Lok Sabha Question No. 689 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-02-05
Subject: Promoting Quality Standards
Ministry: COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Asked by: Rajiv Pratap Rudy

- (a):

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY DEPARTMENT FOR PROMOTION OF INDUSTRY AND INTERNAL TRADE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 689. TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 05 TH  FEBRUARY, 2020.

## PROMOTING QUALITY STANDARDS

## 689.   SHRI RAJIV PRATAP RUDY:

Will the Minister of COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY be pleased to state:

वाणिज्य

## एवं उद्योग मंत्री

- (a) whether  the  Quality  Council  of  India  (QCI)  is  planning  to  establish  and promote  quality  standards  across  all  economic  and  social  sectors  in  the country;
- (b) if so, the details of each of the accreditation boards in the country along with their scope;
- (c) the  details  of  the  active  projects  undertaken  by  the  QCI  along  with  their timeline;
- (d) whether the Project Planning and Implementation Division (PPID) has been set up under the QCI;
- (e) if so, details thereof along with its scope and key projects; and
- (f) the details of cases of corruption filed and investigated against members of the QCI in the past five  years, year-wise?

## ANSWER वाणिज ् य एवं उद्योग मंत्री ( श्री पीयूष गोयल ) THE MINISTER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (SHRI  PIYUSH GOYAL)

Yes Sir, QCI works for promotion of Quality Standards across various economic  and  social  sectors  such  as  manufacturing,  education, health,  environment  etc.  Quality  Council  of  India  (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).

- (b): QCI is the umbrella organisation of five boards. Four accreditation Boards are namely-
1. NABL -National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories;
2. NABHNational Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare;
3. NABETNational Accreditation Board for Education and Training;
4. NABCB- National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies; and
5. NBQP- National Board for Quality Promotion.

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 as per Annexure-1.

- (c) to (e): 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, Govt. departments, State Governments, etc. It carries out such activities through its five Boards and three divisions under Special Projects namely -
1.  [ZED]  - ZERO DEFECT ZERO EFFECT,
2.  [PADD] - Project Analysis and Documentation Division; and
3.  [PPID] - 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.

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 as per Annexure-2 & 3 respectively.

- (f): One  complaint  had  been  received  in  September,  2017  against  one member  of  QCI  which  is  at preliminary stage of investigation. However, no case has been filed so far.

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## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (b)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 689 FOR ANSWER ON 05.02.2020.

## i. 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.

## ii. 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).

## iii. National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET)

National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET) has set up a well- established mechanisms for overall quality assurance in sectors such as services, education-formal and non-formal both, industry, environment etc. for focused 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  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).

## iv. 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 the 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).

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ANNEXURE-2

## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (c)  TO  (e)  OF  THE  LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 689 FOR ANSWER ON 05.02.2020.

The details of the active projects undertaken by the QCI along with their timelines

|   S. No | Project Name                                                   | Start Date          | End Date           |
|---------|----------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------|--------------------|
|       1 | Design Innovation Centres                                      | 28 th December 2019 | 21st February 2020 |
|       2 | Ayushman Bharat                                                | 12 June 2019        | June 2022          |
|       3 | National Highways Excellence Awards 2019                       | 16 th August 2019   | February 2020      |
|       4 | Swachh Bharat Mission                                          | January 2018        | March 2020         |
|       5 | Third Party Sampling, Testing and Analysis of Coal             | 9 August 2017       | September 2022     |
|       6 | Third Party Testing of Fisheries for Formaldehyde              | June 2019           | December 2020      |
|       7 | Government e-Marketplace (PMU)                                 | January 2018        | December 2020      |
|       8 | Government e-Marketplace (Vendor Assessment)                   | June 2019           | September 2022     |
|       9 | Public Perception Survey                                       | August 2019         | February 2020      |
|      10 | High End Cleanliness Assessment at 8 Yatradhams across Gujarat | October 2019        | September 2020     |
|      11 | Atal Innovation Mission                                        | June 2019           | January 2020       |
|      12 | Third party evaluation for the TEQIP Phase III                 | December 2019       | March 2020         |

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## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (c)  TO  (e)  OF  THE  LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 689 FOR ANSWER ON 05.02.2020.

## 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.

## 2.  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 3 level programme 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.
3.  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 Hon'ble Minister Nitin Gadkari.

4.  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++

## 5.  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:

- a.  Commencement  of  third-party  sampling  across  all  8  subsidiaries  of Coal India Limited (CIL)
- b.  Tripartite  agreements  of  volume  worth  of  128  million  metric  tonnes signed for conducting third-party sampling, testing, and analysis.
- c.  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
- d.  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.
- e.  QCI  has  deployed  nearly  120+  on  ground  representatives  with  20 people deployed at central team to overlook entire operations

## 6.  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).

## 7.  Government e-Marketplace (PMU)

Start Date : January 2018

End Date. : December 2020

Project Management Unit :QCI signed a MoU with Government eMarketplace  (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

## 8.  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

## 9.  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.

## 10.  High End Cleanliness Assessment at 8 Yatradhams across Gujarat

Start Date : October 2019

End Date. : September 2020

Gujarat  Pavitra  Yatradham  Vikas  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.

## 11.  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.

## 12.  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.

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