Promotion of Quality Standards Among Manufacturing is Top Priority

The Quality Council of India (QCI) works for promotion of Quality Standards across various economic and social sectors such as manufacturing, education, health and environment. The QCI has been established as a National body for Accreditation on recommendation of Expert Mission of EU after consultation in Inter-Ministerial Task Force, Committee of Secretaries and Group of Ministers through a Cabinet decision in 1996. Accordingly, the QCI was set up through a PPP model as an independent autonomous organization with the support of Government of India and the Indian Industry represented by the three premier industry associations, (i) Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), (ii) Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and (iii) Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

The QCI is the umbrella organisation of five boards:

1. NABL - National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories;
2. NABH- National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare;
3. NABET- National Accreditation Board for Education and Training;
4. NABCB- National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies; and
5. NBQP- National Board for Quality Promotion

Besides carrying out accreditation, certification, empanelment and third-party assessment activities through its Boards, QCI is also involved in project initiation, planning & development and its successful execution for various ministries, Government departments and State Governments. It carries out such activities through its five Boards and three divisions under Special Projects namely:

1. - ZERO DEFECT ZERO EFFECT,
2. – Project Analysis and Documentation Division; and
3. – Project Planning & Implementation Division.

The projects are carried out as and when allotted by the concerned departments/organizations and as per the scope, guidelines and timelines as agreed with the concerned organizations/ departments.

QCI operates its quality assurance activities in areas related to industry, education & training, laboratory, environment, health care, sports, etc. through its above five constituent Boards. The scope of each of the accreditation Boards of QCI is given below:

National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies(NABCB)

National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies provides accreditation to Certification and Inspection Bodies based on assessment of their competence as per the Board's criteria and in accordance with International Standards and Guidelines.  NABCB is internationally recognized and represents the interests of the Indian industry at international forums through membership and active participation. NABCB is a member of International Accreditation Forum (IAF) & Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC) as well as signatory to their Multilateral Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MLAs / MRAs) for Quality Management Systems, Environmental Management Systems, Food Safety Management Systems, Product Certification, Global G.A.P. and Information Security Management Systems. NABCB is also a signatory to PAC MLA for Energy Management Systems.  NABCB is a Full Member of International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) & Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) and a signatory to their MRAs for Inspection. NABCB accreditations are internationally equivalent and facilitates global acceptance of certifications / inspections by its accredited bodies.

National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH)

National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) operates accreditation programme for healthcare organisations. The board is structured to cater to much desired needs of the consumers and to set benchmarks for progress of healthcare organizations. The Board while being supported by all stakeholders including industry, consumers, government, operates within the overall internationally accepted benchmarks of quality. NABH is an Institutional Member of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (lSQua). It is also a member as well as on the Board of Asian Society for Quality in Healthcare (ASQua).

National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET)

National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET) has set up an established mechanism for overall quality assurance in sectors such as services, education-formal and non-formal, industry and environment.Forfocused strategic direction it performs its activities through five distinct verticals namely; Formal Education Excellence Division (FEED), Skills Training, Skill Certification, Environment & MSME. The activities of the Board are accreditation of Certification Bodies that are working in the domain of personnel certification, certification of training providers and educational organizations. NABET works with many Central Government ministries, state governments and sector specific associations/chambers to help them create structures and standards in their services, training institutions and other regulatory processes through third party accreditation mechanism. With the aim to add creative value to the services, education and training-learning ecosystem NABET works as per International standards and protocols. NABET is a member of International Accreditation Forum (IAF) & Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC).

National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration of Laboratories (NABL)

National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration of Laboratories (NABL) grants Accreditation (Recognition) of technical competence of a testing, calibration, medical laboratory, Proficiency Testing Provider (PTP) and Reference Material Producer (RMP) for a specific scope following international standards.  NABL has Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRA) with Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) and is also signatory to International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).

