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QCI

A QCI Publication

PRE-CONCLAVESPECIAL

18EMINENTINDIANSAND THEIR VIEWS ON

QUALITY

I N D I A S P E A K S

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Glaucoma Surgery

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Corneal Transplant

Orbital and oculoplastic Surgery

Refractive Surgery

SSPPEECCIIAALLIISSEEDD SSEERRVVIICCEESSDigital Fluorescein Angiography

A & B Ultrasound

Humphreys Field Analyser

Photo-Slit Lamp

Ultrasonic Pachymetry & Biometry

Argon Green Laser

Yag Laser

Endo laser

Lasik surgery

Topography

OCT

ON PANELGGOOVVTT.. OORRGGAANNIISSAATTIIOONNSS

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Mohan Eye.qxd 2/21/2011 11:16 AM Page 1

FFAACCIILLIITTIIEESS AAVVAAIILLAABBLLEEPhacoemulsification

Glaucoma Surgery

Squint Surgery

Vitreo - Retinal Surgery

Corneal Transplant

Orbital and oculoplastic Surgery

Refractive Surgery

SSPPEECCIIAALLIISSEEDD SSEERRVVIICCEESSDigital Fluorescein Angiography

A & B Ultrasound

Humphreys Field Analyser

Photo-Slit Lamp

Ultrasonic Pachymetry & Biometry

Argon Green Laser

Yag Laser

Endo laser

Lasik surgery

Topography

OCT

ON PANELGGOOVVTT.. OORRGGAANNIISSAATTIIOONNSS

BSES, CGHS, DGEHS,DVB, DTL, DJB, DTC, DU, ESI, IPGCL, MCD, NDPL, NDMC.

PPUUBBLLIICC SSEECC.. OORRGGAANNIISSAATTIIOONNSSAAI, BSNL,DTTDC, EIL, FCI,

GAIL,MTNL, OIL, ITDC, NTC, PFC.

11- B , Gangaram Hospital Marg, New Delhi - 110 060Phone : 011-245666222, 25287655, 25787655, 25852048, 25781357, 25728969, Fax : 25813676

E-Mail : [email protected]

ALL INSURANCE TPA

MMOORRNNIINNGG 8.00 AM — 1.00 PM

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GIRDHAR J. GYANI

Quality is a timeless concept. It has been aninherent part of human society, right fromtheir creation. Somewhere down the line, webegan to formally identify quality only withthe manufacturing sector and accordinglylink quality evolution with industry. Today,the clock has taken a full circle and quality isan inseparable entity in everything we do;hence, it has truly become a way of life.

Quality can be attributed to a product, aprocess, a system, an organisation or toentire nation. The future of qualityundoubtedly belongs to how nations comeup to expectations of their citizens. TheHuman Development Index (HDI) is oneway of estimating how close a nation is interms of taking care of its citizens. We havea long way to go in catching up as India isranked 134 out of 182 countries in HDI.India has a score of 47 per cent onregulatory quality, 45 per cent on control ofcorruption and 54 per cent on governmenteffectiveness.

Government of India has adopted adevelopment strategy, which is based oninclusive growth. It needs to focus onproductive employment rather than mereincome redistribution and this is wherequality comes into play. The fact is thataround 58 per cent of the populationearns its livelihood from agriculture andallied activities, while this sector iscontributing only 18 per cent to the GDP.Here again we have a huge gap. Ideallyspeaking, three sectors -- agriculture,manufacturing and services -- shouldcontribute equal value to the economy.Each sector needs to develop the othersto ensure sustained/inclusive growth.

I had a chance to read an article inBusiness Today (February 6, 2011), whichhas an interesting conversation with Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, DeputyChairperson, Planning Commission, andMr Arun Maira, Member, PlanningCommission. The 12th Plan is going to bedifferent. The Commission has identified12-key strategy challenges, which look likea corporate business model aimed atinclusive growth and move the nation

upward on HDI. Quality Council of Indiawith its mission: “Quality for National WellBeing” is very actively engaged and willprove to be a proud partner with thePlanning Commission in some of thesestrategies (See Montek's Manifesto:highlighted in red). To cite a few examples,one of the objectives of QCI is to developapropos capacities at the level ofgovernment, institutions and enterprisesfor implementing and institutionalisingcontinuous quality improvement. QCI isclosely working with a number ofministries and even some stategovernments in designing and evenoperationalising quality and regulatoryschemes. The other important area is skilldevelopment. QCI has signed an MoU withthe Ministry of Labour for comprehensivecapacity building in ITIs and associatedinfrastructure towards compliance of thePMO's advisory to have 500 million skilledtechnicians by 2022. On the educationfront, QCI has come out with a simplecriteria aimed at improvement of schoolgovernance and is working with CBSE anda number of state governments to bringabout improvement in school governanceat the primary and secondary levels of theschools. QCI has developed all importantcriteria on behalf of the Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests, for accreditationof consultants engaged in preparingenvironment impact assessment. Inhealthcare, QCI is helping number of stategovernments in capacity-building toincorporate standards on patient safety.

Besides building capacity, QCI hasinitiated work on the principle of thirdparty assessment, incorporating objectivityand transparency, which in the largercontext is referred to as MinimumGovernment and Maximum Governance.The contribution in quantum may be tinybut is going to be high in spirit, somethinglike what that small squirrel did in buildingthe Ram Setu for Lord Rama. It is a pleasantco-incidence that Mr Arun Maira, in thecapacity of Chairperson, QCI, will beguiding us on this important mission.

Future of Quality

Dr Girdhar J. Gyani is the Secretary General, Quality Council of India and editor of Quality India. He can be contacted at [email protected].

In the 12th Five Year PlanStates will be expected to focus on:

Enhancing the capacity forgrowthUpgrading skills for fastergeneration of employmentManaging the environmentMake markets efficient andinclusiveMore decentralisation andempowermentBetter technology andinnovationSecuring the energy futureof IndiaAccelerated development oftransport infrastructureRural transformation andsustained growth ofagricultureManaging urbanisationImproved access to qualityeducationBetter preventive andcurative heatlh care

(Courtesy: Business Today)

MONTEK’SMANIFESTO

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IT's bright future ahead (October,2010) interestingly talked aboutthe future of IT industry in India.There is no doubt that the IT-BPOsector has become a premiergrowth engine and has played acentral role in putting India on theglobal map. As a matter of fact,the software industry in India isadvancing in leaps and bounds.According to Nasscom, the ITindustry in India will grow at$225 billion by 2020. Nasscomexpects the domestic IT-BPOservices sector to grow at acompounded annual growth rateof 14 per cent over the next twoyears to $16.7 billion in financialyear 2011 from $12.8 billion in2009.

Reema SahaiChandigarh

The story, Quality moves bringsalutary changes in healthcare(October, 2010) was an eye-opener. As a matter of fact,there is a rapid progress inhealthcare technologies for betterhealthcare facilities in India.Every day, new sensors anddevices are being researched withnew sensing materials to renderbetter healthcare systems. On thecontrary, our primary healthcaresystem today has not beenresponsive to the demands andneeds of the people. It looks as ifonly those who can afford it havethe right to be freed from diseasesby gaining access to the highlyspecialised modern medical care.

Ram ManoharMathura

QCI

A QCI Publication

Heralding Asia’s rightful role inthe world socio-economic

order, India takes the lead tohost the Asian Network for

Quality Congress with focus on

Asianmoves

on QualityANQCongre

ss Delhi 2

010

QUALITY FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH

ANQCongress

Special Issue

QCI leads with its mission of promoting prosperity through quality

LETTERS

A QUALITY MOVEMENT P70Quality professionals gathered just a year ago todiscuss ways to empower the masses. Quality Indiapresents vignettes from the last Quality Conclave.

Quality India met Chief Ministers, Ministers,Members of Parliament and Bureaucrats to findout how the government is bringing ingovernance. While governance focuses on theapproach in which decisions are made,government focuses on the approach in whichthese decisions are carried out.

QUALITY MEANS PEOPLE FIRST P43

Contents

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LETTERS

QCI

Quality Council of IndiaInstitution of Engineers Bldg.,2 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg,New Delhi 110 002Tel / Fax: 011 2337 9321

011 2337 0567

Sharmila Ghose and Nandu Manjeshwarcontributed for this special edition ofQUALITY INDIA.

Regional endeavour p114In order to establish a credibleand transparent accreditationmechanism for accreditation ofVocational Training Providers inKarnataka, a MoU has beensigned.

Designed, printed and published by Newsline Publications Pvt Ltd. D-11 Basement, Nizamuddin (East), New Delhi -110 013 Tel: +91-11-41033381-82on behalf of Quality Council of India (QCI) at Nutech Photolithographers, New Delhi 110 020Editor: Girdhar J. GyaniFor private circulation only.

AWARDINGQUALITY P10D L Shah hadenvisioned theconcept of enhancingorganisational profitthrough qualityinitiatives. His trust, incollaboration withQCI, is promotingquality awarenessthrough QCI-DL ShahNational Awards.

ACCOLADES FORQUALITY P14QCI confersorganisations formaintaining quality intheir process andproduction. A look atthe conferredconglomerates thathave renderedexceptional qualityservices to the nation.

STRATEGIES FORQUALITY P122The Quality Council ofIndia has beenentrusted by theGovernment to bringin quality in our lives.A look at how WorldQuality Day wascelebrated.

“Improve our ownquality” p26

Arun Maira, Chairperson,Quality Council of India, has abroad agenda for quality. Hewould like to see qualitywherever the aam aadmi goes,he told Quality India.

Quality initiatives fortechnology p103Technical and qualitative workforce needs to be keptabreast with the changingtechnologies to be on thetop. QCI will play a major rolein accreditation.

Manufacturing industry hasgained momentum as rightlyillustrated in the story, Wheredo Indian companies stand inthe practice of quality-basedmanagement? (October, 2010).India is aiming to become aninternational manufacturing huband the National ManufacturingPolicy has been charted in thisdirection: the policy aims tocreate world class industrialinfrastructure, a conducivebusiness environment, anecosystem for technologicalinnovation — especially in thedomain of green manufacturing,institutions for industry relevantskill upgradation andmechanisms for easy access tofinance for entrepreneurs.

Vatsal SethiMumbai

Technical education in India hasgot a greater push as discussedin the story, Quality in technicaleducation for globalcompetitiveness (October,2010). Recently, the Centre hasallowed companies registered asnon-profit entities to establishtechnical institutions.

Gyan PrakashAgra

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SECRETARY GENERAL GIRDHAR J GYANI ON THE KEYROLE OF QUALITY COUNCIL OFINDIA IN USHERING IN GOODGOVERNANCE.

Quality Council ofIndia (QCI) was setup jointly by theGovernment ofIndia and the IndianIndustry

Associations to establish andoperate national accreditationstructure and promote qualitythrough National QualityCampaign. QCI is registered as anon-profit society with its ownMemorandum of Association(MoA). QCI is governed by aCouncil of 38 members with equalrepresentations from government,industry and consumers.Chairman of QCI is appointed bythe Prime Minister on therecommendation of industry to thegovernment. Keeping in view the

mission, “Quality for NationalWell Being”, the Council isplaying a pivotal role at thenational level in propagating,adoption and adherence to qualitystandards in all important spheresof activities including education,healthcare, environmentprotection, governance, socialsectors, infrastructure sector andsuch other areas of organisedactivities that have significantbearing in improving the qualityof life and well being of thecitizens of India. The key objectives of QCI asprovided in the MoA:

To develop, establish andoperate National Accreditationprogramme in accordance withthe relevant internationalstandards and guides for theconformity assessment bodies; To develop, establish andoperate National AccreditationProgrammes for variousservice sectors such aseducation, healthcare,environment protection,governance, social sectors,infrastructure sector, vocationaltraining, etc.; To build capacities includingdevelopment of appropriatequality accreditationmechanism for other emergingareas that have significantbearing in improving thequality of life and well being ofthe citizens of India; To encourage development andapplication of third partyassessment model for use ingovernment, regulators,organisations and society;To build capacities in the areas

Minimum Government:

MaximumGovernance

MMOOVVEE TTOO GGLLOOBBAALL SSTTAANNDDAARRDDSS:: PrimeMinister Dr Manmohan Singh chairing the UIAof India Council Meeting, in New Delhi onAugust 12, 2009. On the dais (from left toright) are Chairman of UIDAI Nandan Nilekani;the Prime Minister and Union Finance MinisterPranab Mukherjee.

Vice PresidentWe must questionwhether the search forquality has remained anessentialcharacteristic in our society

Hamid Ansari

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SSTTEEPP FFOORRWWAARRDD:: Dr Girdhar J Gyani, SecretaryGeneral, Quality Council of India, addressing the national workshop on “Food Safety and Standards Act”held on July 15, 2010, in New Delhi.

of regulation, conformityassessment and accreditation toovercome TBT/SPS constraints.To lead nationwide qualitymovement in the countrythrough National QualityCampaign aimed at creatingawareness amongst citizens,empowering them to demandquality in all spheres ofactivities, promoting andprotecting their well being byencouraging manufacturersand suppliers of goods andservice providers for adoptionof and adherence to qualitystandards and tools; To develop apropos capacitiesat the level of governments,institutions and enterprises forimplementing andinstitutionalizing continuousquality improvement;Promoting the establishment ofquality improvement andbenchmarking centre, as arepository of bestinternational/national practicesand their dissemination amongthe industry in all the sectors;To promote qualitycompetitiveness of India'senterprises especially MSMEsthrough adoption of andadherence to qualitymanagement standards andquality tools.To encourageindustrial/applied research anddevelopment in the field ofquality and dissemination of itsresult in relevant publicationincluding and trade journals;and,To facilitate effectivefunctioning of a NationalInformation and EnquiryServices on standards andquality including an appealmechanism to deal withunresolved complaints.

QCI - Promoting GoodGovernance

It was realised thataccreditation of conformityassessment bodies by QCI can playa key role in improving theregulatory quality in India andthus the quality of governance

itself. It was also realized thatmany of the services coveredunder QCI's accreditationprogrammes especially in healthand education sectors, areprovided by the government andits institutions and the challenge isin evaluating these organisationsand motivating them inimplementing accreditationstandards.

Keeping the above two inmind, QCI initiated a programmeon providing technical assistanceto the government and itsinstitutions under the NationalQuality Campaign assigned to QCIat the time of its establishment.

Regulatory bodiesThe basis of technical

regulation worldwide is thestandards prescribed underregulation and checkingcompliance to the prescribedstandards. In an environmentwhere there is a widespreaddissatisfaction with the prevailingregulatory framework in India andwhich is compounded further bythe depleting resources with theregulators, accreditation ofconformity assessment bodiesrepresents an attractive alternativeespecially considering that the useof accreditation also brings theregulatory framework tointernational standards.

The Petroleum and NaturalGas Regulatory Board (PNGRB)

Prime MinisterThe strength of a nation isdetermined by the quality ofits collective knowledge, the productivity of itsworking people and thededication of itsprofessional work force

Manmohan Singh

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was the first regulatory body totake a decision for relying on thirdparty conformity assessmentbodies, accredited by QCI, inenforcing its regulation. Likewisethe Food Safety and StandardsAct, 2006 embraced a provision foruse of NABL accreditedlaboratories and subsequently, theFood Safety and StandardsAuthority of India (FSSAI) hasdecided to rely on QCIaccreditation of certification/inspection bodies in its regulatoryframework. In case of both theseregulators, QCI is activelyassisting them in draftingappropriate regulationsincorporating the concept ofaccreditation and third partyconformity assessment.

Infrastructure projectsThe Central/State

Governments are making hugeinvestments in infrastructureprojects and monitoring quality in such projects is a key concern.The accreditation of third partyinspection bodies specializing inareas such as construction, oil and gas installations, and watersupply and power projectsprovides a ready solution to theneed for independent qualitymonitoring. There is a possibilityof accrediting consultingorganisations on the lines of thescheme for accreditation ofEnvironmental Impact Assessment(EIA) consultants operated byNABET which has recently beenmade mandatory by the Ministry of Environmentand Forests, and initiating acontractor certificationprogramme to help build qualityinto infrastructure projects.

This is in tune with worldwideemerging trends, whereinGovernment is restricting its rolein enacting of legislations andappointing autonomousprofessional regulators inenforcing of legislation. Further, inorder to bring total transparency,regulators rely on third partyconformity assessment bodies(CABs) to verify compliance ofregulations. Here again role of

accreditation comes inestablishing competency of CABs.In most of the cases regulators getinto MoU with QCI to ensure thatCABs are under constantsurveillance to enforce regulationin letter and spirit.

QCI - Responding to Voluntaryinitiatives

There is a worldwide increasein use of standards — forproducts, services, practices andsystems. The standards could beenforced by law i.e. technicalregulations or be driven by marketdemand i.e. voluntary standards.

As per provisions of the WTOAgreement on Technical Barriersto Trade (TBT Agreement),member nations have aresponsibility to protect health and safety of their populace andcan impose standards by law ongrounds of national security,safety, health, environment, anddeceptive trade practices. Theseare called technical regulationsand India, like most othercountries in the world, has its own share of such regulations —be it electrical appliances orfood or drugs.

Some of the well-knownvoluntary initiatives, driven bymarket demand are managementsystems standards of ISO like ISO9001 for Quality ManagementSystems, ISO 14001 forEnvironment ManagementSystems, ISO 22000 for FoodSafety Management Systems, etc.India has a number ofcertification bodies in the marketoperating these certifications tointernational standards and thesecertificates are acceptableworldwide through themultilateral mutual recognitionarrangement of the InternationalAccreditation Forum (IAF). TheNational Accreditation Board forCertification Bodies (NABCB) ofthe QCI is a proud member of thisinternational equivalence andindustry can seek aninternationally equivalentcertificate right at its door-step.

In addition to the above, thereare a number of stakeholder-

EEMMEERRGGIINNGG SSTTRRUUCCTTUURREE

Government(to enact legislation)

Regulatory Bodies (to enforce the law)

Accreditation Body(Technical competence of CABs)

Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs)(support regulation – voluntary

certification)

Manufacturers and Service providersCommon man – recipient of goods

and services

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driven initiatives around the worldwhere Indian stakeholders do notseem to have a voice. Some ofthese are:

Global Food Safety Initiative(GFSI) for food safety relatedinitiativesGlobal Gap for goodagricultural and animalhusbandry initiativesWorld Business Council forSustainable Development forGHG accounting standardsGlobal Organic TextilesStandardsForest Stewardship Council(FSC) and Programme forEndorsement of ForestCertification (PEFC) forsustainable forest managementWRAP certification in textiles

India does not have anyinstitutionalized framework toparticipate in these initiativesprimarily because voluntarystandards development hasremained in the governmentaldomain with attendant restrictionsin responding to what areconsidered as 'private initiatives'and the Indian stakeholders, theindustry bodies, the NGOs,despite commendable work beingdone by them, have still notreached a stage where they could provide a focal point forIndia's response.

Given the above scenario, QCImade a modest beginning bysigning a MoU with Global Gapin May, 2008 to create a National

Technical Working Group andundertaking the task of preparinga national interpretation of theGlobal Gap standards. It proposesto engage with other internationalbodies owning voluntary schemesto provide an Indian voice. In theforeseeable future, we should notbe surprised to see an Indian food safety initiative benchmarkedby GFSI!

Back home, some of theministries/regulatingbodies/government agencies havebegun to realise the need forputting in place voluntaryinitiatives to encourage Indianindustry to demonstrate

compliance to standards and theirworld class capability. Notableamong these are the following:

Department of AYUSH'sinitiative for voluntarycertification of AYUSHproducts through AYUSHStandard and Premium marksFood Safety and StandardsAuthority of India's 'Tastyfood, Safe food' initiative forgrading of eateries based onfood safety practices asPlatinum, Gold, Silver andBronzeNational Medicinal PlantsBoard's initiative forcertification of medicinal plantsbased on good agricultural andcollection practices

QCI has not only helpeddesign these initiatives but is alsomanaging these schemes on behalfof the 'scheme owners'. FSSAI isnow proposing similar initiativesin HACCP certification and GAP

certification in which QCI isactively involved. There are otherministries/agencies like Ministry ofNew and Renewable Energy andNational Horticultural Board orDevelopment Commissioner(Handicrafts), who have or areintending to engage QCI forsimilar initiatives.

Thus, QCI is poised to play akey role as a hub of voluntaryinitiatives, both national andinternational, aimed at supportinggood governance.

Pranab Mukherjee

Finance MinisterFor any organisation to work efficiently andeffectively, it is of utmostimportance that it has: well trained and motivated manpower. Betteroffice ambience plays animportant role indelivery ofquality services.

SSHHOOWWIINNGG TTHHEE WWOORRLLDD OOUURR MMEEDD-IICCAALL CCAAPPAABBIILLIITTIIEESS:: A surgery in progress— Indian healthcare is in great demandfrom overseas patients.

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AS A ‘QUALITY GURU’, DL SHAHHAS LEFT AN INDELIBLE MARK.AN INDUSTRIALIST OF REPUTE,PHILANTHROPIST AND A MANOF VISION, HE MADE ATREMENDOUS CONTRIBUTIONTO INDIAN INDUSTRY INGENERAL, AND THE MACHINETOOL INDUSTRY IN PARTICULARBY SETTING AND EVEN RAISINGBENCHMARKS OF QUALITY.

Quality is not an act, it is a habit. Aristotle

There is a quote for everyoccasion — be it manufacturing,be it services or be it governance— on quality. In any occupation“quality” is inborn and cannot beeither thrust from the top orinduced from the bottom.

There have been many qualitygurus, in the past century hailingfrom many countries, while somehave left indelible mark on the“quality canvas” — Dr EdwardsDeming, Dr Joseph Juran, DrKaoru Ishikawa, Dr GenichiTaguchi and many more. Eachone has contributed onesignificant aspect that collectivelycontributes to achieving qualityin totality. However, ArmandFeigenbaum sums up through “3-steps to quality” in which heemphasises: Quality leadership,modern quality technology andan organisational commitment to quality. This holds true even today.

It has to be admitted that weare late starters and ourentrepreneurs, with malice tonone, were occupied with short-term gains over the long-termbenefits. Sheltered by all kinds of“Raj systems” our entrepreneurswere ensconced comfortably tillthe globalisation took effect. Onceagain it has to be admitted that ITindustry and IT-enabled serviceswere the first movers. They hadthe vision to go global. And forothers it was almost cataclysmicfrom insular comforts to globalchallenges.

In any seminar or a conferenceit is fashionable to quote Demingor Juran or Ishikawa but one

seldom hears about our home-grown quality guru DL Shah. At atime when the word quality wasnot fashionable, it was DL Shahwho plodded along the narrowpath practicing and propagatingquality to those who would listento him. As a successfulbusinessman he could have easilypracticed what he preached in hisworkplace; instead, he was keenthat India too produce qualityproducts and services. He was avisionary. He wanted “Made inIndia” products to besynonymous with quality.

DL Shah made a tremendouscontribution to the Indianindustry in general and themachine tool industry inparticular. His quest for qualityknew no bounds and remainedrestless till he achieved his target.And this he did till he breathedlast in 1999, at the age of 92. It isunfortunate that onlyposthumously DL Shah’scontribution towards qualitypromotion and propagation isbeing recognised. In his lifetimethough Shah never soughtaccolades for his efforts andwork, he went on tirelessly inspreading awareness on qualityand in creating conduciveatmosphere in achieving qualityin the country.

Before independence Indiawas dependent on imports andShah started importing goodsrequired by the industries in1920s. After independence,foreseeing the need of a strongindustrial base and modernmachine tools in a developingnation, he founded PerfectMachine Tools Company (PMT)and represented several Europeanmanufacturers of machine tools.In mid-1950s, he representedGerman company Traub andsubsequently in the 1960s enteredinto collaboration with Traub formanufacturing their machinetools in the country.

To be self-reliant and self-sufficient is more important, Shahbelieved, for growth than relyingon imports. His company enteredinto several collaborations with

DLShah-a visionaryfor ‘Madein India’

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European manufacturers formanufacturing various kinds ofmachine tools within the country.His efforts, undoubtedly, gaveIndian industries a boost inacquiring quality machine tools ata cost lot lesser than the imported ones.

Apart from being promoter ofhis own company in the machinetools industry, his stature was

that of a mentor. He also held thepost of President of the IndianMachine Tools ManufacturersAssociation and Machine ToolsMarketing Association of India. Atypical character of Shah was thathe would advice and help fellowmachine tools manufacturers,irrespective of whether they werehis competitors or not, inadvising to improve quality. Such

DDLL SShhaahh TTrruusstt:: Promoting research and excellence

OOBBJJEECCTTIIVVEESSThe Trust set up during his life-

time, DL Shah was clear about itsobjectives:

Encourage and promote funda-mental and applied research effortson continuing basis in the field ofscience and technology, arts, philosophy and social science inIndia.

Interact dynamically and synergistically with the academiccommunity and research bodies onone hand and industry and commerce on the other, enhancingtheir interface between the two.

Promote research and other activities related to the preservation, protection andimprovement of the ecology andenvironment.

Promote the development and useof environment-friendly industryprocess and water management.

Promote and foster the movementof quality consciousness and qualityawareness as regards products and services provided in India.

Promote research and developmentas to safety measures and practicesfollowed in industrial concerns.

Make “Made in India” label

synonymous with "Quality ofExcellence".He was not satisfied with merely

laying down objectives and expectedpeople—industrialists, businessper-sons, academics —to work towards the introduction of systems, methods,mechanisms and practices to the betterment of the overall Quality oflife in India. In doing so; makeQuality of dealings and business ethicsto inspire confidence and faith amongall public. In equal measure heemphasised in inculcating the spirit of“scientific temper with a human andhumane face” amongst our citizens.The research need not be confined to industrial applications only, but also in arts, culture, history and philosophy.

Shah was deeply concerned withenvironment and ecology. Progressand preservation ought to movehand-in-hand and cannot be in con-flict. He was particularly enthusiasticin promoting education and researchin conservation of flora, fauna, water,soils and natural resources of thecountry, its environment and prevention of all kinds of pollution.With a view to furthering this objec-tive the Trust has initiated a major activity in association with TheEnergy and Resources Institute(TERI) in the field of education andits management for teachers. The pilot programme is already completed.

The Quality Council of India’s

(QCI) theme “Quality for NationalWellbeing” synergises with the objective of DL Shah Trust. It is a natural progression that two organisations joined together in recognising that quality, and qualityalone, is the way forward in improvingthe “Quality of Life” as envisioned by DL Shah that encompasses every walk of life.

The purpose of QCI-DL ShahAward is to highlight:

Profit enhancement is possiblethrough quality initiative.

Award recognises successful projects that have given tangiblesavings.

Recognise achievements in continual improvement throughquality management.

Motivate organisations apply quali-ty tools and techniques.

Promote quality awareness withinthe industry.

QCI-DL Shah is unique as it isgiven to projects. QCI is anautonomous NGO setup by theGovernment of India and the Indianindustry (represented by ASSOCHAM,FICCI and CII). The DL Shah Trust’ssupport is for QCI-DL Shah NationalAward on “Economics of Quality”,awarded each year.


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was his passion and workedtirelessly, not only for theindustry segment he represented,but for the overall good of the country.

There is another angle thatmany never knew in his lifetimeand that is philanthropy. Hecreated institutions certainly notto perpetuate his personal legacybut a legacy that lasts humanfrailty — that is quality. Hefounded DL Shah Trust forApplied Sciences, Technology,Arts and Philosophy in 1994. Theobjectives of the Trust are quitewide; some of which are evidentfrom the Trust’s name. Throughactivities engaged in diversefields, the ultimate endeavourbeing to improve the “Quality ofLife” of fellow humans. Alongwith like-minded and reputedindustrialists, he set up NationalCentre of Quality Management(NCQM). He was alsoinstrumental in setting up CMTI-PMT Trust for promoting researchand development in the field ofmachine tools, manufacturingtechnologies and to encouragedesign talent in this specific filed.It is most befitting that CMTI-PMT Awards are given at everyIMTEX exhibition and isconsidered to be one of the mostprestigious awards in the industry.

Shah also helped in setting upthe ‘PMT Centre for QualityManagement’ at BhagubhaiMafatlal Technical Institute atVile Parle, Mumbai. After hisdemise, the DL Shah Trust for

Applied Sciences, Technology,Arts and Philosophy came underthe guidance of distinguishedtrustees who are all achievers intheir respective fields: Thenotables being HK Taneja (formerChief Executive of IndianRegistrar of Shipping), RohanShah (an eminent advocate inMumbai), Gautam Doshi(Managing Director of RelianceADA Group), SM Pathania(former Director General ofPolice, Maharashtra State), andKK Nohria (former CMD ofCrompton Greaves Limited). TheTrustees have carried forward theobjectives and mission left by DL Shah.

A philanthropist to the coreDL Shah was a generous donorduring his lifetime. Hebequeathed his personal propertyfor ‘D L Shah Trust' in order tocontinue his mission for a betterIndia in all walks of life. TheTrust has published a number ofbooks on Quality, Productivityand ISO Standards for Qualityand these have been distributedfree-of-charge to educationalinstitutions and professionals.Over the years, thousands ofcopies of such books have beendistributed and forms a valuedtrove for the recipients.

The Quality Council of India(QCI) in collaboration with DLShah Trust has instituted QCI-DLShah National Awards onEconomics of Quality. It providesan opportunity for the companiesto showcase and share theirsuccess stories. That the Awardshave become popular, at theNational level, is only an under-statement. But what is significanttoday is that entrepreneurs haveunderstood the “Economics of Quality”.

If DL Shah was alive today, hewould have been brimming withjoy that his lifelong mission andalso his vision have turned intoreality and more importantly“Made in India” products orservices are symbols of quality,globally. Indeed, QCI is carryingforward that noble mission forthe “National Well Being”.

The Reliance Consumer Finance teamreceiving the QCI-DL Shah National Awardsfrom Prof Masaaki Imai.


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OUTSTANDING CASE STUDY

HCL LimitedBack officeoperations arean inflection

point in India. They are expandingfrom simple rule-based processes tothose that are complex andrequiring decisions and judgments.This is more in the cases if insurance policies whenpolicyholder’s claims are rejected.These usually are not open-and-shut case and complex insuranceclaims require decisions andjudgments with justifications.

Such cases, in the back officeneed to be handled by experts with domain knowledge.Therefore, decisions and judgmentsshould match those made byexperts and it is a huge intellectual challenge.Then the client expects the teamwork in ‘clean room’ where pen,paper, phone and internet arebanned. Three sets of tactics werelaunched: First, to avoidclaustrophobia of ‘clean room’, two executives were placed in a box with four monitors where alldatabases could simultaneously bereferred and discussed betweenthe two; second, tasks were

segmented and finally, the“excellence with human face”concept was harnessed.

Applying the concepts of “rapid cognition”, “thin slicing”and “stored set of patterns” gleamed from Malcolm Gladwel’sBlink, it was established that, likeany expert in any industry HCL’s team slowly moved forwardto solve cases much faster withlesser parameters.

CATEGORY A - PUBLIC SECTOR

Bharat Electronics Limited

BharatElectronicsLimited (BEL)

was established at Bengaluru in1954, under Ministry of Defence, tomeet the specialised needs of Indian defence forces. Over theyears, it has grown into multi-product, multi-technology andmulti-unit conglomerate serving theneeds of customers in India andabroad. It was conferred “Navratna”status in 2007. BEL’s vision is to be aworld class enterprise inprofessional and sophisticatedelectronics.

Traditionally, the developmentand preparation of the trainingmaterial has been the responsibilityof the trainers. In such a scenario,trainers need to collect, arrange andintegrate the information in trainee’sperspective. With the onset overincreasing sophistication andcomplex equipment, it is beyond thetrainer to grasp in entirety thecomplex functioning of equipment.Thus the onus falls on themanufacturers to develop trainingmanuals (or training aggregates)that ranges from charts, slides,brochures, work modules, videos orcomputer based training. Thetraining aggregate, while it explainsusage of equipment threadbare,needs to be cost effective too.

BEL used Six Sigmamethodology in designing,developing and supplying costeffective and customer-centrictraining aggregates. Using qualitytool, including Six Sigma, BEL wasable to save `2,745,833.

National Thermal Power Corporation Limited

National ThermalPowerCorporationLimited (NTPC),

set up in 1975, is India’s largest powergenerating organisation. The totalinstalled capacity of the company is32,694 MW, including joint ventures,having 15 coal-based and seven gas-based stations located across the country.

NTPC’s Vindhyachal SuperThermal Power Station (VSTPS) isthe largest power station in thecountry and torchbearer of SixSigma initiatives in Indian powersector. It is the belief that excellenceis an ever moving target and inpursuing its journey is to makeavailable sustainable power for thedevelopment of the nation. In thatpursuit, the Team VSTPS has beencreating over higher benchmarks forothers to emulate. The Team VSTPSuses multiple quality tools andmethodologies such as Six Sigma,Lean, seven Quality Circles andbenchmarking. The Unit is certifiedwith ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS18001 and 5S.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited(Ranipet)

Bharat HeavyElectricals Limited(BHEL) is one of theoldest and largest

state-owned engineering andmanufacturing enterprise in theenergy-related and infrastructuresectors-which include Power,Railways, Transmission andDistribution (T&D), Oil and Gassectors and many more. It is the 12thlargest power equipment

Accolades for the quality-conscious

QCI confers organisations for maintaining quality in their process and production. The conferredconglomerates have rendered exceptional quality services to the nation.

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manufacturer in the world. Setupalmost 50 years ago, ushering inindigenous heavy electricalequipment industry in India. Thecompany is one amongst nine largestpublic sector undertakings (PSU) andtruly a “Navratna”.

The QC (Quality Check) toolssuch as brain storming, root causeanalysis, and Pareto Analysis werethe techniques used to overcome theproblem. After brain storming 52problems were identified which werecategorised as A, B and C.

National Thermal Power Corporation— (Sipat Plant)

National ThermalPowerCorporationLimited (NTPC),

at Sipat, is one of the 15 coal-basedpower generation complexes in thecountry. It is located 22 km fromBilaspur in the State of Chhattisgarh.The Sipat Super Thermal PowerStation (SSTPS) has the generationcapacity of 2,980 MW consisting1,980 MW (3x660MW) in Stage 1 and1,000MW (2x500MW) in Stage II. ItsStage I units are the firstSupercritical technology plant in theNTPC family.

Mill reject handling system is anessential sub-system in a steamgenerator. The main function of thissystem is to safely deposit the hot,corrosive pyrites rejected by a coalmill. The mode of disposal is eithermanual or pneumatic. Thepneumatic type mill reject system,since its commissioning, sufferedfrom poor reliability, low availabilityand operational problems and due tothese problems, the plant had toresort to manual operation.

Pareto analysis was used as atool for the project. Through causeand effect diagrams, problemsafflicting the system were identified.As a result, the gross saving was tothe tune of ` 1,557,783.

CATEGORY B1

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)Reliance IndustriesLimited (RIL) is one thelargest private sectororganisation in India, it

continues to be featured in theFortune Global 500 list of the“World’s Largest Corporations” andranks 117 in terms of profit. RIL’sbusinesses include textiles, polyester, fibre intermediates,polymers, petrochemicals, crude oiland gas, refining, retail and lifesciences. RIL has greenfieldmanufacturing sites at Naroda,Patalganga, Hazira and Jamnagar. Ithas further strengthened itsposition in the market throughacquisitions, such as IPCL units atBaroda, Nagathone and Gandhar;polyester units at Hoshiarpur,Lucknow, Allahabad, Nagpur andBaulpur.

Cracker plant, at Hazira,manufactures ethylene, propyleneand other high value chemicalsthrough cracking naphtha in ultraselective cracking furnace. Over aperiod, the heat transfer co-efficientof all convection section banks gotdeteriorated, resulting in decreaseof furnace energy efficiency andincrease stack temperatures. Thislead to considerable “energypenalty” and limited theproduction throughput.

The company preferred todevelop innovative solution forconvection coil cleaning to improvefurnace efficiency. The project’srequirement was identified through global benchmarkingcarried out by M/s SolomonAssociates and subsequent Gapanalysis. During the same period,in one of the benchmarking resultspublished by M/s SolomonAssociates, indicated that crackerplant of RIL-Hazira was slipping inits global position on account of itshigh energy index. Thus, in thisproject the focus was equally onenergy conservation.

