By:  Mr. S. Swaminathan, COO, GS1 India

New Delhi, July 25 (KNN) Government’s push for local products in the recent past and increased consumer consciousness to alienate themselves from imported products have provided the much needed impetus to the demand for local products manufactured by SMEs and mid-sized entrepreneurs.

Encouraged by the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative, manufacturers and customers are aligned with the idea of self-reliant India. This has sent waves across the country for promoting locally manufactured products. Citizens are also making consciously buying decisions in favour of not only the products manufactured by Indian companies but also those products that are manufactured in India. This is also supported by increased consumption of Indian products. Till a few months back PPE kit was not manufactured in India but now we are producing enough to even export.

In these critical times, it is important for SMEs and manufacturing start-ups to work on their full capacity to produce enough goods to meet local needs and also export the same to get global recognition.

To enter in the global markets and to compete with global players, they need to comply with the global standards for manufacturing, quality and product identification. GS1 barcodes (EAN) is the globally recognised standard for product identification. The GS1 barcode number of every product is allocated by GS1 organisations around the world to product manufacturers, so that they can assign it on their products to give them a unique identity in the supply chains – local as well as global.

In India, these barcode numbers are allocated by GS1 India to product manufacturers to trade their products. GTINs (EAN codes) allocated by GS1 India start with 890. Besides, uniquely identifying products to sell at modern trade retail outlets – online as well as offline, GS1 barcode numbers also facilitate product recall and counterfeit detection in the supply chain.

Benefits of using GTINs (GS1 barcode numbers) on products

  --  Unique identification of your products

  --  Ability to sell products through leading retailers and online shopping channels

  --  High visibility in Google search rankings

  --  Retailers and online marketplaces can easily validate the barcode numbers used by you

  --  Counterfeit detection in the supply chain

Also, it is interesting to note that GS1 India is the only authorised body in India to allocate GS1 barcode numbers.

Adoption of the standards technology ensures compliance with statutory labelling and guidelines, filters out unauthorised products, ensures faster product listing, verifies product certifications, facilitates product recall and can be used for alerts on depleted stocks.

Further, the adoption of global GS1 standards also enable digital transformation of organisations by making the supply chain processes automated.