EIC Full Form

What is the full form of EIC?

EIC stands for the Export Inspection Council. EIC is India's official export certification council, which certifies the quality and safety of products exported from India to other parts of the world. The Indian Government initiated EIC under Section 3 of the Export (Quality Control and Inspection) Act, 1963, to guarantee the sound development of export trade through quality assurance and inspection and review of export matters.

This Story also Contains

1. What is the full form of EIC?
2. Roles of Export Inspection Council
3. Standards of commodities
4. Provide Certifications
5. Quality control and safety inspections by Export Inspection Council
6. Export Inspection Council and the exporter
7. Export Inspection Council certification process
8. Significance of Export Inspection Council
9. Origin of East India Company
10. From trading company to military power by East India Company

The organisation's main function is to ensure that products certified under the Export (Quality Control and Inspection) Act 1963 meet the obligations of the importing Nations in respect of their standards and security. The Export Inspection Council is situated in Delhi and is led by the head that is the chairman. The Executive Head of the Organization is the Director of Inspection & Quality Assurance, responsible for the Council's day-to-day operations.

The assurance of standards and security is provided through either a consignment-wise examination or a cross-check/food security management-based certification through its field organisation. The Export Inspection Agencies (EIAs) located in other states of India, such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Kochi, Delhi, and Chennai, have a network of 30 sub-offices assisted by state-of-the-art, NABL-accredited laboratories at various regions.

The Export Inspection Council issues mandatory certification for various food products such as dairy products, fishery products, eggs, honey, meat and meat products, poultry meat products, gelatin, feed additive and pre-mixtures. Other edible and non-edible products are issued voluntarily. The organisation, with its four decades of experience in the inspection, testing and certification of food products as per the Nation's obligations, is the only organisation in India with global undertakings.

EIC also stands for East India Company. It was an English company during the initial time, which was later merged as a British joint-stock company in 1600. Eventually it was dissolved in 1874. EIC was formed to facilitate trade across the Indian Ocean. More specifically with the East Indies and East Asia. The company took control of major parts of the Indian subcontinent and colonized Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

The company was a strong corporation in the world. The EIC even obtained its own armed forces twice the size of the British army.

The company's functioning profoundly affected the global trade balance, almost single-handedly reversing the trend of the eastward drain of Western bullion, seen since Roman times. From 1700 to early 1800, the company became superior to half of the world's trade in essential items like cotton, silk, dye, salt, spices, tea, etc.

The company was dominant during the initial period of the British Empire in India. The company eventually led significant areas of India, exercising military power and assuming administrative roles. In 1757, company rule began in India after the Battle of Plassey. It lasted until 1858 when, the Government of India Act 1858 mediated to the British Crown taking charge of India as the new British Raj.

Battle of Plassey was fought on 23 June 1757. Victory for the British East India Company in the Battle of Plassey started nearly two centuries of British rule in India. For an event with such momentous consequences, it was a surprisingly average military encounter, the defeat of the Nawab of Bengal owing much to betrayal.

Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring issues relating the finances. The company was taken down in 1874 due to the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act passed a year earlier. The Government of India Act had made it vestigial and obsolete by then. The official government machinery of the British Raj had assumed its governmental roles and absorbed its armies.

Roles of Export Inspection Council

The organisation's primary role is to certify the standards and quality of products exported to foreign Nations from India. The details of the process is explained below-

Standards of commodities

Export Inspection Council gives assurance on the standards of the products specified under the Export Act 1963 through either review or food security management-based certification.

Provide Certifications

Some of the certifications issued by the Export Inspection Council are given below-

• Quality Certification to export goods by installing review protocols in the export subdivisions and through consignment-based examination.

• Quality Certification for exportable food products by establishing Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) in the food dispensation subdivisions that follow international guidelines.

• EIC also issues various certificates on health and authenticity and provides support to exporters through multiple commodity export schemes.

• Certificates of Origin are certified to exporters via favoured tariff policies for commodities.

Quality control and safety inspections by Export Inspection Council

Export Inspection Council manages the standards, security examinations, and matters concerned with it, as prescribed following the Export (Quality Control and Inspection) Act. Through its undertakings or its field organisations, EIC also manages services as described below,

Laboratory examination provisions for exporters who wish to get testing done freely or as a mandate of exporting obligations.

Export Inspection Council also acknowledges Inspection Agencies following ISO 17020 and Laboratories under ISO 17025 and uses them for export inspection and assessment.

Export Inspection Council evaluates and gives technical assistance to the industry while establishing Quality and Safety Management Systems. These are constructed on principles of ISO-9001: 2000, ISO: 17025, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), and other linked international criteria, laboratory tests, etc.