Through several analyticalsources, it was deduced that furnace coil cleaning, throughcombination of hot water andchemicals, was the mostappropriate solution. The overallproject implementation yieldedimpressive results. As against `1.25cr investment, the throughput gain `6.51 cr and importantly the

thermal energy cost savings was `5.23 cr annually.

Banaskantha District CooperativeMilk Producers’ Union Limited

Banaskantha DistrictCooperative MilkProducers’ UnionLimited, popularlyknown as “Banas

Dairy”, is the largest dairycooperative in India under “Amul”group of dairy cooperatives. BanasDairy is located in Palanpur,Gujarat.

Late Galbabhai Patel initiatedcooperative milk union in 1966 onAmul Model to alleviate economicsituation of the people. In 1971, 122acres of land was acquired nearJagana village to setup a dairy plantunder Operation Flood scheme. Amonth later in February, the dairystarted functioning, and processing1.50 lakh litres of milk.

In the initial stages, due to poorinfrastructure like lack ofconnectivity and chilling facilities,the milk carried by farmers intraditional cans soured by the time it reached collection centres. In 1999, Hoshin Kanri Workshop,Japanese for policy deployment, was introduced through large scaleinteractive process with villagers. At the backend, total qualitymanagement (TQM) was introducedto all 1,300 employees. Modernquality management tools likeKaizen, QC Circles and Six Sigmawere introduced. The objective being clean milk production keepinghighest quality standards and wassupported by National DairyDevelopment Board.Simultaneously, large numbers ofbulk milk chilling units startedcoming into India that helped tosustain the objective. The overallimpact has been tremendous andthe quality benchmark ascooperative movement in thecountry has been `126.35 cr.

Essar Steel LimitedEssar SteelLimited (Essar)is global

producer of steel with a footprint inIndia, Canada, the USA, MiddleEast and Asia. At Hazira, Gujarat,Essar produces five million tonneper annum (MTPA), and it is the


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world’s largest gas-based spongeiron plant in single location. Theplant provides raw material for thecompany’s state-of-the-art 4.6 MTPAhot rolled coil (HRC) plant, the firstand largest of India’s newgeneration steel mills. Essar is a $15billion conglomerate.

At Hazira, Essar also has 1.5MTPA plate mill manufacturingwidest plate in the world. Inaddition, it has a combined capacityof 0.60 MTPA of helical submergedarc welded and longitudinalsubmerged welded steel pipes,along with internal and externalcoating facilities of upto two millionsquare meters per annum. At theother end, the value chaindownstream facilities include a 1.4MPTA cold rolling complexcompromising two pickling lines oftwo 1.4 MPTA capacity.

Define, measure, analyse,improve and control (DMAIC)principle, along with cause andeffect diagram, was in determiningthe cause of bottlenecks andsolutions. Why-why analysisshowed high reversal time due tobar stopping too far from roughingmill; it happened due to slowdeceleration of roller table anddelayed stop command. Thesoftware was modified to take careof these glitches. Apart from otherchecks operation, shift crewcritically analysed the reasons forgap between actual and targetedcoils per hour. Thus, the plantmanaged to produce an extra coileach hour thereby accruing `75 crper annum.

Ayurvet LimitedAyurvet Limited, apublic limitedcompany, enteredinto animal healthbusiness: with the

objective of improving health byproviding innovative, scientific andproven solutions for the animals’health problems. The company wasestablished in 1992 as DaburAyurvet Limited, and it is leadingplayer of animal care specialising in100 per cent natural and safe herbalproducts. The world population isgrowing, food supply is shrinking,

water supplies are becoming morelimited and in this context, foodproduction is competing for land.Under these circumstances,hydroponics is the latest plantgrowing technology, meeting theneeds of the human populationwhile reducing the pressure to clearprecious habitat to grow crops.However, many are not aware ofhydroponics agriculture.

The cost advantage forproducing 500 kg fodder, betweenconventional method andhydroponics, is `11,192 and that isevery seven to eight days. Thataside, what is important is that theconventional method requires 4,356sq ft area compared to 265 sq ftrequired in hydroponic system.

CATEGORY B2

Wipro BPOR Wipro IT business, a

division of WiproLimited, is amongthe largest global ITservices, BPO and

product engineering companies. Wipro was tasked by an internation-al hardware major, a Fortune 100company, to improve revenue percall. Wipro BPO adopted DMAIC(define, measure, analyse, improveand control) to find the solution.The annualised benefit for the clientworked out to $2,50,16,628 andWipro’s accrual was $1,05,775.

Max New York LifeRY C1 - MICROMax New York

Life InsuranceCompanyLimited is ajoint venture

between Max India Limited, one ofIndia’s leading multi-business cor-poration, and New York LifeInternational, the international armof New York Life, a Fortune 100 company.

Max New York Life experienceda unique problem, in Punjab,termed by the company as businessleakage. Business leakage is policiesgetting cancelled prior to enforce-ment and post enforcement. Thisresults in revenue loss and higheroperations cost to the company. It

also results in lower conversionratio of applied business to paidbusiness. Punjab’s contribution is 53per cent while contribution to leak-age 67 per cent. The annualisedbusiness in Punjab works out to`14.40 cr. Subsequently, DMAICmethodology was adopted. Theproject achieved 137 per cent reduction in business leakage.Finally, in financial term the business impact has been `21.80 cr.

CapgeminiCapgemini, headquartered in

Paris, operates in more than 35 coun-tries with over 1,00,000 people work-ing in North and South America,Europe and Asia Pacific regions. Thecompany’s catchphrase is consulting-technology-outsourcing. In India,Capgemini is close to 30,000 peoplestrong and services 400 clients glob-ally and in Indian market.

Project Pragathi — journeytowards excellence — undertaken byCapgemini focused on master datamanagement (MDM) for one of thelargest beverages giant in the world.Objective was to improve new customer master creation process.Before initiating the project was at 60requests per person per day. As resultof the project the average productivityimproved to 120 requests per personper day. However, during transitionof process from client to Capgemini itwas agreed upon to raise to 96requests per person per day.

The project used Lean (valuestream mapping) and basic toolssuch as cause and effect and Pareto,to perform the root cause analysisand finally FMEA to confirm theeffect of new process.

The results were on the target.The utilisation of resources reducedsignificantly — 49 per cent lessresources deployed than before (43headcounts as against 85 head-counts).

ConvergysConvergys Indiais the Indiandivision ofCincinnati-based

Convergys Corporation, the global


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leader in sectors such as customerrelationship management, consulting, learning, development,billing, HR and self-care technology.

The Corporation has nearly75,000 employees and clients inmore than 70 countries, speakingmore than 35 languages, from 85sites across North America, Europe,the Middle East, India and AsiaPacific region. India operation’s contribution has been consistentlyon the upward graph.

After going through variousphases and action programmes,Convergys was able to deliver sustained performance on key performance measure (CTQ), accuracy and schedule attainment.

The hard work finally paid offand financial accrual was $5.21 million (till September 10) and alsohelped to get two new quality monitoring businesses raising therevenue earned to $6.11 million (tillSeptember 10).

CATEGORY C1

Susira Industries LimitedChennai-basedSusira IndustriesLimited commencedoperations as aproprietary concernand later converted

into a joint stock company in 2006. Itgradually transformed itself from ajob-shop to a full fledgedmanufacturer of engine valve pushrods and related valve traincomponents. Through extensivecommitment to quality andreliability, the company hascatapulted itself to number oneposition manufacturer of productsin its portfolio, both in India andabroad. Susira supplies its productsto all major commercial vehicles anddiesel engine manufacturers in the country.

The company had to improveproductivity in induction, hardeningto meet the customers demand of1,00,000 pushrods per months,within three months time and toachieve that target, the companywould require twice the numbers ofmachines as against presentlyinstalled. That meant twice the

number of workforce too. A teamwas constituted from keydepartment, including inductionhardening processing operators andmachine manufacturer. Onbrainstorming, the team identified16 work related problems.

The tangible benefits wereproductivity increased from 1,200 to6,200 per day. Saving on eachinduction hardening was `3.03. Theannual saving was `2,729,032.Importantly, subcontracting wastotally eliminated.

Abilities India Pistons & RingsLimited

The Delhi-basedcompany AbilitiesIndia Pistons andRings Limited wasestablished in 1966. Its

production facilities include pistonfoundry shop, piston machine shop,piston ring foundry shop and pistonring machine shop. The company’skey customers are Husqvarna (inItaly, the USA and China), YamaGroup (in Italy and China) Chinook(in Italy) and Emak (in Italy); indomestic market, it supplies to TVSMotor Company and GreavesCotton Limited. Eighty per cent ofits production is exported.

The company faced apredicament when Husqvarna(USA) projected a demand for 10,752pistons (PO-414) per week whereasthe current production was only5,000 per week. The quantumchange of 115 per cent was atremendous challenge to thecompany to meet the requirementand deliver on time, every timedefect free quality products.

Takt time, a function of customerdemand, was used to assess netavailable time per shift as againstcustomer demand per shift. ThroughTakt time, the net time available was376 minutes. The customer demandof 10,752 pistons per week meantthat the company had tomanufacture 597 pistons per shift.This meant 37 seconds tomanufacture each piston.

Through Kaizen, it was observedthat the line became unbalancedbecause of improper alignment ofwork. This situation created

imbalance with respect to operatorsworking. Based on Kaizen, findingline imbalance was modified and inthe process, instead of 11 operators,only six were required. Manybreakthroughs achieved inproductivity improvement and themajor benefits being:

100 per cent increase inproductivity.100 per cent adherence tocustomer deliver schedule.92 per cent inventory reduction.97 per cent reduction inmanufacturing lead time.45 per cent reduction inworkforce.The cumulative net financial

benefits for the company were`43.62 lakh.

Json Polymer Private LimitedMumbai-based companyJson Polymer PrivateLimited is intomanufacturing of

rubberised products such asmounting rubber bonded with metalparts, reinforced matting, reinforcedpads, hoses, O-ring, bridge bearingpad, sheeting, gear shifter bellow,extruded components, speedbreaker cover, cork packing gasket,sponge rubber, ebonite, plasticmoulded parts and rubbercompound.

The company was concernedabout in-house moulding rejection,and it was around 7.74 per cent ofproduct MR-161. Now, tounderstand the manufacturingprocess of this product related tocustomer schedule is compoundplanning mould, status supplierproduction, department product,deflasher final product inspectionand packing despatch. The in-houserejection needed to be brought downfrom 7.74 per cent to 1.5 per cent;similarly in deflashing, rejection tobe brought down from 1.53 per centto 0.5 per cent.

The benefits accrued from thisproject:

Annual saving of `60,000.Increase awareness instandardisation.Awareness of quality.Team unity in solving problems.


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Quality Council of IndiaQCI

February 11-12, 2011 at Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi

National QQuality CConclave‘Leveraging Quality for Good Governance’

Day 1 : February 11, 20110800 - 0930 hrs :Registration

0930 -1110 hrs :Theme Session- Future of Quality- The National Agenda Session MModerator:Dr GGirdhar JJ GGyaniSecretary General, Quality Council of India

Perspective on Education Sector by:Dr SS KK CChakrabortyFounder, Management Centre for Human Values, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

Perspective on Healthcare Sector by:Padmashree DDr GG BBakthavathsalamChairman, K G Hospital, Chennai

Perspective on Industry by:Dr NN RRavichandranCEO, Lucas-TVS

Perspective on Industry by:Mr HHardev SSingh KKohliExecutive Director, Reliance Industries Ltd.

1115 - 1145 hrs : Networking Break

1145 -1330 hrs : Inaugural SessionWelcome AAddressDr GGirdhar JJ. GGyaniSecretary General, Quality Council of India

Address by Guest of HonourMr AArun MMairaMember, Planning Commission & Chairman, Quality Council of India

Address by Chief GuestMr MMontek SSingh AAhluwaliaDy. Chairman, Planning Commission

th

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Award of Fellowships—Distribution of QCI-D.L. Shah National Awards on Economic of Quality and NABH Hospital Accreditation Certificates to Hospitals

Release of QCI PublicationConcluding Remarks by

Mr KK CC MMehraChairman, National Board for Quality Promotion

1330 hrs - 1430 hrs : Lunch Break

1430 hrs - 1730 hrs : Concurrent Sessions

QUALITY IIN EEDUCATION

Session Chairman: Dr KK BB KKushal, Chairman, EducationCommittee, NBQP

Quality PParadigms iin EEducation: Dr K B Kushal

Nurturing QQuality CClimate: AA CCaseStudy:Mr Sanjay Maplani/Ms Alka Vaidya

Innovative CCurriculum MManagement:Ms Anita Makkar.

QUALITY IIN IINDUSTRY

Session Chairman: Mr AA KK JJain, Principal Advisor, QCI

Quality SStrategies tthat wworks: aanIndustry eexperience:Mr Ashok Sharma, MahindraTractors Ltd.

Quality bbeyond ccompliance - therole oof cconformity aassessment bbodiesin iimproving tthe eeffectiveness aandefficiency oof mmanagement ssystem:Mr M V Vishwanathan, LRQABusiness Assurance

CRM ppractice iin AAsian CCountries:Mr Prem Narayan, IRCTC.

1545 hrs - 1605 hrs : Networking Break QUALITY IIN HHEALTHCARE

Session Chairman: Dr YY BB BBhaitya, Member, NABH

Building EExcellence IIn NNursingServices: MMs. AAjitha PPS, Chief ofNursing, Fortis Healthcare Ltd.

Introduction sstandard oon PPrimarycare CCovering DDispensary // CClinics //Polyclinics: Dr Arati Verma, MaxHealthcare Pulmonary Medicine,Kasturba Medical College Hospital

NABH AAccreditation ffor AAYUSHSystems oof MMedical PPractices iinmeeting tthe CChallenges oof 221stCentury: Dr Niranjan Murthy,Managing Director & Head ofTechnical Activities, PentacareAyurpharma.

QUALITY IIN HHEALTHCARE

Session Chairman: Dr RR KKaranjekar, Chairman, HealthcareCommittee, NBQP

Quality DDashboard: AA QQualityInitiative iin HHealthcare: Dr SSanjeev SSingh, Amrita Institute ofMedical Sciences


Session Chairman: Mr SSharda PPrasad, lAS, DGET

Integrating sskills wwith sschooleducation:Scotland Experience


Session Chairman : Mr BB VVenkataram,CEO,NABCB

Cluster aapproach ffor iimprovingquality: AA ssuccess sstory:Dr. SSumit RRoy, Counsellor, BusinessProcess Improvement & TQM


Session Chairman: Dr YY SS RRajan

Quality GGovernance iin EEducation: Dr Y S Rajan

Quality TTeaching aand LLearningProcesses: Dr Vijayam Ravi

Best PPractices IIn SSchool EEducation: Mr G Balasubramanian

Quality EElementary EEducation: Ms Reeta Sonawat


Session Chairman: Mr HHari TTaneja, D.L. Shah Trust

Presentation oof QQCI - DD.L. SShahNational AAwards Winning CCaseStudies

Large PPublic SSector, BBharatElectronics LLtd.

Large MManufacturing SSector,Reliance IIndustries LLtd.

Large SService SSector, Wipro LLtd.

MSME SSector, SSusira IIndustries

Day 2: February 12, 20110930 hrs -1100 hrs : Concurrent Sessions (CS):


Session Chairman: Dr NNarottam PPurl, Chairman, NationalAccreditation Board for Hospital &Healthcare Providers (NABH)

Role oof CClinical GGovernance iindelivering QQuality HHealthcare Dr AAnil KKumar MMulpurNarayana Hrudalaya

Clinical AAudit; WWhy, WWhen && HHow: Dr Anand R, Professor, Dept. ofPulmonary Medicine,Kasturba Medical College Hospital

Simple TTips tto OOvercome MMostCommon oobstacles iin PPreparing fforNABH AAccreditation: Dr Murali Srinivas, Manipal Hospital.


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1100 -1130 hrs Networking Break

1130 -1300 hrs Plenary SSession II: PPanel DDiscussion oon QQuality SStrategies iin IIndia: PPast, PPresent aand FFuture —— Manufacturing, EEducation, SSoftware && SServices

Welcome bby SSession MModerator: Gen. HH. LLal ((Retd.), Past Chairman, NABCB

Panellists:Dr AAditya SShastri, Vice Chancellor, Vanasthali UniversityMr RRakesh KKulshrestha, Executive Director (CP), SAILDr KKeshav NNori, Professor, IIITMr SSK SSharma, Head, Business Excellence, Bharti AirtelMr GG SSundararaman, Head - Quality and Sustainability, JCB Ltd

Concluding Remarks by Session Moderator

1300 - 1400 hrs : Lunch

1400 -1530 hrs Plenary SSession III- NNew ddevelopment IIn tthe aarea oof cconformity aassessment aand qquality ppromotion

Session CChairman: DDr TT VVenkatesh, Principal Advisor, QCI(i) Presentation on National Board for Quality Promotion (NBQP): Mr AAvik MMitra, Advisor, NBQP(ii) Presentation on National Accreditation Board for Laboratories (NABL): Mr AAnil RRelia, Director, NABL(iii) Presentation on National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB): Mr AAnil JJauhari, Director, NABCB

Concluding Remarks by Session Chairman

1530 - 1535 hrs : Break

1535 - 1635 hrs : Valedictory Session

Welcome AAddress bbyDr GGirdhar JJ GGyani, Secretary General, Quality Council of India

The nneed tto PPreserve && NNurture oour NNational VValues: MMoving FForward wwith IIndian EEthos bbySwami NNikhilananda SSaraswati, Chinmaya Mission

Conclave cclosure aaddress bbyDr GGirdhar JJ GGyani, Secretary General, Quality Council of India

1635 hrs : Closures and High Tea


Key iindicators ffor MMeasuring aandImproving RRadiology DDepartment:Dr. Uday Patil, Adjmct Professor,Dept. of Radiology and Imaging,Kasturba Medical College.

Importance oof QQuality WWater(Endiotoxin/pyrogen ffree) iin hhospitalsspecially ffor ppatient uundergoing ddial-ysis: Jeff HHovis, Global Head, Lonza

Quality iin HHealthcare - AA PPracticalApproach:Dr. Rajiv Mohan, Mohan Eye Institute


Personnel aaccreditation tthrough IISO17024: USA ExperienceIndia 22022 QQuality iin VVocationalEducation: Govt. perspective


Operational EExcellence tthrough‘Intuition’: Mr B Viswanathan, HCL

Quality iin SService SSector wwith sspecialfocus oon FFood SSupply LLogistics:Mr Vinod Asthana, IRCTC


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A brief look at the best brains managing and practicing quality, who will be seen at theSixth National Quality Conclave.