PPID executes projects related to Monitoring and Evaluation of Government Flagship Schemes as required by various Government Ministries/Department and Strategy and Policy Based Projects. The details and scope of active projects undertaken by PPID along with their timeline is:

Project Planning and Implementation Division

1. Design Innovation Centres

Start Date: 28^th December 2019

End Date: 21st February 2020

Design Innovation Centres (DIC) has been established by MHRD in many government educational institutions under the National Initiative for Design Innovation (NIDI) scheme. One of the mandates of DICs is to introduce knowledge application activities as a part of curricula in order to address challenges facing our society. There are 20 DICs which are located in IITs, central universities, technical universities, etc. Each of the 20 DICs has at least 3 partnering institutes under the hub and spoke model. QCI has conducted an independent assessment on 15 DICs and 10 spokes in order to evaluate the whole scheme. We have completed the on-ground assessment of all 25 DICs.

1. Ayushman Bharat

Start Date: 12 June 2019

End Date. : June 2022

  20000 Hospitals are currently empanelled with AB-PMJAY scheme and are eligible for certification.The certification is in 3 level programmes i.e. gold, silver and bronze. The empanelled hospitals with no other certification will be assessed on the basic level standards prepared by QCI in collaboration of National Health Authority (NHA) and healthcare experts.

• Certified 50 hospitals, 27 for Gold and 23 for Silver Quality Certificate
• 190+ hospitals have shown interest in the getting the Quality certification and they are yet to submit their applications.
• Technology portal and for the Bronze Quality Certification is live and ~250 hospitals are under-application stage
• QCI and NHA team is working on the media plan for promoting and creating the awareness about the certification across the country.

1. National Highways Excellence Awards 2019

Start Date: 16^th August 2019

End Date. : February 2020

End-to-end execution of National Highways Excellence Awards 2019. Mainly, this involved development of assessment frameworks for each new category, review of award categories from 2018, fine tuning of nomination portal, multiple rounds of assessment as per the developed methodology and finalisation of winners. With the conclusion of the nomination period, a total of 104 nominations across 7 categories were received.

Field assessment of 62 project sites was completed in December 2019. The results were reviewed by Screening Committee in December. Winners were awarded and facilitated by Minister Nitin Gadkari.

1. Swachh Bharat Mission

 Start Date: January 2018

 End Date. : March 2020

Quality Council of India has been commissioned by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to conduct ODF (Open Defecation Free), ODF+ and ODF++ assessments covering Urban Local Bodies across India. As on today,

• Total 4182 cities are once certified as ODF and India is declared as 95%    Open defecation free.
• 1109 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) are certified as ODF+.
• 375 ULBs are certified as ODF++

1. Third Party Sampling, Testing and Analysis of Coal

Start Date: 9 August 2017

End Date. : The project is for 5 years.

Coal India Limited (CIL) is striving to bring in transparency and accountability in the entire production and sale process of coal for all stakeholders including citizens of India. The process of 3rd party Sampling provides a transparent mechanism to scrutinize the quality of coal dispatched to customers and to curb disputes amongst its stakeholders. Also, coal grade assessment plays an important criterion for revisiting mine grades.

Major milestones achieved include:

1. Commencement of third-party sampling across all 8 subsidiaries of Coal India Limited (CIL)

1. Tripartite agreements of volume worth of 128 million metric tonnes signed for conducting third-party sampling, testing, and analysis.

1. A total volume of 134 MMT of coal sampled to date. Out of which, 57.5 Million Metric Tonnes has been sampled in F/Y 2019-20

1. In order to ensure the double-blinding of Coal Sample, QCI has developed a QR Code based application to capture collection, preparation across all loading points of coal India limited (CIL). Currently, the applications are being implemented at various locations where sampling is being carried out.

1. QCI has deployed nearly 120+ on ground representatives with 20 people deployed at central team to overlook entire operations

1. Third Party Testing of Fisheries for Formaldehyde

Start Date: June 2019

End Date. : December 2020

      Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Goa has nominated Quality Council of India (QCI) for Third Party Testing of Fisheries for Formaldehyde at different collection points such as: Border Checkpoints (For Entry), Wholesale fish market and Local Fish Market and jetty

• Sampling and testing are being carried out at border checkpoints since 15th June, 2019.
• A total of 16020 trucks have been screened from which 7509 samples were drawn for testing and analysis (for presence of formaldehyde).