Export Inspection Council and its Agencies have provisions. They are equipped in the grade management and analysis of certified goods, along with checking according to international standards or importing countries' specifications.

Export Inspection Council and the exporter

It is to be noted that the powers of the EIC have an immediate connection to exporters. For instance, the Director of Inspection and Quality Control is responsible for authorising any campus's entry and inspection, specifically if malpractice or adulteration is suspected.

Authorised officers are responsible for searching or checking the premises for wrong practices. Officers of the organisation can also seize products for a specific period if required. They are authorised to take away any products regarding which certification may falsely acquire or any Act provision was deterred.

It is advisable for the exporter to remain aware of the services and provisions of EIC and also its obligations and powers.

Export Inspection Council certification process

Before the shipment of products notified under the Export (Quality Control & Inspection) Act, 1963, an exporter can take support from the services of the Export Inspection Council and its subdivisions for mandatory testing. Exporters can aid services for the commodities not identified in the section by paying the quoted fee.

The EIC considers the basis of the exercise while undertaking the survey or certification, which are the following-

1. The requirement of the survey may be notified directly.

2. The international parties may notify the requirement.

3. Survey or certification in accordance with the need of the importing nations.

4. It can be taken in accordance with the standards relevant to the commodities.

The Export Inspection Council's primary purpose is to ensure that the commodities fall under the importing country's and the importer's requirements. EIC's Certificate of Inspection proclaims that the items were in an acceptable state before the shipment.

Significance of Export Inspection Council

The services of EIC are significant for trade and business as they give third-party certification and connect as an official quality review. As an esteemed part of the consensus and MOUs attested with various control bodies, the certificate of EIC is considered evidence that the commodities meet the nation's requirements.

Origin of East India Company

In the Anglo-Spanish War held between 1585 and 1604, James Lancaster instructed the first East India Company voyage in 1601 In 1577, Francis Drake set out on an expedition from England to plunder Spanish settlements in South America in search of gold and silver.

He was successful in getting this in the Golden Hind but also sailed through the Pacific Ocean in the year 1579. This route was known only to the Spanish and Portuguese then. Drake sailed through the East Indies and came across the Moluccas in the end. Moluccas was also known as the Spice Islands. He then met Sultan Babullah.

In exchange for linen products, gold, and silver, a massive haul of exotic spices, like cloves and nutmeg, was undertaken. Initially, the English did not realize their vast value. Drake became a hero as he returned to England in 1580; his navigation was successful in raising money for England's coffers, from which the investors received almost 5000 percent returns.

During the late sixteenth century, this started a critical element in the eastern structure. the captivated Spanish and Portuguese cargoes allowed English voyagers to venture through the globe in quest of riches after the defeat of the Spanish in 1588. Queen Elizabeth, I was petitioned by London merchants asking to sail through the Indian Ocean.

To put a situational blow to the Spanish and Portuguese monopoly of the Eastern Trade, was the main purpose. Elizabeth gave her consent to the petition. James Lancaster, in the Bonaventure and two more ships from the Levant Company, took sail from Torbay across the Cape of Good Hope to the Arabian Sea on 10 April 1591. This is known as the first successful English venture to India through the Cape. 

Before their return to England in 1594 after sailing through the Cape to the Malay Peninsula, they lived on Spanish and Portuguese ships. One of the important possessions that motivated the English trade was the taking of a huge Portuguese carrack, the Madre de Deus. This was done in August 1592, by Sir Walter Raleigh and the Earl of Cumberland at the Battle of Flores.

When the ship was brought into Dartmouth, she was the largest vessel ever seen in England. It carried chests of jewels, pearls, gold, silver coins, cloth, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. The ship also had vital information on Chinese, Indian, and Japanese trade routes.

Three English ships sailed through the east In 1596, but all of them disappeared at sea. The arrival of Ralph Fitch, an adventurer merchant a year later was remarkable. He had made a remarkable fifteen-year land journey to Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, India and Southeast Asia with his fellow companions.

From trading company to military power by East India Company

The East India Company originated beyond a purely commercial enterprise when the war between Britain and France spread to India in the mid-1740s. The Company set military supremacy over rival European trading companies and local rulers, peaking in 1757 in the seizure of dominance over the province of Bengal.

In 1765, the Mughal Emperor gave the Company the Diwani (the right to harvest the revenues of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa), which brought funds to bolster the Company's military presence in the sub-continent. Furthermore, territorial control in India during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries strengthened the Company's role from a mere trader to a hybrid sovereign power.