Speakers at the conclave

MMOONNTTEEKK SSIINNGGHH AAHHLLUUWWAALLIIAAMontek Singh Ahluwalia, currently Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, is afamiliar persona in any major economic policy forums in the country and his measured andarticulated speeches are always listened to in rapt attention. A Rhodes Scholar from theUniversity of Oxford, he received BA (Hons) and later M Phil in Economics from the sameUniversity. He also received an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law from Oxford. He was alsothe president of the prestigious Oxford Union.

After Oxford, Montek Singh Ahluwalia joined the World Bank and served during thetenures of Hollis Chenery and Robert MacNamara. He was said to have become theyoungest “Division Chief” at age of 28 in the World Bank's bureaucracy. He returned to thecountry after several years to become lateral entrant into the Indian Administrative Service.

Prior to taking up his position at the International Monetary Fund, Ahluwalia was aMember of the Planning Commission as well as a Member of the Economic AdvisoryCouncil to the Prime Minister. In addition, he had served as Finance Secretary, Secretary atDepartment of Economic Affairs and Commerce Secretary. In 2007, he became a memberof the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty.

An alumnus of MadrasMedical College, Dr GBakthavathsalam obtained anMS from the same collegeand later did his post-graduate training in surgery in

Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago. An clarion callfrom his father beckoned him back to India toserve the poor countrymen in the field ofhealthcare. Initially a 10-bedded hospital wasbuilt and now has grown into 550-bedded multiand super-speciality and post-graduate medicalcentre. Today, KG Hospital shines as a “Centre ofExcellence” both in India and abroad.He believes that a doctor has to becompassionate. Affectionately called Dr GB, heleads a team of doctors and PGs each morningaround the wards to find first-hand patient’sneeds. He never fails to mention his fellow teamof doctors to be compassionate, honest in allinteraction, approachable, introspective andwilling to self-criticise. Yet, beyond his amazingsurgery skills, he is most admired for his sensitivetouch with people of all ages particularly towardsunderprivileged. He is Fellow of Association ofSurgeons of India, International College ofSurgeons (USA) and GI Endoscopy (TokyoUniversity).

DDRR YY SS RRAAJJAANNDr Y S Rajan can aptly be describedas a “thinker and doer”. Hecombines a unique ability fororiginal and innovative thinking withstrong implementation skills. He has

made key contributions to space research, technologyand applications since 1964 and continues to be animportant expert on space matters. As ScientificSecretary, Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO),he was responsible for a combination of scientific,technical, administrative, planning, policy and mattersrelated to international cooperation. His contributions inshaping ISRO from its initial experimental phases into amajor service delivery organisation have beenremarkable. In the process, he has also been a creatorof many institutions and sustainable mechanismsbetween ISRO and its end-users.

While holding various positions of responsibilityrelated to science and technology between 1998 and2002, he has shaped key policies and implementedseveral successful R&D projects with industryparticipation. He has been responsible for creating aseries of documents related to Technology Vision 2020for India, which culminated in a book on a roadmap forsocio-economic development for India called IndiaVision 2020. He is currently Dr Vikram SarabhaiDistinguished Professor at ISRO headquarters.

DDRR GG BBAAKKTTHHAAVVAATTHHSSAALLAAMM

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NN RRAAVVIICCHHAANNDDRRAANNN Ravichandran, currently CEO at Lucas-TVS, realised the importance ofperfection and processes during a trip to Japan in 1984-85. In India, quality usedto be an accident, then it came by way of inspection, assurance, prevention andperfection. He emphasises that the need of the hour is quality by way of creation.“We need an inner spirit which will lead to invention. Indians have been greatinventors in the past, but we have lost that trait,” laments Ravichandran. Hebelieves that as the world sees India as a place of action again, it is time for us tofocus on creativity through passion, the mind, facilities and structure.He has been honoured with the rank of “Academician” by the InternationalAcademy for Quality, USA, an independent body established in 1966. He is thesecond person from India to be elected to this elite 50-member club after JanakMehta who has contributed immensely for Asian Network for Quality. Therecognition comes for Ravichandran’s contribution to science, technology,economics and the management of professional quality. His book StochasticMethods in Reliability Theory is well received.

SS KK CCHHAAKKRRAABBOORRTTYYShitangshu Kumar Chakraborty has the distinction being “first-ranker” in hisstudies at Calcutta University and later at the Institute of Cost and WorksAccountants of India. As a Common Scholar he obtained his Ph D inmanagement and social sciences from Liverpool University. He started his workingcareer at Calcutta University teaching post-graduate students and later was withIndian Institute of Management Calcutta till retirement in 2003. While at IndianInstitute of Management, he founded the Management Centre for Human Values.His knowledge and expertise took him to several educational institutions anduniversities in India and abroad, the notables being Liverpool, Stockholm,Darmstadt, California Institute of Integral Studies and Royal Melbourne Institute ofTechnology. In addition to teaching at the various institutions, he was invited toparticipate in numerous conferences and travelled to Guangzhou, Kuala Lumpur,Manila, Geneva, Madrid, Tokyo, Edinburgh, Toronto and Washington DCamongst many. He is also a prolific writer and has written thirty four books eitheras a sole Writer/Editor or as joint Author/Editor.


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AARRUUNN MMAAIIRRAAArun Maira, Member of the Planning Commission, has the onerous task offacilitating the shaping of policies and programmes related to industrialisation,urbanisation and tourism. He has a combination of hands-on leadershipexperience, consulting experience to leadership teams internationally, andthought-leadership as an Author and Speaker on the subjects of leadership andorganisation transformation. A prolific Writer he contributes thought-provokingarticles in business dailies and journals. He has authored several books, thenotable being Shaping the Future: Aspirational Leadership in India and Abroad,Remaking India: One Country, One Destiny, Discordant Democrats: Fives Steps toConsensus and Transforming Capitalism: Business Leadership to Improve theWorld for Everyone.

He was a member of the Tata Administrative Services and worked in severalsenior positions in the Tata Group in India and abroad for 25 years, till 1989. Helater worked with Arthur D Little, USA an international management consultancytill 1999. During this period he was Managing Director of Innovation Associates,an Arthur D Little subsidiary. In addition to his current appointment in the PlanningCommission, he is Chairman of Quality Council of India.

SSWWAAMMII NNIIKKHHIILLAANNAANNDDAA SSAARRAASSWWAATTIISwami Nikhilananda, a disciple of Swami Chinmayananda, believes spirituality isin leading a highly rational, value-based and active life culminating in self-knowledge. While studying for a Masters degree in Geology at St. Xavier’sCollege, Mumbai, Swami took momentous decision of changing the direction ofhis life. Following an inner calling, he quit his formal education and joined theVedanta course at the Mumbai ashram of the Chinmaya Mission in 1984. Hespent two and a half years in intense study of the scriptures under the guidance ofSwami Tejomayananda. He also had the good fortune to study the entireBhagavad Gita, several Upanishads and other Vedanta text directly under SwamiChinmayananda.

He first began working as a spiritual teacher at Ahmedabad. Apart fromChinmaya Mission Centre in New Delhi he also served in the Mission Centres inGoa, San Jose (California) and Dallas (Texas). Fluent both in Hindi and English,he conveys the deep philosophical truth of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gitaand the Ramcharitamanas with clarity, originality and ease accompanied by witand humour. He speaks at management institutes, schools, colleges and medicalforums with equal ease and expertise.


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Arun Maira,Chairperson, QualityCouncil of India, has abroad agenda for quality. Though QCIstarted with areasthat are “technical”,it has moved intoinstitutions thataffect the lives of allcitizens. He would liketo see quality wherev-er the aam aadmigoes and that is whyhe is keen to ensurethat “we have toimprove our own qual-ity” first, as he toldQuality India. Excerptsfrom the interview:

“FIRST, WE'VE GOT TO IMPROVE

OUR OWNQUALITY”

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What, according to you, sir, isyour concept of quality?I’m going to give two definitions.One is a lovely one called, “Iknow it when I see it”. When Iwas working with Tata’s (at TataMotors - then known as TELCO)factory in Pune, Mr. SumantMoolgaokar, the Chairman, one ofthe greatest industrial leaders thatwe had in this country —circulated to us all, this little bookby an Italian evangelist for quality,titled I know it when I see it. It’s astory about someone in a pencilfactory, talking about the qualityof pencil production.

The second definition ofquality that is fitness for use.Now, ‘use’ can be defined in avery technical way. All parametersmeasured, and as in a Mercedescar you can say that since greatengineers have designedeverything, the car must be fit foruse. It is safe; it will accelerate andso on. But then we have thingslike the feel of the car, theaesthetics of the car. You can’tmeasure them mathematically ormake a blueprint for them butthese are also aspects of quality.Therefore, I’m combining thesetwo, i.e. I know it when I see it.And the other, fitness for use.That’s my definition, myimpression of quality.

My sense of quality is that itshould do these two things. Itshould perform most efficiently atthe least cost which is the fitnessfor use side. The other is that itshould also satisfy the user. Somethings like nails, you may wellsay, are just to be fit for use.Therefore you should produce anail which is sturdy, strong andsharp at least cost. But consider ahammer which you use with anail. I love going to hardwarestores because I may find ahammer — for example, a Stanleyhammer — which feels good, and looks good too. It’s like aSwiss army knife — it’s not just agood knife to cut things with.Very few “quality” things can bedescribed only in one term or theother. It’s really a combination of both.

What has been your experience ofsetting benchmarks of quality?Let me go back to the factory in

Pune and Mr. Sumant Moolgaokar.As I was taking charge of this bigfactory in Pune, I saw that thequality of our products was notvery good. I had earlier run a Tatatruck factory in Malaysia whereour products were beingcompared with the products ofGermans and Japanese. In terms offitness for use, ours were the best.There was no question about that.The operators said that theyearned more income by using aTata truck than a Japanese truck. Itwas reliable, robust, it could keeprunning, which is what broughtthe commercial operator hisincome. So, it was the best butnevertheless people wouldn’t payus the same price as they wouldpay for something else, which wasperhaps less fit for use. The fit andfinish of Japanese trucks wasmuch better, and so, even thoughthey were less robust, peoplewould pay for that other aspect,the aesthetic aspect.

So, when I came back to Indiaand I shared this story with Mr.Moolgaokar, he reminded me ofthe story of the pencil factory: ‘Iknow it when I see it’. He said: tellthe people who work for you, thattheir product’s quality is not good.They will say, let us prove to you itis okay. We have measured it,checked it. It is 100 per cent. Iwould tell them, doesn’t look okay.Every morning I would go to thearea where finished trucks werelined up for delivery, after beingcertified by our whole qualitysystem that they had met everyspecification. I would open thedoor of a truck cabin and shut it.And if the door did not shut withthat gentle push — with that‘thunk’ sound — then I’d say thatthis truck should be rejected. Theywould reply, but the door shuts.Someone would open the door andbang it hard to prove it shuts. Butthat’s not good quality. Every partof the door had met itsspecifications but I said it doesn’tfeel good!

In India, we have a very

My sense of quality is thatit should do these twothings. It should performmost efficiently at the leastcost which is the fitness foruse side. The other is thatit should also satisfy theuser. Some things like nails,you may well say, are justto be fit for use. Thereforeyou should produce a nailwhich is sturdy, strong andsharp at least cost.


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important challenge: in many caseswe are not meeting the fitness foruse criterion, which meansproducts are not produced orservices are not deliveredaccurately. For the first part,fitness for use comes out ofaccuracy — fit exactly asprescribed for each component.We are not accurate about things.We are terrible about timeaccuracy! Doing things on time ispart of quality as far as I’mconcerned because there are manyprocesses, which are abouttimeliness such as hotel services.Or, for that matter, a flight leavingon time.

We’ve got things, whichsomeone will produce accurately,like the trucks I was talking aboutbut don’t look good, feel good. Onthe other hand, we have thingsthat feel very good like Indian‘hospitality’ that is not tooconcerned with punctuality (i.e.accuracy in time). We have anational agenda to get people toappreciate what quality really is.By thinking about quality in everyaspect of their lives. Each of usvalues quality in different things.We must demand quality. Andthus compel providers of servicesand products to deliver quality.

Each of us is a customer ofquality in many things: but each ofus is also a producer of someproducts and services for others.Therefore, we must demandquality from each other and alsoprovide quality to each other. Thuswe will become a “quality” nation.

We must distinguish betweenan engineer’s definition of qualityand a customer’s definition ofquality. Engineers mustunderstand what customersappreciate. When Honda enteredthe US car market, its engineerswondered what US customerswant in their cars. Of course, theywant their cars to start and drivesafely and be economical.However, Honda engineers foundout that US customers also want todrink their coffee in the car ontheir way to work. So theydesigned and added convenientcoffee cup holder to Honda cars.

Now, the production of theholder for the coffee cup must bedone very accurately because it hasto mate with the specifications ofanother system: the production ofcoffee cups. So, either you changethe size of the cup or you changethe size of the holder. Thus wecome to the subject of nationalstandards, which enable manyproducers’ products to fitaccurately together and thusprovide a high quality experienceto the customer.

We need standards in societybecause people are producingdifferent things and if they are notconforming to some standardwhich will enable their products toconnect with others, then the usersare not going to have much joy.

As a nation, are we quality-conscious? In some ways we are extremelyquality-conscious. A musician inIndia who plays on his musicalinstrument— the ustads— they areso finicky about their instrumentsand music. But the same personwill spit — and even an ustad maydo it — which from anotherperspective is not a “quality” thingto do.

We need to be conscious aboutquality in everything. Because weare part of large systems, we musthave similar standards and eachperform with respect to others’expectations in areas they considerimportant. That’s how we willbecome a quality society.

But does quality come witheducation? We have a hugemiddle-class that is educated…Education. Yes, I am “educated”. Iwent to a school, I was given someinformation which was in a bookor the teacher gave it to me. Idigested it, I was able to, at thevery least, repeat it back. Maybewith the ideas I got I was able toformulate some more propositionsand write some essays. That’swhat I got educated in. Now, whenI am talking about quality, I’ll saywhat has that got to do with theway I will show up on time when Igo somewhere. Or, when I use

We have a national agendato get people to appreciatewhat quality really is. Bythinking about quality inevery aspect of their lives.Each of us values quality indifferent things. We mustdemand quality. And thuscompel providers of servicesand products to deliverquality.


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something in my own house, will Iput it back where I got it from andnot create a clutter for others byleaving it where it suits me? So,“education” in a class is notnecessarily teaching me quality. Iwas lucky to go to a school wheretwo basic qualities were taught tome. One was this matter aboutrespecting public property and thisis where we Indians fail. Publicproperty is where other people’sneeds are to be respected. It is acommon space, which is affectedby many things working, manysystems interacting there.

If you want to know if thecountry is a quality country, lookat its public spaces. That is whereall citizens come and differentsystems are supposed to work. So,I could say, therefore, by thatcriterion, India is not a qualitycountry yet. But we have to makeit that. I learnt in school — aboarding school — that if younoticed a piece of paper lying onthe floor, you picked it up becauseit was spoiling the beauty of apublic space. You had to find aplace into which to put that pieceof paper. The school provided that.

When I went into the Tatafactory in Pune, we said we’regoing to make our factories cleanerthan hospitals. Why should afactory be cleaner than a hospital?And, why not? Let’s make it so. Itwas the same thing. If there was apiece of paper or cotton waste, Iwould pick it up and thesupervisor would say, ‘Sir, give the

paper to me or the cotton waste.’ Iwould say, ‘No, no, I want to holdit till I find a proper place to putit’. Then he would say, ‘Sir, thesepeople come from the village. Wetrain them in a technical school.But they don’t live like in this“quality” way. So I would to pickthe cotton waste and say, ‘Look, Ithink he’s thrown it down on theground because he doesn’t knowwhere to put it. He has to be on themachine — you expect him to beproductive. So we’re going towalk, you and I, till we find a placeto put the cotton waste.’ And thenthe supervisor would feelembarrassed because his job was toprovide proper places for cottonwaste near the workers. So, byputting systems in place we canenable people to be quality peopleand create quality systems. Thuswe can improve the quality of ourpublic spaces.

The second aspect of quality isrespecting others’ needs. I wastaught in school that if you’re madea prefect, you are made a prefect toensure that the weakest boys inboarding school are not bullied bythe bigger boys. Your position isnot for your own aggrandizement;it is for fulfilling the needs of theweakest people. This is the essenceof quality in governance .

We talk of institutions ofgovernance. If you look at ourIndian institutions of governance, Isay they are not qualityinstitutions from that regard. Aninstitution’s purpose is supposedto be to look after and enable theweakest members in the system.But if the heads of institutions areusing their positions to aggrandizethemselves and also the people justaround them, then it’s not a qualityinstitution to my mind.

Good quality systems providequality to everyone. People say tome now: “Fly on Air India. Nowthat you are in the government,they look after you very well. It is agreat quality experience.” I ask, if Itravelled at the back (in theeconomy class) and paid my ownmoney, would they look after methat well? And if they don’t do that,then it’s not a quality organisation.

The second aspect of qualityis respecting others’ needs. Iwas taught in school that ifyou’re made a prefect, youare made a prefect to ensurethat the weakest boys inboarding school are notbullied by the bigger boys.Your position is not for yourown aggrandizement; it isfor fulfilling the needs ofthe weakest people. This isthe essence of quality ingovernance .

EENNGGIINNEEEERRIINNGG GGRROOWWTTHH: Engineers at workin an automobile production unit.


What is the agenda that you wishto set for the Quality Council ofIndia?Our agenda for quality is broad:improving quality of institutions inthe country. We must worktowards achieving that. We havestarted with areas which are“technical” areas and are movinginto institutions that affect thelives of all citizen. I am so happythat the Quality Council of India isgetting into schools and hospitalsfor that is where the aam aadmigoes. If you improve the quality ofthose places then people willbenefit from high quality. Theywill also learn what quality isabout… experiencing it, enjoying itand also learning how to do it. Thepeople who teach in schools andthe nurses who work in hospitalsdo not come from the elite classthat has been through expensiveeducation in India or abroad. Imean they have got education butit’s done in places where they don’texperience and learn quality intheir daily lives, by concentratingon institutions of public service wecan create a quality culture for thewhole country.

