Union Minister Pralhad Joshi inaugurated the new state-of-the-art building of the National Test House (NTH) in Bengaluru on 29 August 2026 to mark the institution’s 115th Foundation Day celebrations at its Jakkuru campus. The event also saw the virtual commissioning of new testing facilities across the country and the launch of the NTH Suvidha mobile app to make quality testing simpler for industry and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Established in 1912 and functioning under the Department of Consumer Affairs, NTH is now being positioned as a future-ready backbone for India’s quality infrastructure.
What Is the National Test House?
The National Test House (NTH) is India’s oldest and largest government testing institution. It was first set up in 1912 as the Government Test House at Alipore, Kolkata, under the Railway Board to test whether stores made in India could be used by the Indian Railways and to support import substitution.
Over the next century it grew beyond railways. From 1916 to 1918, the Indian Industrial Commission helped transform it into the testing arm of the Indian Stores Department, which supplied material to government departments including defence. In 1934, it housed the Industrial Intelligence and Research Bureau, the forerunner of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Today it works as a subordinate office under the Department of Consumer Affairs, which is one of two departments under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (MoCAF&PD). The other department is the Department of Food and Public Distribution. The Ministry is headed by Pralhad Joshi, who took charge as Union Cabinet Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and New and Renewable Energy on 11 June 2024. He represents the Dharwad Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka.
Is NTH government or private? It is a fully government organization. Its headquarters is at Salt Lake, Kolkata, and its overall head is the Director General, NTH, based there.
NTH’s core work is testing, calibration and quality evaluation of almost all engineering materials and finished products, except drugs, arms and ammunition. It tests samples against national standards, international standards or specific customer specifications and issues test certificates. It also provides allied services such as failure analysis, consultancy, assistance in import substitution and support to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in framing Indian Standards. All its major laboratories are accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) under the Quality Council of India, which means its results follow the global standard IS/ISO/IEC 17025 and are widely accepted.
Bengaluru’s New State-of-the-Art Building and Nationwide Virtual Launches
The highlight of the 115th Foundation Day programme was the inauguration of the new NTH building at the Jakkuru campus in Bengaluru. The campus is located inside the Regional Reference Standard Laboratory (RRSL) premises at Jakkuru, near Yelahanka, close to Manyata Tech Park and to major testing users such as HAL, BEL, BHEL and ISRO facilities as well as dense MSME clusters in Karnataka. The foundation stone for the Electric Vehicle (EV) battery testing facility on this campus was laid by Pralhad Joshi on 22 August 2024. The project was completed in about two years under timelines aligned with the PM GatiShakti initiative.
The new Bengaluru building is equipped for advanced testing across electrical, mechanical, civil, chemical and renewable energy products. It will serve Karnataka’s fast growing sectors such as aerospace, electric vehicles, electronics and startups. Officials said the facility will offer NABL-accredited testing, faster turnaround and digital reporting, so industries in South India will not need to send samples all the way to Ghaziabad or Kolkata. The building also houses a new EV battery testing laboratory, built at a cost of about ₹15 crore on one acre, with equipment to check electrical safety, functional safety, climate resistance including Ingress Protection (IP) tests, ultraviolet radiation and corrosion, and mechanical tests including flammability and glow wire. This is crucial as battery fires have raised concerns about EV safety.
Alongside the Bengaluru inauguration, the Minister virtually commissioned several other facilities across the NTH network, expanding capacity in different regions at the same time.
