Commerce & Industries Minister Piyush Goyal Reviews Quality Council of India

Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry has said that Quality is going to define India’s future. Reviewing the performance of the Quality Council of India (QCI) through the Video conference, Shri Goyal said that Aatmanirbhar Bharat will grow and prosper on the basis of quality indigenous products and services. He said that quality consciousness will have to percolate to the level of the common man, and quality culture imbibed and cultivated in all aspects of our life.

Quality Council of India is a non-profit autonomous society, under the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), with the mandate to establish an accreditation structure in the country and to spread quality movement in India by undertaking a National Quality Campaign. The Mission of QCI is to lead nationwide quality movement in India by involving all stakeholders for emphasis on adherence to quality standards in all spheres of activities primarily for promoting and protecting interests of the nation and its citizens.

Lauding the QCI for growing exponentially in last few years and developing a large bandwidth for activities across the sectors and streams, the Minister said the march must go on in an uninterrupted manner. He said that QCI has taken many initiatives during the lockdown period, but the real challenge and opportunity lies in the post-Covid era. Shri Goyal said that the future is going to usher in a new way of life, with new norms. No aspect of human life, be it social, family, economic etc is going to remain untouched with this new Norm. The new Norm will call for new quality standards in all fields, including education, health, shopping, services. He called upon the QCI to study the best practices evolving in other countries for the post-Covid era, and adopt them in India, after taking into account various aspects and local situation. He also asked the QCI to do the Gap Analysis in skills in the country, and suggest means to fill the gap. The Minister said that the large training infrastructure set up for offline training in the Government sector may not be required in the future, and online training may prove to be more effective, and affordable.

The Minister emphasized on the fact that the quality evaluation and certification should be rational, transparent, reliable, and free from any manipulation or malpractices. The quality standards should be of high class and implementable.  He said the QCI and GeM (Government e-Marketplace) should join hands to ensure that all high-value products on the GeM portal are quality certified. He also stressed on the urgent need for evolving quality standards in the education, health, hospitality, transport, packaging, food processing, MSME sectors. Shri Goyalcalled upon the QCI to help the private sector also in adopting the quality standards and practices.