User:NTH-DGCO/sandbox: Difference between revisions – Wikipedia

 

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== Structure and Regional Centers ==

== Structure and Regional Centers ==

The headquarters of NTH is located at Kolkata. To extend its services across the country, NTH operates through several regional laboratories, commonly referred to as regional test houses or satellite centres:

The headquarters of NTH is located at Kolkata. To extend its services across the country, NTH operates through several regional laboratories, commonly referred to as regional test houses or satellite centres:

* NTH (Eastern Region), Kolkata

* NTH (Eastern Region), Kolkata

National Test House

Formed	31 August 1912
Jurisdiction	Government of India
Headquarters	Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Agency executive	Dr. Alok Kumar Srivastava, Director General
Parent department	Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Website	nth.gov.in

National Test House (NTH) is India’s largest multi-location, multidisciplinary testing and calibration laboratory network under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (India). Established in 1912 at Alipore, Kolkata, it has been engaged for over a century in testing, calibration, quality evaluation, and certification of materials, products, and equipment in accordance with national and international standards.

The headquarters of NTH is located at Kolkata. To extend its services across the country, NTH operates through several regional laboratories, commonly referred to as regional test houses or satellite centres:

• NTH (Eastern Region), Kolkata
• NTH (Northern Region), Ghaziabad
• NTH (Southern Region), Chennai
• NTH (Western Region), Mumbai
• NTH (Central Region), Jaipur
• NTH (North-Eastern Region), Guwahati

These laboratories provide testing, calibration, and certification facilities in a wide range of disciplines.

The main functions of NTH include:

• Testing and evaluation of materials, products, and equipment.
• Calibration of measuring instruments.
• Certification and quality assessment.
• Technical assistance to industries and government organizations.
• Research and development in testing methodologies.
• Training programs for technical personnel.

National Test House traces its origin to 1912, when a testing laboratory was established in Alipore, Kolkata, to cater to the requirements of the Indian Railways and other industrial sectors. Over time, the laboratory expanded into multiple disciplines and was later renamed as the National Test House.

In 1947, following India’s independence, the organization was brought under the administrative control of the Government of India. It was eventually placed under the Department of Consumer Affairs to serve as a central facility for material testing, quality assurance, and standardization.

One of the oldest buildings of the Government Test House is the Mitra Block, constructed in 1930 during the tenure of Sir Bhupendra Nath Mitra, a member of the Governor-General’s Executive Council. Architecturally, it reflects the functional style of early 20th-century British India public works.

Several renowned Indian scientists were associated with the Government Test House (later NTH):

• Dr. S. Venkateswaran – Assistant Chemist (1923–1930), research collaborator with Sir C.V. Raman; his experiments contributed to the Nobel Prize–winning discovery of the Raman Effect (1930).
• K. Seshagiri Rao – Worked with Sir C.V. Raman on molecular scattering, expanding the Einstein–Smoluchowski theory.
• Dr. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar – Served (1940–1942) as Director of the Board of Scientific and Industrial Research (BSIR), then housed in the Test House. He later became the architect of CSIR and established institutions like the National Physical Laboratory and National Chemical Laboratory.
• Dr. Lal Chand Verman – Joined in 1936, later became the first Director-General of the Indian Standards Institution (now BIS).
• Dr. Atma Ram – Pioneer of Indian glass technology, later founded the Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute (CGCRI), Kolkata.
• Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis – Renowned statistician, advised the Test House on statistical design of experiments in the 1930s.
• Nagendra Nath Sengupta – First Indian-origin Director of the Test House; key figure in building India’s quality infrastructure.

NTH operates as a multidisciplinary network of laboratories across India, providing:

• Testing and evaluation of industrial and consumer products.
• Calibration of instruments and equipment.
• Quality certification in line with Indian Standards (IS) and international standards such as ASTM, EN, BS, and MIL.
• Research and technical consultancy.
• Training and skill development for industry professionals.

All testing and calibration laboratories of NTH are accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) as per ISO/IEC 17025:2017. They are also recognized by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) under its Laboratory Recognition Scheme (LRS).

NTH provides services for a broad spectrum of sectors, including:

• Electrical and electronics
• Civil engineering and building materials
• Chemical analysis
• Rubber, plastics, and polymers
• Environmental and non-destructive testing
• Food and organic product testing
• Emerging fields such as drone certification and electric vehicle battery testing

It serves industries, trade, government bodies, and research institutions, and is empanelled as a referral lab for fertilizers, state electricity boards, REC, BIS, NCERT, CPWD, and others.

NTH began a process of digital transformation, introducing:

• QR-code based sample submission and tracking
• Acknowledgement snapshots of submitted samples
• Online test reports for customers
• Development of a Laboratory Data Acquisition System (LDAS)
• Upgradation of the NTH mobile app
• Pick-up and drop-off services for samples to improve ease of business

Several infrastructure projects are underway, including:

• Integrated transmission line equipment testing facility (NTH Jaipur)
• Solar panel and solar water heater testing facilities (Ghaziabad, Chennai)
• Transformer short-circuit testing (Chennai)
• Aerospace components testing (Bengaluru)
• EV battery and charger testing facilities (Bengaluru)

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