How will you go about creating amindset for quality among thepeople of the country?I have explained the broadapproach we must take. But wecan’t do everything overnight. Sowe have to focus on some areas. Inaddition to schools & hospitals let

us focus on urban public servicessuch as sanitation, water supplyand solid waste disposal. These areservices that even the poorestpeople in the city need. They affectthe lives of the rich also. TheUrban Development Ministry hasestablished benchmarks of qualityof water services and also forsanitation and solid wastedisposal. And they have taken theassistance of internationalorganisations that work in urbanareas: the Japanese, the Germansand the United Nations people.They have developed ways tomeasure the quality of somethingwhich is not only ‘technical’. Thereare intangibles associated withpublic service. How does onemeasure these things? We mustlearn that, then measure thequality of our own cities and thencompare ourselves with others, tofind who’s better and what one canlearn from them. That is how youstimulate and grow a “movement”to improve quality in publicservices.

Perhaps the QCI doesn’t needto work in areas in which othersare already doing good work now.But there are other public serviceslike education and health. Inwhich there are private sectorprovider and governmentinstitutions too. The QCI canestablish standards that apply toall. Institutions that are certified tothe QCI standard should be moredesired by people. Thus the‘demand’ pull will cause providers— private and government — toimprove their quality.

How will the Council begin thequality awareness campaign? Competition with one’s peers is agreat stimulus. It can becompetition between the states orcompetition on smaller scales. Ifwithin a city three/four clinics inthe same area are rated to behigher than others, and if someonewho doesn’t know the rating goesinside and feels the difference, andthen is told that it is a clinic to QCIstandards, the value of the QCIstandard will be enhanced. Peoplewill choose such places. So, the

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CCRRAADDLLEE OOFF QQUUAALLIITTYY:: An inside view ofa monastery in India.

The QCI can establishstandards that apply to all.Institutions that are certifiedto the QCI standard shouldbe more desired by people.Thus the ‘demand’ pull willcause providers — privateand government — toimprove their quality.


competition induces institutions toimprove themselves because thenthey get more customers, and getmore recognition.

As for the QCI, we know howto architect such a movement andthere are certain tools that arerequired like standardmeasurements. We can also teachthe ways to improve the standards.Thereafter, we could be evaluators.We must be objective and we mustnever dilute our ratings. If peopleare defaulting, then we must helpthem improve. But if they do not,we must not allow them to use ourcertification. This will requirecourage on our side.

What role do you see for QCI inthe future? The QCI needs to become aninstitution which is recognised bythe aam janata. It has to besomething, which is going to helpimprove India. TheCommonwealth Games raised awhole stink about the standards atwhich things are done in ourcountry. The money was there, butthe ‘quality’ was not. We musttake advantage of the people’sfrustration with the poor qualityof work and institutions and showthem how quality can beimproved. If things collapsed, itmeans technical standards weren’tmet. And, weaknesses in thequality of institutions were veryvisible. The people in chargelooked after themselves. So thequality in both those regards wasviolated.

Such crises make peopledesirous of changing things in thecountry and so in QCI, we have anopportunity and a responsibilityto deliver. Our agenda is twosided. On one side to helpinstitutions improve their qualityand, on the other, to make peopleconscious about and demandquality.

Some ideas we have discussedinclude competitions aboutcleanliness amongst cities andmohallas. So, if people start tocompete for this prize, and thebest places get recognised, theirattractiveness will increase. How

would people benefit? One ispride. The second is a better lifefor themselves. The third isinvestments will come in. Otherswill want to live in that area andbuy property in that area. Sothere’s an economic benefit also ofbeing recognised.

We are thinking creatively tosay, what if you could have a QCIaward for the best mohalla in acity? Or QCI awards for the bestdoctor’s clinics. By ratings andawards in such areas, I think wecould spread around theawareness of what quality is andhow one brings it about, sincepeople must themselvesparticipate and make the qualityproduct — which is their ownsurroundings.

What then are the priorities toachieve quality? For QCI? ThePlanning Commission?First, we’ve got to improve ourown quality. This includes theaccuracy of our work and thetimeliness of our work. And howconvenient we make it for othersto work with us. Also the costefficiency of our work. We areworking on these aspects of ourquality. Second, we must helpother improve quality.

In the Planning Commissionall the divisions are reaching outto citizens’ groups. That’s the newway we are going about theapproach to the Twelfth Plan. Thegroups we must reach out to morepurposefully are those who feelinsufficiently included: whetherthey are Dalits, or rural poor, orurban poor or poor women oryouth or children — who don’thave houses and live on thestreets. We have been meetingthem. And of course, we aremeeting the ‘included’ people thatone hears from anyway. We wantto know what the citizens’expectations are. What wouldthey say is a good quality life forthem?

We will convert that feedbackinto how we may change thesystem to deliver more whatpeople need.

Interviewed by K Srinivasan

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As for the QCI, we knowhow to architect such amovement and there arecertain tools that arerequired like standardmeasurements. We can alsoteach the ways to improvethe standards. Thereafter,we could be evaluators. Wemust be objective and wemust never dilute ourratings. If people aredefaulting, then we musthelp them improve.


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THE NABCB, WITHREPRESENTATION FROM ALLMAJOR STAKEHOLDERS, HASBEEN ACTIVE THROUGH THEWHOLE OF 2010. WHILE IT HASBEEN INSTRUMENTAL INDEVELOPING NEWACCREDITATION PROGRAMMES,THE BOARD HAS ALSO BEENAPPROACHED BY ETHIOPIA,BANGLADESH AND NEPAL TOCONDUCT TRAINING ANDASSESS CERTIFICATIONPROGRAMMES.

The NationalAccreditation Board forCertification Bodies(NABCB) represents theinterests of the Indian

industry at international forumsthrough certification and by activeparticipation. With the mainobjective of becoming a signatoryto multilateral and mutuallyrecognition agreements with othercountries, NABCB continues itsagenda of developing newaccreditation programmes based onmarket demand

The Board offers accreditationto the certification bodies for theQuality Management Systems (ISO9001), Environmental ManagementSystems (ISO 14001), Food Safety

Management Systems (ISO 22000),Product certification and inspectionbodies. The accreditations offeredby NABCB are according torelevant international standards.NABCB has recently announced itsaccreditation programme forcertification based on OHSAS18000 standard.

The present chairperson ofNABCB is S Sandilya, Chairman ofEicher Group of companies. TheNABCB Board has representationfrom all major stakeholdersincluding certification bodies.

MEMBER OF IAF AND PACThe Board is a member of

International Accreditation Forum(IAF) and Pacific AccreditationCooperation (PAC). IAF is anassociation of the accreditationbodies of different countries of theworld and PAC is the association ofthe accreditation bodies of the Asia-Pacific economies. Member-ship of these organisations hashelped in achieving the status ofMultilateral Arrangement (MLA) ofmutual recognition of theaccreditations granted by NABCBby other members of IAF and PACwho are signatories to the MLA.

NABCB, at present, provides theIAF Chairperson for DevelopingEconomies support Committee andis also a member of the IAFExecutive Committee. At theregional level, NABCB provides theVice-Chair of Pacific AccreditationCooperation and also thechairperson for the PAC DevelopingPrograms Committee

As on December 31, 2010, thenumber of accreditationsoperational is 35 for QMScertification, 12 for EMS certificationand six for FSMS certification. Inaddition, three inspection bodiesand one product certification body

New programmes onmarket demand

SSTTRROONNGG TTEEAAMM:: Newly-appointed Chairpersonof NABCB, S Sandilya, along with the members ofNABCB.

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have been accredited.

INTERACTION WITHORGANISATIONS

NABCB has closely interactedwith regulators to proposesolutions for effectiveimplementation of regulationsusing the conformity assessmentinfrastructure in the country. ThePetroleum and Natural GasRegulatory Board and the FoodSafety and Standards Authority ofIndia are two such regulators whohave decided to use accreditedinspection/certification bodies forchecking compliance to thestandards prescribed by themunder their regulations.

It has also worked with theDepartment of AYUSH and theNational Medicinal Plants Boardfor developing voluntary productcertification systems for AYUSHproducts and medicinal plants.

NABCB has contributed to theharmonisation of globalaccreditation practices by activelyparticipating in the technical forumof PAC and IAF and also in thepeer assessment process. NABCBparticipates in the IAF and PACExecutive Committees andprovides leadership in these bodiesfor support to developing nations.

REQUEST FROM ETHIOPIANACCREDITATION BODY

The past year has seen NABCBbeing recognised as a leader inaccreditation in the region. Thenewly set up EthiopianAccreditation body had requestedNABCB to organise a trainingprogramme on ISO/IEC 17011.NABCB designed and delivered aprogramme, meeting the needs ofthe Ethiopian Accreditation body.

NABCB along with NABL(National Accreditation Board forLaboratories) celebrated the WorldAccreditation Day on June 9, 2010,by organising a seminar on"Global acceptance of conformityassessment results". The seminarwas well attended.

NABCB has been pioneeringthe move to improve thecredibility of accreditedcertification and is actively

engaged in the working groups/task forces set up by IAF on thesubject.

REQUEST FROM BANGLADESHAND NEPAL

Bangladesh Standards andTesting Institute (BSTI) and NepalBureau Standards and Metrologyhad requested NABCB to assesstheir product/system certificationprogrammes.

Under the leadership of SSandilya, NABCB plans tocontinue its agenda of developingnew accreditation programmesbased on market demand.

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Under the leadership ofS Sandilya, NABCBplans to continue itsagenda of developingnew accreditationprogrammes based onmarket demand andactively engage in theinternational forum toinfluence the shaping ofpolicies in this field.

NBQP: The journey so farRealising the need that the country requires establishment of quality culture to supporteconomic growth, Quality Council of India began the National Quality Campaign in1999. Initially it was decided that a few key ministries/departments would contributefunds for the campaign with the following broad objectives:

Capacity building within Indian industry through awareness programmes,training, workshops, etc.Conduct survey/studies in the field of quality.Promote quality through various media including bringing out Quality magazine.Till the beginning of the XI Plan period, on an average 50 programmes and five

studies were conducted and Quality India magazine was published. A national-levelQuality Conclave was also started during the period. At the beginning of XI Planperiod, Quality Council of India re-organised its campaign activities by forming aNational Board for Quality Promotion. The Board has a Chairman and 25 membersrepresenting national level industry associations, manufacturing and service sectorassociations as well as quality professional bodies. The Board submitted a detailedplan of activities which it wanted to implement through support plan fund. Theemphasis of the campaign is to:

Enable suppliers to understand and apply quality standards and best practices.Empower consumers to demand quality.

National Board for Quality Promotion plan for the coming years is broadly into fouractivities: Plan fund activities to carry out National Quality Campaigns; Membershipactivities are to include invited lectures, round-table, quiz competition, essaycompetition, quality walks and regional conclaves; Knowledge centre will have qualityportal and emphasis on quality journal. Benchmarking centre's activities would be:

Acquisition of international database.Establishment of information system for e-benchmarking.Formation of community of practices for identified sectors (in which memberswill participate for benchmarking reports).Preparation of benchmarking reports.Mediation of contacts with various international benchmarking centres.Best practice study visits.Regular best practice management brief reports.Development of benchmarking promotion literature and tool kits. Development of self-assessment tools.Research request services.Regular e-mail newsletters.Conduct of benchmarking awareness seminars.Organising benchmarking events.

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WITH THE GROWING NEED FORCOMPETENT PERSONNEL ANDCREDIBLE SKILLED MANPOWER INVARIOUS INDUSTRY SECTORS,NABET HAS DEVELOPED ANUMBER OF PROGRAMMESTHROUGH THE LAUNCH OF ITSPERSONNEL, TRAINING ANDCONSULTANCY ACCREDITATIONSERVICES, IN ASSOCIATION WITHTHE INDUSTRY AND GOVERNMENT.

The accreditation servicesof NABET are in linewith the appropriateinternational standardslike ISO 17024, ISO 29990

etc and necessary linkages have alsobeen built with international bodiesto provide advantage to theaccredited personnel andorganisations.

Some of the accreditationprogrammes are being operated for:» Vocational Training Providers» Skill/Personnel Assessment

Bodies» Environment Impact Assessment

Consultant Organisations» Consultant Organisations in the

area of Hospitals (NABH),Conformity Assessment (QMS,EMS, Food Safety etc)

» Training Organisations(Conformity Assessment, SixSigma, Environment etc)The NABET accreditation

programme for Quality SchoolGovernance was launched to providea framework for effectivemanagement and delivery of holisticeducation programme aimed atoverall development of students.

QUALITY SCHOOLGOVERNANCEQuality Council of India (QCI) has amajor contribution in promotingschools and their quality. And in thisdirection, their sole vision is to be anorganisation without borders,

individuals and other bodies, for animprovement of all aspects in schooleducation for lifelong learning,towards equity and excellence acrossthe nation, for contribution of valueto society.

To serve this purpose, inJanuary, 2008, the Quality Councilof India (QCI) developed andreleased the Accreditation Standardon Quality School Governance byits National Board for Educationand Training (NABET), onrecommendations of the thenPresident Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.This accreditation standard hasbeen developed with a view todeveloping quality consciousnessamong interested parties involvedin school activities, enhance theirinvolvement and level ofsatisfaction related to the schooleducational services, and provide abasis for assessing the effectivenessof the school’s educationalmanagement system.

Since there are a wide variety ofchildren in different locations, thespecific needs and expectations — ofthe students, parents, otherregulatory bodies and interestedpeople associated with theperformance of the school — alsovary from school-to-school. Allrequirements of this standard aregeneric in nature and are intended tobe applicable to all schools,regardless of type, size and nature ofeducational service provided. Thestandard can be adapted as a self-improvement tool, for third partyaccreditation, and bystatutory/regulatory authorities inthe country.

QCI's aim is to provide holisticeducation and facilitate the overalldevelopment of students, and thecontinual improvement in all that isbeing done in the school towardscreating lifelong learners and citizensto contribute value to society and

Three-pronged approachto attain quality

SSOOUURRCCEE OOFF IINNSSPPIIRRAATTIIOONN:: The then President A P J Abdul Kalam at the Quality Conclave in 2007 wherehe set out an agenda for Quality Council of India. It is onhis recommendations that NABET has forged ahead tobring in school governance. Here the then President isseen giving an award during the Third National QualityConclave.

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» Be a self-learner, confident, wellmotivated with high humanvalues;

» Possess a comprehensive range offundamental transferable skills;

» Be equipped to participate ascitizen of a modern democraticsociety;

» Have the skills, aptitudes andadaptability required tocontribute productively inadvancing the economy;

» Be enterprising; and, » Have a clear regard for

sustainability.A student's focus in the school

means that it must adequatelyaddress the following studentrequirements:» Physical needs through activity,

relaxation, and stimulation ofsensory organs;

» Emotional needs through love,hope and security;

» Intellectual needs throughknowledge and creativity;

» Social needs through peerrelationships, parent-childrelationship, neighbourhoodrelationships;

» Self-development and satisfactionthrough recognition,appreciation, respect, self-esteem,through higher qualities,evolution, discipline andindependence; and,

» Inculcation of sound humanvalues should be woven into theschool culture through all schoolactivities. In line with the Vision, NABET

organised 32 one-day awarenessprogrammes on the accreditationthat were held in over 20 locationsincluding New Delhi, Ahemdabad,Pune, Vadodra, Nashik, Amritsar,Aurangabad, Cochin, Lucknow,Kolkata, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur,Allahabad, Bhopal, Jabalpur,Bhubneshwar, Silchar, Patna, Mohali,etc on the standard to spread qualityconsciousness to about 1900interested parties in school activities.In addition, 21 three-dayprogrammes were held onpreparation for implementing thestandard in schools reaching out toabout 400 individuals associatedwith school education.

Moreover, NABET has alsoconducted 13 three-day trainingworkshops covering about 260individuals on assessing schools.Seventeen schools have beenaccreditated and another about 48schools are currently in the process.The schools are from a widespectrum ranging from privateunaided schools, schools run byCorporate Social Responsibilitywings of Industry, schools run byphilanthropic trusts, municipalsociety-run schools to centralgovernment-run schools etc. Theseare also spread over different regionscovering NCR, Tamil Nadu,Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,Gujarat, Rajasthan, West Bengal,Puducherry, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka. Theschools also are affiliated to differentboards including CBSE, ICSE, IB,and different State Education Boards.

QCI longs to continue in thisdirection of improving quality,therefore, further initiatives areplanned for accreditation process. Tokeep up this work, talks have beeninitiated with different stategovernments to formally adopt thestandard in their own states andcreate their own resources foraccreditation of their schools withrequired training and guidance by NABET.

Government of Maharashtra hasconducted statewide programmesrelated to NABET SchoolAccreditation and trained 96

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Talks have beeninitiated with differentState Governments toformally adopt thestandard in their ownstates and create theirown resources foraccreditation of theirschools with requiredtraining and guidance by NABET.

AAPPPPRREECCIIAATTIINNGG QQUUAALLIITTYY:: Representatives ofNavyug School, Jor Bagh, receiving certificate ofaccreditation of NABET from Arun Maira, Member,Planning Commission.


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Education Officers including DeputyDirectors in the state. In addition tothis, two programmes in each region,i.e. Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, Nasik,Aurangabad, Latur, Amravati,Nagpur were held for the schoolcommunity.

EIA After a long wait, India's growthstory has finally picked upmomentum. While the countrymarches towards taking its rightfulplace in the comity of nations, theprocess of development needs to beinclusive for its people and sensitiveto the needs of environmentalpreservation.

Most of the development projectsin the country require environmentalclearance from the central or the statelevel environmental authorities. Theprocess includes development of adetailed report called theEnvironmental Impact Assessment(EIA), which brings out the probableimpacts on the environment from theproject and also recommendsmitigation measures to keep suchimpacts at the minimum level. Theenvironmental clearance proceduregoes through a process of publicconsultation. The contents of the EIAreport in draft form are put in thepublic domain so that all stakeholders could give their views beforethe report is finalised and placed tothe authorities for clearance.

EIA reports are multi-disciplinaryefforts requiring inputs from experts,having domain knowledge of thedevelopment project as well as theenvironmental aspects connectedwith it. Till recently, there were nodocumented requirements ofcapabilities of consultingorganisations who could take uppreparation of such highlyspecialised reports.

NABET has felt the need todevelop an accreditation mechanismfor EIA consultants, so that capableorganisations could be listed out andthe project proponents couldapproach them for developing EIAreports, addressing the needscomprehensively. In this process,NABET involved all stakeholdersincluding academicians, regulators,industry associations, consulting

organisations and NGOsrepresenting the civil society. Theprocess of developing theaccreditation mechanism took almostfour years, starting from 2005 and inDecember, 2009 the Ministry ofEnvironment and Forest made itmandatory.

The scheme identifies in depth,the educational requirements andexperience of experts who can takeup EIA work, the systems andprocedures that need to be put inplace by the consultants and therequirements of developing reliablebase line environmental informationbased on which EIAs are to bedeveloped.

The basic objective of the EIAAccreditation Scheme is to improvethe quality of EIAs. To assess this, thefollowing two mechanisms are beingintroduced.

To track the outcome of themeetings at central and stateGovernment levels, where EIAreports are being considered bygovernment agencies, frominformation available in theirwebsites. This would help NABETdevelop a database on the positive &negative comments on the EIAreports prepared by accreditedconsultants, thereby providing abroad indication of the quality of EIAreports prepared by them.

To provide an option in the QCIwebsite for public to comment on thereports being prepared by theaccredited consultants. It may be

NABET has felt the needto develop anaccreditation mechanismfor EIA consultants, sothat capableorganisations could belisted out and theproject proponentscould approach them fordeveloping EIA reports,addressing the needscomprehensively.

Accreditation Scheme for EIA Consultant Organisations

Progress on the current scheme

Applications received by September 30, 2010 : 265(Deadline set by MoEF)Break up of applications being processedApplications eligible of assessment :105 (60 through AC + 45 in process) Applications not eligible : 165

Initial accreditation process is likely to becompleted by June 30, 2011 as desired by theMinistry of Environment & Forests (MoEF).


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noted that all EIAs are to be placedon public domain prior to theprocess of public consultation.

There are no structured coursesavailable in our country specificallyaddressing the requirements ofpreparing EIA reports. NABETproposes to work on short-termtraining modules, using the expertiseof experts in the field, for 10 daysand one month duration for variousaspects of EIAs. It then proposes toinvite various institutes /organisations to take up suchcourses. A market is likely to bedeveloped for such courses once theaccreditation Scheme is implementedand all the consultants are requiredto have qualified and knowledgeableexperts as EIA Coordinators &Functional Area Experts. NABETmay accredit such courses keepingtrack of quality of training beinggiven by institute/ organisationunder this programme.

Rating of EIA consultantsThe current accreditation

Scheme recognises EIA consultantsbroadly in two categories namely Aand B to carry out EIAs for categoryA or B projects as defined in theMoEF notification. These are verybroad classification and do not fullyreflect the capability such as whatmaximum size of projects they canhandle, how many EIAs they canhandle simultaneously etc.

A rating system is proposed to bedeveloped in future stating the sectorsize and number of projects that canbe handled by a consultantdepending on the quality & strengthof human resource, facilities, systemsand procedures in place etc.

As EIA Consultant OrganisationAccreditation Scheme takes root, ademand is coming up foraccreditation of individual expertswho contribute to developing EIAs.NABET may consider taking up aproject on this so that there is aregion-wise data base available incountry of qualified experts capableof developing quality EIAs.

As of today there is no crediblesystem available in the country toassess the capabilities of consultantsworking in the field of environmentbeyond EIAs. There are many areas

like CDM control of pollution,retrofitting of pollution equipment,waste management, operation andmaintenance of effluent treatmentair pollution and other plants,biodiversity conservation, R&Rstudies etc. on environmentalconsultancy required by theindustry, government, and otherorganisations. Scheme ofaccreditation of such consultantswill be quite helpful in identifyingand cataloguing such agencies.

SKILL DEVELOPMENTIn order to spread the skilled

manpower, vocational training andskill development of the youth isnecessary. NABET has not ignoredthis aspect and has workedextensively in this direction too. Aswe have the largest population of

young people in the world, we needto invest adequately in theireducation and employability tobecome the largest pool oftechnically trained manpower in theworld.

With a consistent growth rate ofeight to ten per cent in GDP, Indiais one of the fastest-growingeconomies of the world. India hasdemographic dividend by being ayoung country. As per estimates, by2020, the average Indian will beonly 29 years old compared to 45 inwest Europe, 48 in Japan and 37 inChina & US.

The Prime Minister of India hasput up an objective that Indiashould have 500 million certifiedand skilled technicians in the

EENNSSUURRIINNGG FFOOOODD SSAAFFEETTYY:: The then Minister ofState (Independent Charge) for Food ProcessingIndustries, Subodh Kant Sahai launching the ‘2008-09Year of Food Safety and Quality’ at the NationalSeminar on “Food Safety and Quality ManagementSystems — from Farm to Fork”. Also seen on the leftQCI Secretary General Girdhar J Gyani.


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country by 2022. Recognising theimportance of the imminentimperative, a National Mission onSkill Development has beenannounced under the PMO. TheNational Skills DevelopmentMission envisages certain structure,processes and procedures forimplementing the plan. It aims atbringing a paradigm change inhandling of skill developmentprogrammes and initiatives.

One of the main objectives ofthe Mission is to establish a"Credible Accreditation System"and a guidance framework. Theinstitutes involved in thecertification process of skillsimparted need to be accreditedunder an internationally acceptablemechanism.

Although, India is a fast-growing economy, there is a risingdemand for skilled workforce with

focus on enhancing efficiency andflexibility of the labour market,reduction of skills bottlenecks andimprovement in mobility andproductivity. As on date, there are8687 institutes (2189 governmentITIs and 6498 private ITCs) in thecountry. The gross seating capacityis around 12.14 lakhs in 116 trades

National Accreditation Boardfor Education and Training(NABET) as per its mandate iscreating suitable accreditationmechanism to ensure theinternational acceptance of thetrainings and skills assessment ofthe students. NABET is a memberof the National Council for

Vocational Training (NCVT).NABET has established

accreditation mechanisms for:a) Vocational training

providers including ITIs and ITCsb) Skill Assessment Bodiesc) DGET Field Institutes

NABET has also developed amechanism for certification ofexaminers of assessing bodies withrespect to competency required fora particular skill sector.

NABET has developed anAccreditation Mechanism as perISO 17024:2003 for skill assessmentbodies.

ISO 17024:2003 RequirementsFor Bodies Operating theCertification Of Persons, is the newglobally accepted benchmark forpersonnel certification and focuseson the defining and examining ofcompetence of personnel and thecompetence of the examiners ofpersonnel.

ISO 17024 introduces therequirement for a scheme committeeto develop competency criteria thatare examinable and measurable. Theresulting product of ISO 17024 is anaccredited, certified person.

Across a great number ofindustry sectors, personnelcertification validates publicconfidence in the services on whichour lives and economies depend. Inturn, accreditation ensures that thecertification programme is engagedin continuous review andimprovement of its quality and isaccountable for achieving what itsets out to do. Accreditation throughan internationally recognisedframework and evaluation systemwill confirm that a certification bodyhas conformed/met all of therequirements identified in thestandard.

INTERNATIONAL LINKAGESThe international linkages

include mutual recognitionarrangements with ScottishQualifications Authority (SQA),International Register of CertificatedAuditors (IRCA), RABQSAInternational Inc and membership ofInternational Personnel CertificationAssociation (IPC).

IINNTTEERRNNAATTIIOONNAALL LLIINNKKAAGGEE:: (L-R) Sibi George,Counsellor (Commerce) Embassy of India,Washington; Vipin Sahni, Director, NABET, QCI, India;Banashri B Harrison, Minister (Commerce), Embassy ofIndia, Washington; Ajay Shankar, the then Chairman,QCI, and Secretary, DIPP, Ministry of Commerce andIndustry; Lane Hallenbeck, Vice President, ANSI; Roy ASwift, Senior Director, ANSI; Elsie Owen, ANSI; andVijay Krishna, Programme Manager, PersonnelCertification Accreditation, ANSI at ANSI headquartersin Washington DC USA.


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THE YEAR THAT HAS JUST GONEBY—2010 -- HAS BEEN A FRUITFULYEAR FOR NABH. WHILEINITIATIVES WERE TAKEN TOSTART ACCREDITATIONPROGRAMMES, NABH ALSO SAWTHE APPOINTMENT OF A NEWCHAIRMAN AND A MAKEOVER OFTHE BOARD MEMBERSHIP.

National AccreditationBoard for Hospitals& HealthcareProviders (NABH), aconstituent board of

Quality Council of India (QCI), wasset up by the Government of Indiaand the Indian industry in 2005, forrunning a national accreditationprogramme for healthcareorganisations in the country.

Accreditation is a publicrecognition by a National HealthcareAccreditation Body of theachievement of accreditationstandards by a healthcareorganisation, demonstrated throughan independent external peer

assessment of that organisation'slevel of performance in relation tothe standards.

NABH is currently offeringaccreditation to Hospitals, SmallHealthcare Organisations, BloodBanks and Transfusion Services,Primary/Community HealthcareCentres, Wellness Centres, AllopathyClinics, AYUSH Hospitals, DentalCentres, Oral Substitution TherapyCentres and Medical ImagingServices.

The main objective is to enhancehealth systems, promotingcontinuous quality improvement andpatient safety, at national andinternational levels. The board isstructured to cater to much-desiredneeds of the consumers and to setbenchmarks for progress of healthindustry. The board while being

supported by all stakeholders—industry, consumers andgovernment—has full functionalautonomy in its operation. NABHprovides accreditation to healthcareorganisation in a non-discriminatorymanner regardless of theirownership, legal status, size anddegree of independence. NABHstandards are equally applicable toboth government and privatehealthcare organisations.

The standards focus on allaspects of service delivery likepatient/customer rights andeducation, infection control practices,trained and experienced staff,infrastructure, regulatorycompliances, and environmentsafety. The applicant organisationsare evaluated on the laid standardsand honoured by a Mark ofExcellence, if found compliant.Accreditation would ensure safe andgood quality of care being providedto patients through the healthcareorganisations, and the patients canchoose a right organisation based on

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NABH takesmajor strides

NABH providesaccreditation tohealthcare organisationin a non-discriminatorymanner regardless oftheir ownership, legalstatus, size and degreeof independence. NABHstandards are equallyapplicable to bothgovernment and privatehealthcare organisations.

SSHHAARRIINNGG KKNNOOWWLLEEDDGGEE:: One of the speakersputting forth his views at the third NABH AssessorConclave.

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this scheme. This will furtherencourage the other organisations tobenchmark and improve theirservices.

The year 2010 has been a veryproductive year for NABH. Therewere certain accomplishmentscarried over from 2009 which havebeen completed successfully.Theactivities NABH is engaged inrequires continuous change and canonly be completed over time. Therewere many new initiatives in termsof starting of accreditationprogrammemes, appointment of newChairman and a makeover of theBoard membership to include morestakeholders and widen its ambit.

Board and CommitteesDr Narottam Puri, Adviser, Fortis

Healthcare Limited, was appointedChairman of NABH in July 2010. TheBoard composition was discussedand revised as per advice of theBoard Members. The new memberswho joined the board are from theDepartment of AYUSH, Ministry ofTourism, Directorate General ofHealth Services (DGHS)-MoHFW,Drug Controller General of India,Indian Health Care Quality Forumand Dean, Maulana Azad MedicalCollege, Delhi.

The Executive Board hasapproved the composition of revisedAccreditation Committees for theHospital and Blood Bankprogrammeme, the TechnicalCommittee for Hospitals and BloodBank programmeme, and AppealsCommittee.

Report for Assessor TrainingOne of the most important

components of external evaluationmechanism is the competence of theassessment team. Team membersmust follow the set protocols toproduce the desired and correctoutcomes. It can only be achieved byproviding required information andtraining to the Assessor. Therefore, itis essential to lay down thecompetency requirements for theassessor. Five-day training course hasbeen designed to impart knowledgeof the accreditation standards,assessment process, techniques andother NABH requirements to these

experts. It comprises continuousevaluation of the participants by thefaculty and a written exam at the endof the course. Participant has toqualify both in continuous evaluationas and in written exam.

One such programme forhospital and SHCO was conducted atDelhi during February 13-17, 2010.After the completion of thisprogrammeme, NABH has about 450trained assessors for the hospital andSHCO programmeme. An assessortraining course for blood bankprogrammeme was conducted atKolkata during August 9-13, 2010.After the completion of thisprogrammeme, there are now 94trained assessors for the blood bankprogrammeme.

International Linkages andAchievements

NABH participated in themeeting of the Accreditation Councilof International Society for Quality inHealth Care (ISQua) held in Amman,Jordan in June 2010. Representativesfrom Malaysia, Australia, Jordan, TheNetherlands, France, United States,Canada, Denmark, India and ISQuaattended the meeting to review theInternational AccreditationProgrammeme (IAP) current activityand plan future directions.Improving present IAP methodology,surveyor competencies, surveyoridentification, memorandum ofassociation, ISQua research site,forthcoming conference and pre-conference symposium were some ofthe many points discussed.

Council members alsoparticipated in a conference, "HCAC2010- Quality Health Care" on thetheme "Good, Better, Best: Movingtowards Quality in Health Care inthe Middle East" hosted by HealthCare Accreditation Council (HCAC)Jordan. Dr BK Rana, Vice-Chairman,ISQua Accreditation Council, made apresentation on the Indian HealthCare Accreditation Programmemespecifying challenges, strategies toovercome these challenges, strengthand achievements of the programmeand the way forward.

Dr Rana led a three-memberISQua survey team for the evaluationof Taiwan Joint Commission on

The year 2010 has been avery productive year forNABH. There werecertain accomplishmentscarried over from 2009which have beencompletedsuccessfully.The activitiesNABH is engaged inrequires continuouschange and can only becompleted over time.


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Health Care Accreditation (TJCHA),Banciao City, Taipei County, Taiwanduring July 12-16, 2010.

Dr Narottam Puri, Chairman-NABH, Dr GJ Gyani, CEO-NABHand Dr BK Rana, Dy. Director-NABHattended the annual conference ofISQua at Paris during October 10-13,2010. The delegation was involvedin: Designing and conducting pre-conference AccreditationSymposium, Chairing technicalsessions, Served on InternationalReview Panel for the ISQuaInternational Conference, AttendingAccreditation Council meeting, andAttending ISQua Executive Boardmeeting.

Dr BK Rana, Deputy Director,was elected Vice-Chairman ofInternational Accreditation Councilof ISQua (2010-2012) and Presidentof Asian Society for Quality inHealth Care (ASQua) (2011 and2012).

Requests from overseasAccreditation Bodies/ Foreigncountries (Dubai, Philippines,Nepal) requiring NABH support

Request from DubaiAccreditation Department to helpdevelop accreditation standard, aswell as request from Philippines toextend NABH accreditation in thatcountry, also request fromGovernment of Nepal incollaboration with WHO wasreceived to help set up accreditationprogrammes. NABH signed an MoUwith Philippines to extend itssupport.

NABH INTERNATIONALThe Board has approved the

creation of NABH International(NABHI) in its meeting held on July,27, 2010. NABHI will help andsupport overseas countries in generaland SAARC countries in particularin setting up accreditationprogrammes as well as accreditinghealthcare facilities using NABHstandards and resources.

Support to MoHFW/ StateHealth Departments

There has been continuoussupport offered to CGHS-MoHFWand several other State Health

Departments for inspection ofprivate hospitals and diagnosticcentres for empanelment as well asto facilitate accreditation by NABH.The states include Delhi, UttarPradesh, Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir,Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala andMadhya Pradesh.

Promotional ActivitiesSeveral awareness seminars for

hospitals, nursing homes, bloodbanks, imaging centres, AYUSHhospitals, and wellness centres wereorganised in different parts ofcountry. Special three-dayImplementation Programme forHospital Standards has beendesigned and 35 such programmeswere conducted across the country tohelp hospitals in understanding andimplementing the standards in theirhospitals.

Accreditation for AYUSHHospitals

NABH has launchedAccreditation Programme forAYUSH Hospitals in association withDepartment of AYUSH, Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare inJanuary 2010. Quality standards forAyurveda, Homeopathy, Unani,Siddha and Yoga, and Naturopathyhospitals were established, taking inconsideration their special needs andrequirements as the Indian system ofmedicine. Two kinds of standardswere established- AccreditationStandards and Structural Standards.

GGOOIINNGG GGLLOOBBAALL:: Members of NABH delega-tion and Philippines HealthCORE seen with H E. TheIndian Ambassador in Philippines Yogendra Kumar(third from right) and Ashok Warriers, SecondSecretary (Commercial) and Head of Chancery (fifthfrom right).


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Accreditation standards measure thequality and safety aspects of the caredelivered to the patients. Structuralstandards deals with infrastructuralrequirements to help theorganisations deliver the qualitycare. Recently, first Ayurveda(Ayurvaid) hospital received NABHaccreditation and five moreAyurveda hospitals are in variousstages of accreditation.

Accreditation for ClinicsThe first interaction point of a

patient, for common ailments, is thelocal community doctor's clinic.Accreditation for clinics is especiallyfor allopathy clinics which are eitherstandalone or may be located in thecommunity or in the premises of anorganisation, such as school, factory,etc. It was launched on January 2,2011 in Mumbai in a conferenceorganised by Indian MedicalAssociation.

NABH Assessors Conclaves There has been rapid

development and expansion of theexisting hospital accreditationprogrammeme since its launch in2006. We have 63 accreditedhospitals and more than 450applicant hospitals in our list. Manynew accreditation programmes havealso been initiated under NABH likefor blood banks, OST centres,AYUSH hospitals, medical imagingcentres, dental centres,primary/community health centresand private clinics. The mainchallenge is to maintain uniformityin different assessments, locations

and programmes. The first NABHassessors' conclave was held in 2009to address all the key issues. In 2010,the trend has been maintained, andthe 2nd and 3rd NABH AssessorsConclaves were organized in 2010·

Launch of AccreditationStandard for Allopathy Clinics

A sensitization workshop onNABH accreditation standards—forclinics, polyclinics, anddispensaries—was organised byFEQH and Indian MedicalAssociation, Mumbai on January 2,2011. Accreditation Standard forallopathy clinics was launched in theconference.