1. Government e-Marketplace (PMU)

Start Date: January 2018

End Date. : December 2020

Project Management Unit:QCI signed a MoU with Government e-Marketplace (GeM) in 2017 and established a Project Management Unit (PMU) at GeM Headquarters from January 2018 onwards as a Quality Partner.

Service Validation Summary: 34496 Total request, 23903 approved, 9539 rejected and 1054 pending.

  Vendor Assessment Exemption Summary:

Applications received:  3139

Exempted                   :  2085

Not exempted             :  1053

Pending                      :        1

1. Government e-Marketplace (Vendor Assessment)

Start Date: June 2019

End Date. : - September 2022

Vendor Assessment: QCI is conducting an online Vendor Assessment (via web module) of the registered sellers on the GeM portal for the goods they have enlisted for assessment. The assessment focusses on the capability, capacity and financial stability to supply a product on a continual basis. The pilot phase was completed on 17th September 2019,post which the status of vendor assessment is as follows:

 Desktop Assessment Completed: 233

 Video Assessment Completed.    : 158

 Reports Generated                       : 152

1. Public Perception Survey

Start Date: August 2019

End Date. : February 2020

    Public Perception Survey was initiated by the Delhi Police to evaluate crimes, more accurately than the police statistics. The Project is considered to track the current performance of Delhi Police in the eyes of the general public.

• On-Ground Assessment of the first phase has been completed and report has been submitted to Delhi Police.
• Completed the targeted calls for the call centre for both victim and random calling and hence have wrapped up the work at the call centre.
• On-ground assessment (Household Surveys) of second phase has started on 4th November and is currently going on in 14 districts of Delhi.

1. High End Cleanliness Assessment at 8 Yatradhams across Gujarat

Start Date: October 2019

End Date. : September 2020

Gujarat PavitraYatradhamVikas Board (GPYVB) has undertaken high-end cleanliness at eight yatradhams to provide better amenities and improve visitor experience through high levels of cleanliness and upkeep at these locations. To ensure a two-level check, QCI has been assigned the work of third-party assessment at every site- which involves evaluating the work being done by cleaning agency as well as monitoring agency and provide a monthly report ranking their performance on various identified and discussed parameters. With more than two years of fruitful association with the client and content with the complete picture of the on-field work in form of effectual comprehensive reports by QCI, GPYVB has extended the contract of the project for another 1 year from October, 2019 to September, 2020(three times in a row) to continue the work being done in the locations.Each location is assessed once a month which includes surprise checks, assessing the knowledge of supervisors and taking public feedback from the local stakeholders and visitors on the basis of which   a monthly report comprising -  scorecards, cleanliness indexes, public feedback etc., is furnished by the team and published every month to keep GPYVB informed of the work being done at the locations.

1. Atal Innovation Mission

Start Date: June 2019

End Date. : - 31^st January 2020

• Atal Incubation Centres

Conducted a third-party assessment of 18 Atal Incubation Centres, distinguishably, 12 Atal Incubation Centres (AICs) and 6 Established Incubation Centres, spread across 11 states. Currently working on final reports.

• Atal Tinkering Lab

Conducted an independent assessment of 285 Atal tinkering labs across 28 States and 6 UTs on parameters such as appropriate utilization of grant-in-aid fund provided, adherence to AIM guidelines, etc. Currently working on final reports.

1. Third party evaluation for the TEQIP Phase III

Start Date: December 2019

End Date. : - March 2020

QCI will conduct the third party evaluation for the TEQIP Phase III by performing the detailed assessment at technical institutes which shall be a combination of mentor-mentee institutes, institutes belonging to low income/special category states and will submit a report to the National Project Implementation Unit- TEQIP (NPIU), highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the institutes as a whole. A separate draft report of each institute shall also be submitted, highlighting the findings of the assessment conducted. The report shall be useful in identifying the gaps and replicating the best practices being followed by their peer institutes. The report shall also showcase the assistance being provided under TEQIP Phase III for strengthening the quality of engineering education across the listed 174 institutes in India. Furthermore, this will help Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in strengthening their quality of the technical education systems.

This information was given by the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha