Random samples are selected by the inspection teams over a period of 6 months. Incase of it being a second product from the same organisation tests from independent certified labs are accepted. One must note that the ISI mark certifies that the correct manufacturing process has been followed but not the quality of the product when it reaches the user e.g a milk packet may have ISI but that doesn't mean it can't get spoiled by improper refrigeration during transit.

Flaws in ISI Mark?

As mentioned earlier the ISI mark measures manufacturing competence rather than overall quality. This is a big problem in the packaged drinking water industry. Even industry giants are not immune to their quality being inadequate due to supply chain inefficiencies. Take an example of Bisleri who in India holds 40% of the market share was stripped of its ISI mark based on findings of an independent study which identified harmful chemicals in the water (Reference). Also if water is not stored properly by your last mile vendor (kirana stores and departmental stores) properly harmful chemicals from the bottle could leech into your water. This is why packaged drinking bottles have expiry dates as it is the plastic bottle that expires and not the water in it. Hence it is pretty clear the ISI mark is not very helpful in determining the quality of water.

Innovative Solutions

To deal with this problem it was necessary that quality last mile vendors were needed but since they were not in too common and not always in range of the consumers. Local startups like Virtus- IT India Private Limited have built platform available both on mobile and desktop to order water from responsible vendors. This way you could get doorstep delivery of a packaged drinking water can by making orders with devices at your fingertips. The Moya - The Waterman app work provides an aggregator (aggregators like amazon and flipkart guarantee delivery of right product or your payment is protected the Moya - The Waterman app works in the same principle)  with a price of admission for the vendors. The price being quality of the water before delivery. In other words a vendor might sell a reputed packaged supplier or a non branded or even a non ISI brand, but if the quality of the water does not pass the highest  standards set by the app. That way you can be sure the water from the manufacturer to your glass is safe.