Seminar on Reshaping NursingProfession

This year, the first nationalseminar on "Reshaping NursingProfession in Indian Hospitals," washeld at Global Hospitals and HealthCity (GHHC) Auditorium, Chennaion January 6, 2011

First Nursing Core CommitteeMeeting, QCI

The Nursing Core CommitteeMeeting saw a decision being takenon the title of the initiative --"National Accreditation for NursingExcellence" -- and the membersunanimously decided that Dr RVKaranjekar would be the patronwhile Ms Abanti Gopan would bethe Chairperson of the Nursing CoreCommittee, QCI.

At the meeting, Dr. Karanjekar,Chairperson, requested Dr.Girdhar Gyani to preside over themeet. Dr. Gyani welcomed thegathering and declared open themeet and mentioned thataccreditation within nursing willgreatly enhance nursingcompetency. Accreditation wouldaccelerate and monitor setstandards to benchmark nursing inIndia. He suggested that if thenursing community goes forMagnet Status, it can be an integralpart of NABH as a separatechapter. However, the committeemembers unanimously decidedthat an exclusive accreditationprogramme for nursing within QCIwould be more appropriate.

TTOOWWAARRDDSS FFIIRRSSTT SSTTEEPP:: QCI Secretary GeneralGirdhar J Gyani along with the representatives fromAyurvaid hospital. The hospital became the firstAyurveda hospital in India to receive NABH accreditation.


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In 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave his legendary Gettysburg address using the now famous phrase, ‘Agovernment of the people, by the people and for the people’. In other words, a government that isconstructed of people and elected by the people, should represent the people. People, or citizens, thenbecome the government’s priority.

Governments are specific institutions that donate to governance. While governance focuses on theapproach in which decisions are made, government focuses on the approach in which these decisionsare carried out.

QCI’s Chairman, Arun Maira, recently said: “India@75 will build people; and people will build Indiathrough quality and governance. Quality will always say is the fitness for its purpose, and our purposeis inclusive development in a democratic country.”

The theme of the last quality conclave was “Leveraging quality for good governance”. The objectivewas to provide a forum for sharing new ideas, deliberating on issues, challenges and the road aheadthat would attempt to change the quality of average Indian’s life. Taking on from there, Quality Indiamet some Chief Ministers of the country to find out how they are bringing in quality for the lives ofthose in the state.

PEOPLE FIRSTCHIEF MINISTERS

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What is Vision 2020 all about andhow is your state administrationworking to achieve this?It isn’t just Vision 2020. Assam is oneof few states that had prepared aVision 2025 document as early as2002. The document is aboutoptimizing Assam’s assets—hermanpower and resources—to makeher one of the most progressivestates in India (our per capitaincome, in fact, was higher than thenational average in 1950). It is about

all-round development and inclusivegrowth, empowering those at thebottom of the social and economicpyramid in the remotest of areas,and ensuring everlasting peace. Our state administration hasadopted a two-pronged approachfor achieving the 2025 target —traditional and cyber. The traditionalmethod entails legwork for officials;they take the government to thepeople’s doorsteps. The cyberapproach entails touching livesthrough e-governance.

What are your ideas aboutimproving the legal system at leastat the lower levels and digitizingthe government delivery systemsto ensure transparency? We have always believed the legalsystem should be accessible to all,distance from the courts andfinancial status notwithstanding.Since we came to power in 2001, thelegal system in Assam haswitnessed constant improvement atthe district and block levels.Digitizing the government deliverysystems is part of our greater e-governance plan, and we havemade rapid strides in this regard.

In order to empower women, youhave introduced some schemes.What are "Baideu" and "Nabou" allabout? How are these schemesbeneficial for women in Assam?No state or society can progress byignoring their womenfolk, who byvirtue of comprising half thepopulation have equal rights toeverything on earth. The position ofwomen in Assam is considerablybetter than that in other parts of thecountry but gender bias is a realityand the society is often insensitiveto underprivileged women whohave to wage a lone battle forsurvival. This was the reason whyour government launched twoschemes in 2010 aimed at extendingfinancial help to unmarried women

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ASSAM BELIEVES IN NATIONAL WELLBEING AND CHIEF MINISTER TARUNGOGOI HAS LED FROM THE FRONT.THE STATE BECAME THE FIRST ONEIN THE COUNTRY TO ENSURE THERIGHT TO HEALTH TO ITS PEOPLE. INTHIS INTERVIEW, THE CHIEFMINISTER DETAILS HIS TWO-PRONGED APPROACH TO ACHIEVEHIS 2025 VISION: MAKE ASSAM ONEOF THE MOST PROGRESSIVE STATESIN THE COUNTRY.

“Knowledge is power and our biggest asset”

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above 45 years and widows livingbelow the poverty line. The schemesare named Baideu (elder sister) andNabou (sister-in-law) respectively,and they entail an annual financialsupport of `3,000 for women ofeconomically weaker sections fallingin these two categories.

The twin scheme was precededby another for the girl child and hermother in a bid to usher in radicalchanges in the area of maternal andchild care. The one for the girl childis named Majoni (little girl) and forthe mother Mamoni. Under Majoni,a girl child born in a government orcharitable hospital gets a fixeddeposit of `5000 that can be en-cashed only after she turns 18 andremains unmarried before that age.Mamoni for women in rural areasand belonging to economicallyweaker sections entails `500 each forcheck-ups in government hospitalsafter conception.

In order to impart education in theremote areas of Assam, what is therole of ‘Jnan Taranga’ — the firstcommunity radio service whichyou have launched in the region?Mass communication tools havetremendous impact, and are a handytool for imparting education. TVchannels and Internet have grown inAssam but radio still continues to bea powerful medium ofcommunication. We decided topromote community radio afterKrishna Kanta Handique State OpenUniversity (Guwahati) aired its firstradio programme on January 28,2009. The university went on toformally launch the first communityradio service in the Northeast with afrequency of 90.4 MHz onNovember 2, 2010 and named itJnan Taranga.

We envisage this communityradio service to go a long way ineducating students of Assam invarious disciplines.

You have introduced some self-employment schemes for the teagrowers, to help build their socio-economic structure. How has thishelped the small tea growers inAssam?We have never raised false hopes of

providing government jobs. Fromthe very beginning, we have made itclear that the government has itslimitations and Assam’s wealth is inthe hands of its people. So self-employment is the way forward. Wehave accordingly worked outpackages and schemes inagriculture and small-scale sectors.

One of the biggest successstories in the past decade has beenthat of the small tea growers (STGs).A recent survey done by theDepartment of Industries andCommerce has revealed that thenumber of STGs is 68,465 andgrowing. Many hithertounemployed youth have turned theperceived elitist industry into acommon man’s dream maker.

You have launched the MorigaonModel District Health Project andhave stated that the project wouldalso address the issues likenutrition, water and sanitation,among others. How do you thinkthis project has worked in Assam? No society or state can forge aheadwithout according top priority tohealth as well as education sectors.We have made a conscious effort toimprove on these counts, and thelaunch of the Morigaon ModelDistrict Health Project underscoresour commitment. We are proud thatMorigaon, one of our newer butbackward districts, was chosen forthis ambitious project between theState Health Department and TheEarth Institute, Columbia Universityand Union Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare. This project isn’tjust about providing proper,affordable healthcare; it is aboutnutrition, clean water, sanitationand other aspects that determineboth individual and public health.

It has been a few months sincethe Morigaon model was launched,and though it is yielding results, weneed a bit more time to assess itsoverall impact. But we hope that themodel health project would aim toreduce infant and maternalmortality rates not just in Morigaonbut in other districts of Assam aswell by 2015. Other than this, wehave taken a slew of initiatives inthe health sector, but there are miles

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Q37,209 farmers benefited under

Crop Insurance Scheme. Improving state roads and inter-

state connectivity covering 56.23 km.6,28,949 aged persons provided

with monthly pension.Accredited Social Health Activists

scheme (ASHA).

Panchayati Raj Amendment Bill,2010 paves the way to enhance women'sreservation from the existing 33 per centto 50 per cent and use of electronic votingmachines.

The Assam Land Grabbing(Prohibition) Bill, 2010 checks land grab-bing taking place in the State.

The Assam Mobile Theatre(Regulation and Artistes' Welfare Fund)Bill, 2010 regulates the growth of mobiletheatres which has been one of the mostpopular forms of entertainment in thestate and protects cultural standards andartistes.

The Assam Rajiv Gandhi Universityof Cooperative Management Bill, 2010has established the state's first such uni-versity exclusively for the cooperative sector.

Two major schemes launched toprovide modern healthcare facilitiesto the people living in far-flung river-ine areas and also for the tea gardencommunities.

Fixed deposit certificates to eco-nomically weaker sections.

A pension scheme for unmarriedwomen aged 45 years or more.

Most of the unutilised governmentwaste land brought under SocialForestry Plantation with the objectiveto provide fuel wood, fodder, fruits,small timber for construction of hutsand agricultural implements to therural people.

The MOROM Scheme extendsfinancial support to patients admittedin general wards of governmenthealth institutions as compensationfor wage loss during hospitalisationand post hospital expenses.

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to go to achieve the desired results.

Assam has become the first state inthe country to ensure the right tohealth to its people. For this youhave even introduced the AssamPublic Health Bill 2010. What isthis Bill all about and how has ithelped the people of Assam?As I have said earlier, health is morethan wealth for us; it is a right everycitizen, whatever his or her social oreconomic status, must have. Since2001, we have had taken manyinitiatives to ensure the people ofour state do not suffer because oflack of access to prompt and properhealthcare. This commitmentresulted in Assam becoming the firststate in India to table the PublicHealth Bill 2010, which was passedin the Assembly in March last year.

The Assam Public Health Actmakes healthcare facility a basicright of every citizen. The Act makesit compulsory for all hospitals inAssam, both government andprivate including nursing homes toprovide free healthcare servicesmaintaining appropriate protocol oftreatment for first 24 hours to anemergency patient of any kind. Thepublic health approach also makes itmandatory for all new developmentprojects to carry out a health impactassessment study.

This landmark legislation kickedoff a quiet revolution toward ahealthier India, leave apart Assam.The statute seeks to bind the stateHealth and Family Welfare

Department legally to meet itsobligations through coordinationwith other departments concernedand providing people withminimum nutritionally adequateessential food, adequate supply ofsafe drinking water, sanitationthrough appropriate and effectivesewage and drainage systems andaccess to basic housing facilities.Again, like the Morigaon modelhealth project, the impact of thisright-to-health legislation has to bestudied over a longer period. Theseare still early days but the feedbackwe are getting is positive.

Healthcare delivery system in thestate hospitals is not up to themark. What are the state’s healthservices doing in this regard?There was a time when the media inAssam hardly considered deaths inhospitals as news; they were quitecommonplace. In the past few years,even a minor case of wrongdiagnosis or denial of properhealthcare in the remotest of areashas been commanding prominentspace. This is a good sign; morethan underlining the growing healthconsciousness, it highlights thematerialisation of our commitmentto ensuring health and healthcarefacilities across the length andbreadth of Assam.

The Assam Public Health Bill, asdiscussed above, is one example ofour thrust on health. We made itmandatory for MBBS students toserve a minimum number of yearsin rural and semi-urban areas aftergraduation in order to qualify forhigher degrees and specialisations.We also started a course to ensurean assembly line of rural doctors—the media referred to them asMunnabhais — besides givingpreference to medical students fromrural areas who would be morelikely to serve back home.Moreover, we included registeredhomeopathic and Ayurvedicpractitioners into our greaterhealthcare scheme so that people arenot denied care and treatment.

There have, of course, been theusual steps such as increasing thenumber and capacity of PHCs andCHCs, equipping them with

GGAARRNNEERRIINNGG LLAAUURREELLSS:: Minister for Health andFamily Welfare, Assam, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarmaand the Mission Director, NRHM Assam, Dr. J B Ekkain the presence of the Union Minister for Health andFamily Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad receiving theaward from Vice President of India Shri MohammadHamid Ansari in 2010. NRHM Assam secured 1stposition amongst all North East states for outstandingperformance over the past five years.


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adequate facilities and medicinesbesides assigning doctors and theright medical staff to these centers.

The Quality Council of India’sNational Accreditation Board forHospitals and Healthcare Providers(NABH) has been set up under thenational accreditation structure toestablish and operate accreditationprogramme for healthcareorganisations. Is the state planningto tie up with the Quality Councilof India to bring in healthcarequality?Yes, we are. We don’t want anyopportunity to ensure healthcarequality to go by. Healthcare, after all,is one of our priority sectors, and wehave come a long way in providingbetter infrastructure and services.

The primary school dropout rate inthe state is a staggering 26.5 percent, which accounts forapproximately nearly 60,000children. What is the Right toEducation Act all about and how isthe state committed inimplementing the Right ofChildren to Free and CompulsoryEducation Act?Over the years, we have taken upseveral measures to enhance thestandard of education in Assam. TheRight to Education entails free andcompulsory education all studentsup to 14 years of age, and ourcommitment to implementing itcannot be questioned. Ourperformance in education hasn’tbeen as good as in health, but wehave overcome many constraints tomake some difference.

Yes, dropout has remained aproblem area but the Annual Surveyof Education Report 2009 by theUnion Human Resources Ministrysays there has been an increase of3per cent enrolment in governmentschools since 2008 while privateschools witnessed a correspondingincrease of 2 per cent. The rest of thefigures — such as 8.6 per cent out-of-school students in Assamcompared to 5.3 per cent nationwideand drop in attendance of teachersand students in 2009 compared to2005— aren’t flattering. But then, theproblem is more in char (sandbar)

areas and tea estates, which pulldown the performances in otherareas when taken in totality.However, these problem areas arebeing given attention.

Education in government schools— both primary and high schools—are not in the best shape. There isoften a shortage of teachers andmany of them are often negligent.How is the state planning to tacklethe quality of teachers in the state?When we came to power in 2001, wewere burdened with many liabilitiesleft behind by the earliergovernment. The educationdepartment too had contractual,short-term teachers and politicalappointments to deal with. Thingshave been streamlined to a greatdegree, but a lot remains to be done.

The Quality Council of India hasan accreditation programme forschools. Is the state thinking ofasking the Quality Council of Indiato usher in accreditation to schoolsto enhance the quality of teaching?Why not? We would definitely beinterested in weighing this option.

E-governance initiatives in the statehas already resulted incomputerisation of the NationalRegister of Citizenship (NRC)creating databases to store all theinformation contained in themanual NRCs in the originallanguage. How will this help in asensitive region like Assam wherecitizenship has long been animportant factor?Assam, as you are aware, has beenin the focus for illegal influx-relatedissues. Despite border fencing,policing, stringent laws and variousother checks, it is difficult to detectand deport foreigners. There hasbeen a long-pending demand forupdating the NRC, and the processhas been undertaken at a time whenthe digital revolution has grippedAssam. The computerised databasefor NRC would not only helpmaintain a register of genuinecitizens, but will set to rest otherissues related to linguistic andreligious victimisation.

Interviewed by Sheela K

Tarun GogoiAssam is one

of few states that hadprepared a Vision 2025document as early as2002. The document isabout optimizingAssam’s assets—hermanpower andresources—to make herone of the mostprogressive statesin India.


In your address at the GovernanceForum on “Bihar on the move” yousaid ‘by providing goodgovernance, we are not doing anyfavour to the citizens of the country.We have been elected to serve thepeople and hence we areaccountable for what we do.’ Youhad also mentioned that your

emphasis was on governance as thefirst, second and third priorities.What is governance according toyou? Is it also humandevelopment?Yes, it is my firm opinion and beliefthat in a democracy, people havethe supreme power to elect theirrepresentatives, be it for theLegislative Assembly or theParliament. Therefore, it becomesthe duty of all electedrepresentatives to serve the peoplewith their best of capabilities andbe accountable to them.

It is true that my emphasis hasbeen on good governance ever sinceI was elected as Chief Minister of theNDA government in Bihar five yearsago and it continues to remain at thetop of my priority list even in thesecond term. People are well awareof the law and order, economic,social, educational andadministrative conditions prevailingin Bihar when our government wasconstituted at the fag-end ofNovember 2005. We had resolved toestablish the rule of law, peace andsocial harmony, to usher indevelopment with justice and toestablish good governance. It is myfirm belief that without establishingpeace and order in society, socialtransformation cannot take place.Therefore, it was the first priority ofmy government to establish the ruleof law in the state. As a consequencepeace and social harmony wereensured and the writ of the state wasaffirmed. Thereafter, necessary stepswere initiated for all-rounddevelopment of the state and mygovernment is determined to makeBihar a developed state by 2015.Human development is an integralpart of good governance. A report is

being prepared for the first timein the state to prepare a

district-wise data ofhumandevelopmentindices.

“Bihar is preparing data ofhuman development indices”NITISH KUMAR, WHO SPEARHEADEDTHE DEVELOPMENT OF ONE OFINDIA’S POOREST STATES, WANTSTO ENSURE FAST GROWTH OF HISDEVELOPMENT AGENDA AND HASON THE ANVIL SOME PATH-BREAKING INITIATIVES.

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You also say that governance meansempowering women as well. Howare you doing that?No state can prosper withoutinvolving its women population inthe development activities. Womenempowerment has been a priorityagenda of my government. Soonafter assuming power, mygovernment made necessaryamendments in the Panchayati Rajact to provide 50 per centreservation to women in thePanchayati Raj institutions and alsourban civic bodies. Impressed by itsoutcome, the Central Governmentlater recommended other states tofollow the same. We are alsoproviding money to buy books andschool uniform for the girl studentsbesides a bicycle for the girlsstudying in high schools. This hadresulted in a big increase of girlstudents in high schools. We alsoprovided 50 per cent reservation towomen in appointment of primaryschool teachers. Around two lakhteachers were appointed in theprimary schools during the last fiveyears. My government has beenencouraging women to participate inpolitics as well.

During the election campaign forthe Assembly polls, you hadpromised to keep a strict check oncorruption. How are you going todo that?

Yes, I have promised to initiate stepsto check corruption. My governmenthad already enacted a newlegislation by the name of “BiharSpecial Courts Act 2009” to ensurethe confiscation of property andassets amassed by the governmentofficials through corruption. As amatter of fact, steps had beenalready initiated against 13 suchofficials including a senior IAS andretired DGP rank IPS officer to seizetheir palatial houses built in the statecapital. My government plans toopen schools in these buildings afterthey are seized. We also plan to getspecial courts constituted forconducting speedy trial of corruptofficials so that they can beterminated from service as early aspossible.

