International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) CEO GP Russ Chaney, in his role as chairman of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Board of Directors, and IAPMO Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Dain Hansen participated in the launch of Phase II of the U.S.-India Standards and Conformance Cooperation Project (SCCP) at the “Workshop on Water and Sanitation Systems in India: Leveraging standards for infrastructure improvement” in New Delhi, India.

During opening remarks, Chaney expressed pride and gratitude about ANSI’s decade-long engagement with Indian partners the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) that has led to the collaboration on such priority sectors as building and construction, automobiles, biometric identification, and the subjects of the workshop, water and sanitation

“ANSI is also grateful for the renewed support and funding provided by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency,” Chaney said. “USTDA last fall approved the grant funding for the SCCP Phase II, making possible continued industry-to-industry collaboration and exchange on the important sectors of clean energy, smart and sustainable cities, and water and sanitation.”

The U.S.-India SCCP — and now SCCP II — provides a foundation and portal for U.S. and Indian organizations to meet, identify, discuss, and collaborate on the challenges facing both of our nations. The US-India SCCP initiatives have enabled staff from a broad range of U.S. not-for-profit entities, including IAPMO, to acquaint themselves with their counterparts within BIS, CII and other ministry level bodies within the Indian government. The value, importance and strategic roadmap that has resulted from this interaction between IAPMO and its counterparts within India has benefited not only IAPMO, but also other U.S. Standard Development Organizations (SDOs), conformity assessment bodies and testing laboratories (i.e. UL, NSF, ASME, ASHRAE, NFPA ASTM, among many others).

During the workshop’s first day, Hansen presented on “Using International Plumbing Standards as Tools to Promote Local Industry & Economic Growth.”

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