 REST over the years, has been a source of information on Conformity Assessment, be it certification, inspection or testing. In the capacity of being national accreditation body Quality Council of India is custodian of conformity assessment in the country. Conformity Assessment generally gets identified with International Trade. Accreditation facilitates various Conformity Assessment bodies to get international acceptance, by what we say 'Certified/Tested once, accepted everywhere'. Accreditation is designed to ensure technical competency of various conformity assessment bodies to carry out the task within their scope of functioning. Process of accreditation is built around transparency and objectivity. can accreditation be used as facilitating tool in the governance of a nation? Few recent incidents, which have impact of varying degrees on governance, are worth mentioning.
(a) Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
(MHFW) has announced on its website
that only accredited hospitals/diagnostic centres,
in time to come, will be empanelled for
CGHS. This directive on the part of MHFW
emphatically aims at bringing total transparency
and objectivity.
(b) Ministry of Environment & Forests
(MOEF) has endorsed a scheme for registration
of EIA consulting organisation through
QCI. This has been done to build technical
competency and transparency in Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) for all projects.
(c) Ministry of Tribal Affairs is contemplating
developing a scheme to be operated by
QCI, of empanelling of various agencies
including NGOs, that carry out projects on
social upliftment of tribal communities. Once
again, it is an effort to enable selection of
competent agencies for social welfare of the
underprivileged.
(d) There is a move to formulate standards
on environment legislations and labour
laws. The standards will be offered for compliance
under accreditation by QCI. The
organisations complying with such standards
will be exempted from mandatory
visits/checks by the regulatory authorities.
While these are some of the examples, many more
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could find their way in time to
come. Regulations relying on accreditation is
going to be an exciting proposition. The regulating
agency, while retaining control, can
add value in the most objective manner
How do we measure Quality of a nation? I
was going through a report compiled by CII
on ‘India in the Global Economy — Key
Indicators’. The annual GDP growth in 2005
has been 8.5 per cent, which is second highest
among all nations put together, China being
highest at 9.9 per cent. The foreign exchange
reserves show an impressive figure of US
$158.3 bn, till August 2006. The Sensex has
been soaring consistently for quite some time.
The report also shows Gross National Income
(GNI) on the basis of Purchasing Power Parity
(PPP), with India being ranked at fourth
place out of 135 nations. This is half the story,
which indicates good governance. The next
indicator comes on GNI per capita. Here India
goes as low as 144th out of 208 nations. This
continues when we look at the Human Development
Index, with India ranked at 126 out of
177 countries. The report also provides the
governance effectiveness score at 52, with
Singapore being at the top, with a score of
100. Whereas one part projects Quality governance,
the other part projects equally the poor
side of it.
The theme of Second National Quality
Conclave (9-10 February, 2007) is VISION
2020 for Quality India. The conclave has
been uniquely structured to deliberate on quality
issues not limited to industry alone but
concerning the nation. It is all the more important
that the conclave is being inaugurated by
President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam,
who coined VISION 2020 for a Strong and
Vibrant India. A pre-conclave symposium
specifically designed for this, will deliberate
on some of the key issues on Quality in
national perspective with strong connotation
to Governance.
Starting with this pre-conclave issue,
CREST is being re-christened as Quality
India. This also being the first issue coming
out in the new year, I convey my greetings to
all readers of Quality India with the resolve:
'Network to build Quality India. |
