Toys, Games & Sports

India's toys, games, and sports goods sector is a sub-USD 2 billion domestic market that imported roughly…

India's toys, games, and sports goods sector is a sub-USD 2 billion domestic market that imported roughly 80 percent of its volume from China before the certification regime tightened. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) regulates seven HSN codes within Chapter 95 — covering tricycles, scooters, pedal cars, dolls, electronic toys, puzzles, and parts of video game consoles and table games — against a notified universe of four Indian Standards: IS 9873 (safety of toys, parts 1 through 9), IS 15644 (safety of electrical toys), IS 616 (safety of audio, video, and similar electronic apparatus), and IS 13252 (information technology equipment safety). The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), through the Toys (Quality Control) Order, 2020, notified on 25-02-2020 vide S.O. 2624(E), shifted toys from a voluntary to a mandatory certification regime — the policy spine of the post-2020 import-substitution drive. The scheme split is 4 HSN codes under the ISI Mark Scheme and 3 under the Compulsory Registration Scheme (CRS), reflecting the split between mechanical toys (ISI) and electronic toys (CRS).

For an Indian factory the route is the ISI Mark Scheme (Scheme-I of Schedule-II of the BIS Conformity Assessment Regulations, 2018): application on the BIS portal (manakonline.in), sample testing at a BIS-recognised toy laboratory, factory inspection by a BIS officer, grant of the CM/L licence, and ongoing surveillance. For a foreign factory the route is the Foreign Manufacturers Certification Scheme (FMCS): the BIS officer travels to the overseas premises for inspection, an Authorised Indian Representative (AIR) is appointed, and the licence is granted at the factory-and-product level — typical timeline 6 to 9 months. The Toys (Quality Control) Order, 2020 cites IS 9873 parts 1 through 9 (mechanical and physical properties, flammability, migration of certain elements, swing-and-slide-and-similar equipment, electrical toys), IS 15644 (safety of electrical toys), and IS 8124 (safety of toys — general requirements) as the applicable standards. The Order applies per-SKU per-licence: each model, each variant, each finish requires its own grant.

Four pain points dominate practitioner workload on this hub. First, the per-SKU FMCS exposure for foreign toy makers — a single Chinese factory producing 80 SKUs across plush, plastic, and wooden lines requires 80 separate licences, each subject to its own factory inspection cycle, sample drawal, and annual marking fee, although the cluster-sample drawal protocol allows related variants to be tested under a single inspection. Second, mechanical safety testing under IS 9873 part 1 — sharp edges, sharp points, small parts under the small-parts cylinder, choking hazard for children under three, and tensile strength of seams. Third, chemical migration testing under IS 9873 part 3 — lead, antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, mercury, selenium, and the phthalate restriction; the migration limits are tight enough that re-formulation of paint and plastic compounds is routine. Fourth, e-commerce marketplace responsibility — Amazon, Flipkart, FirstCry, and Hopscotch are required under the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 read with the BIS Act, 2016 to delist any toy listing without a valid CM/L or R-number, with marketplace-level penalty exposure under Sections 29 through 33 of the BIS Act, 2016.