Courtesy: zed certification
The Quality Council of India (QCI) was set up as a public private partnership model on the model existing in Netherlands at the time, where although the NAB was not owned by the government, yet it was supported by it and was exceedingly used as a third party agency to improve quality in departments and industry. QCI thus, came to be organized as an independent autonomous body that worked towards assuring quality standards across all spheres of economic and social activities. Key industry associations, i.e. Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Global Green Building Council (GGBC) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) became the promoters of the organizers and QCI got established under the Societies Registration Act in 1996 to provide accreditation services in various sectors for product, services and persons.
The Council is independent and works under the directions of its Governing Body (GB) having equal representation of government, industry and industry associations. It does not get funded by the government and is a self-sustaining non-profit organization with its own Memorandum of Association (MOA) and Rules. Its current Chairman is Mr. Jaxay Shah and the Executive Head (Secretary General) is Dr Ravi P Singh. Chairman of QCI is nominated by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India and is a non-executive post.
Post liberalization, India embarked on a process of creating the quality infrastructure in the country which can help Indian products and services easy access to foreign markets in the new order under WTO regime. In the process, an organization was sought to be established which would function as the National Accreditation body (NAB). The responsibility to set up the organization was given to the then Department of Industries (now Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)).
A committee of relevant ministries, governing bodies, and industry stakeholders was formulated in 1992 to propose suitable recommendations that can take form as an industry body. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion oversaw the process and the final recommendations were submitted to the Union Council of Ministers (Cabinet) in 1996.
Key recommendations included:
- need for establishing an organisation jointly run by the Government of India in conjuncture with relevant industries
- need for this organisation to be self-sustaining
Cabinet Committee accepted these and gave its approval to register a new autonomous body, Quality Council of India, under Societies Registration Act, 1860