World Standards Day

Standardization is the development, approval and compliance with uniform norms, rules and standards that apply to different areas of activity. The creation of uniform standards is a necessary process that affects the global economy, improving the quality of various goods and services, and new achievements in scientific and economic progress. Standardization is used in various sectors of science and technology, industry, agriculture, construction, healthcare, culture, and international trade. October 14 is World Standards Day, which was established in 1970. The President of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) suggested highlighting this date. This proposal was made to highlight the need for standardization across various sectors of the economy. Later, other global organizations - ITU and IEC - joined the celebration of this day. Standards were formed a long time ago, around the same time when the first trade relations emerged. Initially, trade transactions were carried out on exchange terms. As a result, the first standard of weight appeared - a bag of grain, which measured the value of the goods. Later, the value of goods began to be determined by the weight of coins or gold. The basic principles of the Gold Standard were applied in economics for a very long time, until 1971. In 996, the Prince of Kyiv signed a decree on uniform measures of length and weight. This event can be called the birth of the era of Russian standardization, because any specific measure is a standard. In 1918, an international system of measures was introduced in the USSR, weight began to be measured not in pounds, but in kilograms, and meters, rather than fathoms, were also used for measurement. In 1925, the first central Committee for Standardization in the USSR was founded. In 1926, the Committee developed the first standards for the USSR for certain varieties of wheat and for various goods. In 1940, a list of GOST standards appeared. On October 14, 1946, a conference was held in London, in which 25 countries participated, including the USSR. At the conference, a joint decision was made to create the ISO International Organization. Today ISO includes 162 countries. The ISO organization has created more than 7,000 standards, and every year about five hundred new normative rules appear, which also include various additions or changes to existing standards. It takes approximately 5-6 years to develop and implement a new international standard. Every year World Standards Day is dedicated to a specific theme, which is expressed by a corresponding motto. The theme of the holiday is selected and approved by the heads of global organizations: ISO, IEC and ITU.