NABCB Accreditation Scheme for Artificial Intelligence Management System (AIMS) Certification Bodies

The Quality Council of India (QCI) was set up by the Government of India and Indian industry to establish India's accreditation system, and NABCB is the QCI board that accredits certification bodies for management systems such as quality, information security, IT service management and AIMS.¹ ISO/IEC 42001:2023 is the international management system standard for artificial intelligence. In NABCB's words it provides guidelines for applying controls that support management processes in organisations that develop, produce or use AI systems, covering security, safety, fairness, transparency, data quality and quality of AI systems across their life cycle.¹ The Bureau of Indian Standards has adopted the standard as IS/ISO/IEC 42001:2023, and the India AI Governance Guidelines list it among AI standards.³

The Pacta repository describes NABCB's AIMS scheme as launched in October 2024. The NABCB documents reviewed for this entry are dated April and May 2026, and this entry could not confirm the October 2024 date from the NABCB website, so that date is kept only as recorded in the repository.

The criteria document, NABCB 220, opens with a foreword on why AI needs a management system. It says AI is transforming industries but that deploying and managing AI systems raises challenges, including ethical considerations, risk management, data quality and transparency, information and cyber security, and the validation and verification of algorithms.¹ The document sets out the criteria for certification bodies that certify an organisation's AIMS against ISO/IEC 42001:2023 or another standard that meets NABCB's policy on recognition of standards.¹

The scheme does not set rules for how AI may be built or used. It governs who is qualified to audit and certify an organisation's AI governance processes. A certificate shows that an organisation's management system conforms to the standard, as assessed by an accredited body, and the criteria apply to the certification body.¹

Criteria. Certification bodies seeking accreditation must comply with ISO/IEC 17021-1, the general requirements for bodies auditing and certifying management systems, and ISO/IEC 42006:2025, the requirements for bodies auditing and certifying AI management systems. NABCB adopts any IAF or APAC mandatory document on AIMS, and IAF MD 1, MD 2, MD 4, MD 11 and MD 28 apply.¹

Scopes. NABCB decided not to specify sector scopes. Accreditation is granted as per ISO/IEC 42006:2025.¹

Competence. Competence is assessed against ISO/IEC 42006:2025, including its clause on competence of personnel read with ISO/IEC 17021-1. Each certification body must have procedures to qualify and monitor certification personnel and must define competence criteria in terms of knowledge and experience of the technical, AI and AIMS-related legal obligations and regulatory developments relevant to the client. It must also define sectors and technical areas based on AI risk, complexity of processing and business domains, with healthcare and financial clients given as examples where specialised AI models may be used.¹

Audit time. Bodies must use ISO/IEC 42006:2025 (clause 9.1.4 and its annexes) with ISO/IEC 17021-1 to calculate audit time for AI producers, AI providers and AI users, including those with several roles, and must have procedures for initial, surveillance, recertification and special audits, multi-site organisations and certificate transfers.¹

NABCB's Scheme Documents page lists NABCB 220 (April 2026) and a checklist for the document review report for AIMS under ISO/IEC 42006 (form NABCB F 456, April 2026).⁴ The criteria's amendment record shows the April 2026 revision was approved by the CEO and aligned the criteria with ISO/IEC 42006:2025.¹

The NABCB Policy on Transition to ISO/IEC 42006:2025 (AIMS) was issued and took effect on 5 May 2026.² It tells accredited and applicant certification bodies to adopt ISO/IEC 42006:2025 as part of the accreditation criteria, with assessment under ISO/IEC 42006:2025, ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 and other applicable standards. NABCB would be ready to assess from 1 May 2026, would accept applications from that date, and expects bodies to submit a self-declaration and plan by 31 May 2026. All NABCB transitions are to be completed by 31 July 2027, and bodies must transition certified clients by 31 July 2028, either at a scheduled audit or at a special transition audit. NABCB adds 0.5 man-day to a scheduled office assessment for the transition, or 1 man-day if it is a separate on-site office assessment, and bodies in initial accreditation must undergo a transition assessment before the accreditation decision.²

As of 15 October 2026 the NABCB site lists the AIMS transition policy among its latest news and updates, and the Scheme Documents page carries NABCB 220 (April 2026).²⁴ This entry could not verify when NABCB first launched the scheme (the repository says October 2024), whether any certification body has been accredited for AIMS, or how many organisations hold ISO/IEC 42001 certificates from NABCB-accredited bodies. The sources reviewed did not mention an AIMS mutual recognition arrangement.