Published on Thu Jan 08 2026 15:27:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) by Anuj Jain

The background

My son is a geek. He loves building stuff. More often that not, it is some sort of an electrical gadget that requires batteries. We go through batteries like crazy. I’ve tried a bunch of batteries - everything from regular alkaline batteries to these highly recommended Ni-MH batteries. However, they all have their pitfalls.

• Alkaline batteries (like the AmazonBasics AA) last for a long time, but are not rechargeable. I hate generating waste.
• Ni-MH batteries (like the Panasonic) are rechargeable, but are not as long-lasting as alkaline batteries.
• The recharging process for Ni-MH batteries sucks - who wants a new dedicated charger just for charging AA batteries?
• Ni-MH chemistry delivers a lesser voltage @1.2V. Hence, they are not actually suitable for most devices.
• Ni-MH chemistry basically sucks. These batteries never live up to their promise, and always die fairly quickly.

And that brought me to the obvious question - why don’t we have lithium-ion batteries packaged as AA batteries? Online searches on Amazon etc yielded little, and it seemed like it wasn’t possible. The problems are fairly obvious, if you think about it - lithium-ion cells output 3.6V typically, whereas a AA battery needs 1.5V. Also, most of the Li-ion cells you will encounter are shaped incorrectly - they’re either flat and rectangular, or like the 18650, too big.

This was in late 2024 btw.

The perfect battery?

So, I went Internet surfing (do people still say that?). Very quickly, I landed on this company’s website. They claimed to have all sorts of lithium-ion batteries! And guess what, that includes AA batteries! This thing checked all the right boxes -

• Lithium-ion cells, so they last for a long time. More than 1000 charging cycles.
• They are rechargeable. Not just that, but they recharge from a built-in USB-C port! No more dedicated chargers.
• 1.5V voltage delivery through a built-in buck convertor.

This thing looked bloody fantastic! I got in touch with the company, and they told me their batteries weren’t available in India. Why not, I wondered? Did some basic research, and it turns out you can’t just import and sell Li-ion batteries in India. Oh no! India’s government, through the Bureau of Indian Standards, has strict rules about importing batteries. There is a Compulsory Registration Scheme and any product under this list has to be approved by the BIS before you can sell it in India. So I thought, “Meh, I have the time. How hard could it be?” and decided to try my hand at going through the certification process and importing the batteries. Yeah, naive and stupid.

The setup

Couple of things I was sure of -

• I had the time. And money (at this point, the assumption was that overall it would require about Rs 1,00,000 to get the entire process done).
• I wasn’t going to give any bribes. Against my ethos.
• I was prepared for the entire thing to fail. I have never commercially imported anything in my life, was completely unaware of the pitfalls, and had no idea what I was doing.

I got in touch with some consultants at Corpbiz who specialise in helping companies get BIS certification. I also incorporated a new company by the name of Vetinari Trading Private Limited (VTPL) under which the entire business would fall.

The timeline

Instead of a long, boring description of everything I went through, I think a timeline would be better. All dates are from 2024.

• 9 January - Got in touch with Corpbiz to get BIS certification. They handed me a long list of documents that would be required through the journey. No biggie - I’m a patient man!
• 13 January - Get a quote from XTAR to ship battery samples to India for BIS testing. Also start the incorporation process for VTPL.
• 14 February - VTPL incorporation is approved after several name changes.
• 28 February - Get the Certificate of Incorporation for VTPL. However, the automatic GST registration does not happen for unknown reasons. We apply for that separately.
• 4 March - Send documents from XTAR to Corpbiz, so that they can register on the BIS website.
• 27 March - GST registration for VTPL is approved. Overall cost of incorporation is Rs 36,000.
• 3 April - Make a payment of $350 to XTAR to ship battery samples to India for BIS testing.
• 17 April - Batteries are shipped from China.
• 22 April - Pay Rs 38,880 and Rs 31,860 to Corpbiz for BIS testing. Why two payments? Because the batteries and cells need to be tested separately!
• 28 April - Batteries are received in India.
• 3 May - Paid Rs 35,400 to Corpbiz as their fees.
• 12 May - BIS registration completed. Rest of May is spent sending more documents back and forth as requested by the testing lab.
• 9 June - Great success! Batteries and cells have passed testing! We just need to upload the reports on BIS, and apply for the license! Can almost see the finish line now.
• 16 June - Get a list of documents required for BIS application. Painfully long list. Each of the two certifications required roughly 100 pages of documents! Huge amount of time is spent with Corpbiz consultants getting everything ready.
• 24 July - Applications are finally submitted for license.
• 4 August - BIS raises additional queries. Just need to get the paperwork in order.
• 14 August - BIS raises additional queries. Just need to get the paperwork in order.
• 18 August - BIS raises additional queries. Just need to get the paperwork in order. This is it, nothing more required!

Today (8 January 2025) - Applications are in exactly the same state.

WTF? What happened, you ask? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Nada. Zilch.

BIS has ghosted me.

I try writing to them on 24 September 2024. I write -

Respected Sir/Madam,

I had applied for BIS certification for my product (AA rechargeable lithium ion battery), and had completed all the formalities on the 24th of July (as can be seen from the screenshot below) -

(followed by all the application details). They respond -

Dear Sir/ Ma’am

Greetings from BIS!

Your Application ID: 2024-3556 is under parallel testing with application id: 2025-3557 and there (sic) NOC is awaited from Meity.

We thank you for your patience and request you to bear with us for some time please.

Meity is the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. I get a friend who knows some folks over there to reach to them and find out what the issue is. They respond - “brother, it ain’t happening” (I paraphrase, of course). Why? “Because we’re under instructions from the government not to approve any products from China”.

Just. like. that.

I suppose I started by saying I was ready for failure. But somehow, geopolitics was not on my radar of things that could go wrong. All that time and money spent on the entire process was for naught. Just writing down all of this feels a little cathartic though. I still check-in on the BIS website every week or so, hoping against hope that something will change. I hear relations are thawing between our two countries?

One can only hope.

Written by Anuj Jain