Facilities Commissioned Across the NTH Network
| Facility / Initiative | Location | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Coal Testing Facility | NTH (ER), Kolkata | Testing of coal and related materials for power and industrial users |
| Solar Water Heater Testing Facility | NTH (SR), Chennai | Performance evaluation of solar water heaters |
| Utensils and Cookware Testing Facility | NTH (NWR), Jaipur | Quality testing of pressure cookers, utensils and kitchenware |
| Solar Module and Meter Testing Expansion | Part of network upgrade mentioned at event | Supporting solar energy equipment quality |
| EV Battery Testing Laboratory | NTH, Bengaluru (Jakkuru) | Safety and performance testing for EV batteries and components |
| NTH Laboratory | Deendayal Hastkala Sankul, Varanasi (Satellite Centre) | Extending testing access in eastern Uttar Pradesh |
| Drone Testing and Certification System | NTH (NR), Ghaziabad and network | Only government agency for drone certification, for agriculture, surveying and disaster management |
| Chemical Testing Laboratory Expansion | NTH (NR), Ghaziabad | Enhanced chemical analysis for clean transport and public health |
Several Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were also signed with prestigious institutions for technical knowledge sharing and skill development. The Minister honoured outstanding NTH employees during the ceremony. Others present included B. L. Verma, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Social Justice and Empowerment, Shobha Karandlaje, Minister of State for MSME and Labour and Employment, Nidhi Khare, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Richa Mishra, Additional Secretary, and Alok Kumar Srivastava, Director General, NTH.
What Is the NTH Suvidha App and How Will It Help MSMEs?
NTH Suvidha is a new mobile application launched to make NTH services transparent, faceless and easy to access. The word Suvidha means convenience, and the app is designed especially for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and other industry stakeholders who earlier faced paperwork, delays and repeated physical visits.
Through the app, users can book samples online, track testing status in real time, make payments, download test reports and give feedback. The platform reduces manual errors, cuts turnaround time and aligns with the government’s Digital India and PM GatiShakti vision. Officials said the app will offer multilingual support and easier integration with government procurement and commerce systems.
For MSMEs, this matters because quality testing is often required to supply to large buyers, to take part in government tenders on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), and to meet Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) requirements. Earlier, small units in far off clusters had to send samples to distant NTH centres. With digital booking and a growing physical network, including the new Bengaluru and Varanasi nodes, testing becomes faster and cheaper.
Shobha Karandlaje noted on the same occasion that the country’s first MSME Air Technology Centre has been established in Bengaluru at a cost of about ₹200 crore to meet international grade testing needs of the aerospace and defence sector. Suppliers to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and other aerospace firms earlier had to rely on foreign labs for certain chemical and specialised tests. Three dedicated testing domains for aerospace components and materials have now been set up in Bengaluru, which strengthens self reliance in defence production.
National Test House Network and Its Role in India’s Quality Ecosystem
NTH today runs a pan-India network of laboratories that test raw materials and finished products and calibrate measuring instruments. Each laboratory is NABL-accredited and follows IS/ISO/IEC 17025.
| Region | Centre | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters and Eastern Region (ER) | NTH, Salt Lake and NTH, Alipore (11/1 Judges Court Road) | Kolkata, West Bengal |
| Western Region (WR) | NTH, Marol | Plot F-10, MIDC, Andheri East, Mumbai, Maharashtra |
| Southern Region (SR) | NTH, Tharamani (CSIR Road) | Chennai, Tamil Nadu |
| Northern Region (NR) | NTH, Kamla Nehru Nagar | Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh |
| North Western Region (NWR) | NTH, VKI Area (E-763 Road 9F-1) | Jaipur, Rajasthan |
| North Eastern Region (NER) | NTH, Kalapahar (CITI Complex) | Guwahati, Assam |
| Satellite Centre | NTH, Payakpur, Babatpur-Bhadohi Road | Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh |
| New Satellite / RRSL Campus | NTH, Jakkuru | Bengaluru, Karnataka |
The work of NTH sits alongside other key pillars of India’s quality system. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), established under the BIS Act, 1986 and now governed by the BIS Act, 2016 (in force from 12 October 2017), is the National Standards Body under the same Department of Consumer Affairs. BIS frames Indian Standards and runs conformity assessment schemes that use the ISI mark. BIS operates eight of its own laboratories and also recognises NABL-accredited labs. NABL, under the Quality Council of India, accredits labs for competence, and its accreditation allows Indian test reports to be accepted globally through mutual recognition with ILAC and APAC. The Legal Metrology Act, 2009 governs weights and measures.
NTH is an empanelled testing and quality assurance agency for major national projects such as the Jal Jeevan Mission, Bullet Train project, Metro projects, fertiliser testing and electricity projects. It is also the only government agency that provides drone certification in India, which supports safe use of drones in agriculture, surveying and disaster management. Newer focus areas include EV battery and charger testing, AI-driven testing, hydrogen energy, smart materials and advanced electronics. A Laboratory Data Automation System (LDAS) is being rolled out to reduce manual errors and speed up reporting.
The network’s growth is visible in numbers. NTH tested 45,926 samples in 2024-25, a growth of more than 60 percent over the previous year. Revenue rose from ₹29.66 crore in 2023-24 to ₹44.45 crore in 2024-25, a rise of about 49.89 percent. By August 2026 the Minister reported annual revenue had crossed ₹50 crore, up from about ₹10 to 20 crore a few years earlier. Samples are now received not only from across India but also from Sri Lanka, Dubai, Bahrain and Bhutan.
NTH is governed by an Executive Committee chaired by the Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, which takes policy decisions on functioning, growth and new business areas.
Why the 115th Foundation Day Matters for Quality and Self-Reliance
The 115th year, covering 1912 to 2026, marks more than a century of service that began in the British era and now spans the Amrit Kaal towards Viksit Bharat 2047. The Minister noted that around 2012 there had even been a proposal to close NTH, but instead it was revived and strengthened to support Make in India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
Three larger shifts make this moment important.
First, quality is now linked to global acceptance. India has become the 13th authorised member country of the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML), an intergovernmental body that harmonises legal metrology. This means measuring instruments tested in India, including those used at petrol retail outlets, now receive wider international recognition.
Second, manufacturing is being pushed towards Zero Defect, Zero Effect. This principle means products should have no defects and production should have no adverse effect on the environment. The Minister said a new testing agency approach is being developed to check not only product quality but also carbon footprint during manufacturing. For electric vehicles, this means battery efficiency, safety and performance must be tested domestically so that components made in India can compete globally over the next 1 to 15 years.
Third, domestic capacity reduces dependence on foreign labs. Aerospace, defence, EV and green energy firms can now get international grade tests within India, which supports MSMEs, attracts investment and builds a safe ecosystem for emerging technologies such as drones, EV batteries and green hydrogen. The combination of physical infrastructure like the Bengaluru building and digital tools like NTH Suvidha aims to bring quality testing closer to factories and startups, improve consumer protection through better standards, and help India become a global manufacturing hub.
Key Takeaways
- The new NTH Bengaluru building at Jakkuru was inaugurated on 29 August 2026 by Pralhad Joshi to mark the 115th Foundation Day of the National Test House, which was established in 1912 at Alipore, Kolkata.
- NTH functions as a government testing institution under the Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, with headquarters at Salt Lake, Kolkata.
- The NTH Suvidha mobile app was launched to enable online sample booking, real time tracking, payment, report download and feedback for MSMEs and industry stakeholders.
- Facilities virtually commissioned include the Coal Testing Facility at Kolkata, Solar Water Heater Testing Facility at Chennai, Utensils Testing Facility at Jaipur and a new NTH Laboratory at Varanasi, besides the EV battery testing lab at Bengaluru.
- NTH’s network covers Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Ghaziabad, Jaipur, Guwahati, Varanasi and Bengaluru, with all major labs NABL-accredited under IS/ISO/IEC 17025.
- NTH tested 45,926 samples in 2024-25 and revenue rose from ₹29.66 crore to ₹44.45 crore, crossing ₹50 crore by 2026, with samples now from Sri Lanka, Dubai, Bahrain and Bhutan.