We understand that you want tobring in the Right to Service Bill.What is this Right to Service?Yes, we are already working on thisBill, which is likely to be tabled inthe assembly during the comingbudget session. People have rightsfor certain services from thegovernment agencies like getting acaste certificate, certificate ofdomicile, new electricity connectionetc. It has been found that they aremade to run from pillar to post toget them from the concernedauthorities and many a times theyhave to grease the palm of

RREEAACCHHIINNGG OOUUTT TTOO PPEEOOPPLLEE:: Nitish Kumar listening to the people at ‘Janta Ke Darbar MeinMukhyamantri’ programme.

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` 3,000 crore sanctioned for set-ting up sewage treatment plants in 19Bihar towns in the next five to sixyears under National Ganga RiverBasin Authority (NGRBA).

Modernisation of police force:Recruitment of 10,000 police personnel in the future.

Rural Road Sector InvestmentProgramme for the construction andupgrading of roads.

Bihar Kosi Recovery Project moot-ed to help Bihar's flood-affected peopleby supporting the reconstruction ofabout 100,000 houses, and therebuilding of 90 bridges and 290 kilo-meters of rural roads.

Bharat Nirman Programme- Phase2, to cover uncovered and qualityaffected habitations: 2,820 qualityaffected habitations have been coveredin 2010.

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Bihar Special Courts Act, 2009 tocheck corruption by pursuing casesagainst corrupt officials.

Right to Service Bill (likely to betabled in the assembly during the com-ing budget session) envisages a stipulat-ed time for services to citizens, such asissuing a ration card, power connectionand birth and death certificates.

Bihar Agricultural Land(Conversion for Non-AgriculturalPurposes) Bill 2010, which provideslegal sanction for conversion of agricultural land for industrial andcommercial use.

Amendments in the Panchayati RajAct to provide 50 per cent reservationto women in the Panchayati Raj.

New farming technique, SRI(System of Rice Intensification) wasintroduced for increasing foodgrainoutput.

State government distributed over14,000 acres of land to 30,000women (among the poor and land-less) in the last three years.

Two lakh teachers appointed inthe primary schools.

Special schemes like 'UthanKendras' and 'Taleemi Markaz' for thesocially and economically deprivedsections of Mahadalits and Muslimminorities.

Bicycles distributed in all districtsamong girl students.


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government officials for obtaining it.The Right to Service Bill will haveprovisions for providing theseservices within a stipulated timeframe failing which there will beprovisions for punishment to theguilty government employee.

There is a feeling that if every stateshares its best practices with eachother, we can have a fair deliverymechanism. Do you agree?Yes, I fully agree with this conceptthat we should help one another inwhatever way we can. Bihar was thefirst state to constitute a ‘SpecialAuxiliary Police’ (SAP) by recruitingfully trained ex-service men whohad just retired from service.Appreciating this innovative idea,many states followed suit. Under theprovisions of Right to InformationAct, Bihar was the first state to setup a call centre for the citizens toseek information over phone underits scheme named “Jaankari”. Thiseffort of ours was not only lauded atthe national level but other stateswere advised to emulate it. Whenwe launched “Akshar Aanchal”scheme aimed at women literacy, inAugust 2009 in Bihar, the Centreimplemented a similar scheme“Sakshar Bharat” in October 2009with emphasis on woman literacy.

Your ideas on improvinghealthcare, education standards,improving the legal system at least

at the lower levels and digitisingthe government delivery system toensure transparency?We have initiated several steps forexpanding and strengthening therural medical facilities. Right fromprimary health centres to state levelhospitals had been upgraded byproviding them modern equipment,medicines and other items besidesdoctors, nurses and paramedicalstaff. Ambulance services andmobile medical vans had beenprovided across the state. The ever- increasing numbers of patients,both outdoor and indoor, ingovernment hospitals beartestimony to the fact that peoplewere getting better facilities ingovernment hospitals. There hasbeen a qualitative improvement ineducation sector as well.Appointment of a large number ofteachers in primary schools hadresulted in an improved student-teacher ratio. Mid-day meals, freeuniforms, books and bicycles hadresulted in a marked increase innumber of school going students.Special schemes like ‘UthanKendras’ and ‘Taleemi Markaz’ forthe socially and economicallydeprived sections of Mahadalits andMuslim minorities had also beenquite encouraging.

What about the Public DistributionSystem (PDS)? What are your plansfor improving that to raise thequality of lives of the people of thestate?Ever since our government came topower we have been asking theCentre to reassess the number ofpeople living below the poverty linein the state. The Centre providessubsidised foodgrains and kerosenefor only about 68 lakh BPL (BelowPoverty Line) families, whereas ourassessment says that there were 1.20crore BPL families in the state. Sincethe Centre has not been takingcognizance of our demand as yet, weplan to provide foodgrains andkerosene to the additional number offamilies from our own resourcesthrough the PDS. We haveintroduced a food and kerosenecoupon system for the BPL familiesand the result has been quite

AAGGEENNDDAA SSEETTTTIINNGG:: Nitish Kumar presidingover a high-level review meeting of Food andConsumer Protection Department in C MSecretariat.

Nitish Kumar Appointment

of a large number ofteachers in primaryschools had resulted in animproved student-teacherratio. Mid-day meals, freeuniforms, books andbicycles had resulted in amarked increasein school goingstudents.


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GGRREEAATT LLEEVVEELLLLEERR:: Infrastructural development (especially development of roads)has fuelled Bihar's economy under NitishKumar's leadership.

encouraging. We are quiteimpressed about the PDS systemadopted by Chhattishgarhgovernment and we are examining itto implement the same in our state.But as Bihar is a much bigger statethan Chhattishgarh, the numbers ofPDS dealers are much more.Therefore, we are examining thefeasibility of the system.

Your government has improved lawand order in the state. How far hasit improved?Law and order being the foremostcriterion for any developmentactivity, the agencies responsible formaintenance of law and order insociety have to remain on constantvigil. Our efforts and persuasion forconducting speedy trial of hardenedcriminals yielded the desired resultsand more than 50,000 criminals wereconvicted during the last five years.The result is that the common manin Bihar today does not fear thecriminals; rather the criminals fearthe law now. People with theirfamilies work and shop till late innight. Kidnapping for ransom thathad taken shape of a prosperousindustry has vanished from Bihar.

Bihar has been in the news fordevelopment work. What is it thatyou have instituted for this change?We have not only built roads andbridges across the state but also builtbridges of trust in society. People ofBihar were convinced by our appealto rise above caste and communityand vote for development. And theresult is for everyone to see. Ourgovernment also made widespreadreforms in administrative andfinancial management in order toprovide good governance. As aresult, the plan size and planexpenditure of the state haveincreased manifold. Bihar is welland truly on the road to economictransformation. Our resolve is to seeit as a developed state by 2015.

The 13th Finance Commissionreport has recommended moreassistance to states lagging behindin education and healthinfrastructure. But it also made itconditional on certain parameters.

What are your thoughts on this?I have been constantly saying thatIndia cannot become a developedcountry without developing Biharthat comprises about 10 per cent ofits population. During the last fiveyears, since our government came topower, I can say with conviction thatthe pace of Bihar’s development hasbeen obstructed not only by naturalcalamities like floods and droughtbut also the negative attitude. Ourpersistent demand for according aspecial category status to Bihar as itmeets all the parameters had goneunheeded. The Finance Commissionrecommendations are made as per aformulated policy and it is for everystate. I would like to reiterate it thatgone are the days when parties tookpeople for granted. Now peopleunderstand everything and theyknow who is doing what for them.

You promised to implement therecommendations of DBandopadhyay Committee reporton land reforms. What hashappened to that?I had never promised to implementthe recommendations of DBandopadhyay Committee on landreforms. Our government hadconstituted this committee to seek itsopinion on Land reforms in thestate. The Committee had given itsreport and another committee of thestate government led by a senior IASofficer was looking into thefeasibility of its recommendations.

Interviewed by Shashi Singh


What is your idea of quality?If you look at the larger perspectiveand you bring in aesthetics into it —personal aesthetics — then youknow you may like an X car; I maylike a Y car. The same would runthrough the kind of clothing wewear, the kind of shoes we wear.Now, these kinds of consumables,even food, (will fall into thiscategory). I may like a particularkind of food, you may like (anotherkind). So, you see that is one way oflooking at quality. It becomessomewhat personalised.

Then there is general quality.That general quality is primarily thatwhatever product is made, it is atruthful product. It is truthful in thesense that it represents what it saysit is. For instance, it could be a pieceof furniture. You might buy me a

piece of furniture and tell me that it’sbamboo and it doesn’t turn out to bebamboo, it turns out to be somethingelse! So, that is not quality. Quality isa polite word to ward off the otherrather crude and insensitive wordcalled cheating. That is how Iunderstand quality and it is(evident) from morning to night: thequality of the sleep you have, thequality of the work you are doing,the quality of the company you arekeeping, the quality of the readingyou are doing — it (quality)encompasses our entire life.

What about quality in governance?If you look at governance and putthe word ‘quality’ as meaninggovernance or good governance, Iwould say it would be akin toresponsiveness. The word‘responsive’ means everything. Thisis my entitlement as proclaimed byany policy or the rights by theConstitution. Then, unless it’s aresponsive government, it can be acallous government. We know youhave the right to get twenty kilos ofwheat every month, at the personallevel one can say I don’t carewhether you get it or you don’t. Butif it is a government which makes apromise and then delivers on thatpromise of making sure that theperson who is entitled to twentykilos of wheat gets it, I would saythe quality of that government isvery good.

How has your government beenworking to achieve quality throughgovernance?One of the first steps we took was toinvolve citizens into governance —we called it Bhagidari. Now that wasthe first step to make citizens awareof governance, and those whogovern aware of the citizens. So,you bring them onto a platformwhere the idea is not to wish eachother away but to say, alright I needa street light more than I need a tap.

“Quality in governance wouldmean responsiveness”

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WELL INTO HER THIRD TERM AS DELHICHIEF MINISTER, SHEILA DIKSHIT ISCREDITED FOR USHERING IN THEINTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMEDINITIATIVE ‘BHAGIDARI’, I.E. PEOPLE’SPARTICIPATION IN THE PROCESS OFGOVERNANCE. IT WAS AS A RESULT OFTHIS OPEN AND RESPONSIVE SYSTEMOF ADMINISTRATION THATDEVELOPMENT — SOCIAL ANDECONOMIC — HAVE TAKEN PRECEDENCEOVER OTHER ISSUES. IN THISINTERVIEW, THE CHIEF MINISTER,SPEAKS ABOUT HER IDEA OF QUALITY.

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Would you see that I get a streetlight because I have a tap? This is aquality rule. That is the work of civilsociety. It’s vociferous and it says it.But sometimes you find that thegovernment says, ‘No, in my plan itis this.’ So you know that first, youhave to bring them together.

Second, you go a step further bymaking the government more open,more transparent; making thegovernment not just rule-bound buthuman-touch bound. In that waymodern technology of accessthrough the websites has helped agreat deal. We have just initiatedone most recently: the SLA systemor the Service Level Agreement.Now, this SLA means that you cometo me as a citizen. I’m supposed togive you a driving license within aweek. If I don’t give it, you can say,‘Alright, I did not get it within aweek’. So, I am asked for anexplanation (for the delay).

How does it work?It works through the computers. Wewill have an Act eventually butright now we have started this (onthe web). You ask the person or thedepartment, why did this (delay)happen? Now the person can comeup and say, you didn’t have therelevant papers or you didn’t bringthe proper signature. But supposethat the person says, “No I causedthe delay.” So, there is that comingtogether. You being answerable as acivil servant and I being aware that

this is my right. Why should I haveto go tramping round? I think we’vecovered forty departments and weneed to do fifty more. These aredepartments which are cutting-edgedepartments which deal with thepeople.

When do you think you will beable to cover all the departments?Certainly by March 2011, we aregetting that Service LevelAgreement in place. But we aregetting these Acts (the ones beinginitiated by states like Bihar, UttarPradesh and Maharashtra) as amodel and seeing what we can do.

What made you go for SLA?The strongest (feedback) that cameback to me was: Ignition of people’sdesire — yes we do want it; and alsoinvocation of people’s feeling that ‘Itis my responsibility also because Iam the one who pays the tax and I(want to) keep drubbing that in’.The government doesn’t havemoney of its own. It’s your moneywhich has to go back to you. It’s atwo-way street and I think thesatisfaction levels came upparticularly in a small city-state likeDelhi where the input and theoutput is visible.

Now, if you say you’ve built aMetro, a person sitting in Lucknowmay not know whether Gorakhpurhas got a Metro or not. But here youcan see it. Or, the green buses andthe red buses, or the bus stands we

TTAAKKIINNGG SSTTOOCCKK:: Sheila Dikshit overseeing the developmental programme under Bhagidari scheme.

uality moves

uality achievements

uality acts

Stree Shakti programme - entailscapacity building among women espe-cially those belonging to weaker sec-tions of the society by providinghealthcare, training in differentstreams and financial aid for self-employment

Samajik Suvidha Sangam -enabling the marginalised, vulnerableand the needy to effectively accesswelfare entitlement schemes offeredby government departments.

Mission Convergence - identify themost vulnerable people and help thembenefit all the welfare schemes undera single window system.

Laadli girl child - social welfarescheme for child.

The Bhagidari initiative - ensuringactive participation of citizens.

Q

Q

Delhi Excise Act 2010 has madeDelhi the first state with its own ExciseAct that makes drinking in public andcreating nuisance a punishable offenceattracting a fine and/or jail term.

Draft Delhi Cycle Rickshaw Act,2010 will remove current restrictionson cycle rickshaws to move in residen-tial areas and enable them to move allover the city, except NationalHighways, No Entry zones and theRing Roads. These will be ideal toreduce pollution.

Delhi government has come downheavily against touts who harasstourists through the Prevention ofTouting and Malpractices Bill.

The Laadli girl child welfarescheme has proved to be a big success.

16 flyovers completed, 44 underconstruction.

1200 citizen groups — RWAs,MTAs and Industrial Associations in‘Bhagidari’ scheme with Government.

‘Stree Shakti’ campaign launchedfor the empowerment of women.

(Stree Kosh) Gender ResourceCentres established at ShahbadDaulatpur.

Construction of Under GroundReservoirs (UGR) and BoosterPumping Stations.

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made or the widening of roads —anything at all — the visibility ishere and I think it helped usenormously. Now, there aredifferent levels of demands. The richwant good, wide roads so their carscan zoom around. Then the poorsays, ‘At least let me get a shop sothat I can earn my livelihood.’ Thepoorest says, ‘Get me a home atleast.’ So, the levels are different.But we’ve had this ‘Bhagidari’ at alllevels and we interact witheverything. We get the feel and letthem also get the feel.

For instance, everybody I thinknow in Delhi knows there is amultiplicity of authorities. But stillthey think, ‘Well, you are the face;you are the one I elected. So youfight my battles, whether with theDDA (Delhi DevelopmentAuthority) or with the MCD(Municipal Corporation of Delhi) orwith the Government of India, youare the one who has to do it.’

Any examples to illustrate yourpoint?I’ll tell you — when our governmentcame, our schools were very bad. Imade a small group to study thesituation. We found we werespending `900 per child whereas thebest public school was onlyspending `800 per child. We pay theteachers well. The teachers are good.The books are given free anduniforms too, to a large extent. So,

what was it that was lacking? Then,we started these Vidyarthi KalyanSamitis or the Student KalyanSamitis. We went to aneighbourhood and we asked 5 or 6people to go to a school. They wouldsee that the school opened on time,that the windows are all intact, thetoilets are okay and the children gottheir books. Are the teachers absent?How many are absent and so on…?Now, that has evolved intosomething which today I can veryproudly speak about. We also givethese samitis a grant of `5 lakhs ayear. For instance if the wall cracksor the window pane breaks or thetoilet flushes do not work, then theycan do (the repairs) themselves.What we want them to do is notdepend on the PWD…. We said, Youtake it (on the job yourself). ThePrincipal is the Chairperson and theConvener (of the Samiti). Now thishas worked wonders because wefound that our pass percentage wentup from 36 per cent in 1999-2000 totoday’s 87-89 per cent. And it is .01per cent more than public schools.Then we got confidence and startedenvironment and eco clubs… as wellas the dances that you see thechildren doing at the Republic Dayparade.

Has the success of these Samitisprompted you to move into otherspheres?We have been very successful (inthe schools). Now we are doingthis to the hospitals with our RogiKalyan Samitis to see thatmedicines are there in thehospitals, that the machines arefunctioning, that there is a personthere to operate the machines.These samitis also see if thestaircases are kept clean and thesignages are good.

How have you raised the quality ofteachers?We did a very simple thing. Wesaid, ‘Don’t let a teacher travel morethan 15 or 20 kms.’ Now, if I have totravel 40 kms, then it is four hours aday (I will spend travelling). So, wedid that and, of course, the resulthas been encouraging. Also, I don’tencourage anybody to come to me

RREEAAPPIINNGG FFRRUUIITTSS:: World class infrastructurehas been put in places all over Delhi. Seen inthe picture is flyover near Delhi Airport.


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Sheila DikshitOne of the

first steps we took was toinvolve citizens intogovernance — we called it Bhagidari. Now thatwas the first step to makecitizens aware ofgovernance, and thosewho governaware of thecitizens.

(for transfer of posting).

You have been using the QualityCouncil of India to provide thequality framework for schools runby the NDMC (New DelhiMunicipal Corporation) as well ashospitals in Delhi. How has beenthe experience and what next?The experience has been very goodwith the Quality Council .but we arealso looking at our social sectorservices. The Trishakti GRC centreswhere we train women, wherewe’ve got 120 or something likethat, get them to learn, speak, read,write and train them enough to beable earn `5,000-7,000 even on theirown is one good example

Have the hospitals improved?Yes, they are better, but still Iwouldn’t say that our hospitals arevery good. There are too manyproblems in hospitals; in the sense,the government systems are verybad. There is a backlog of teachers,backlog of technicians, technologistsso on and so forth and, of course,there is a rush at our hospitalswhere 30 per cent of our patients arefrom outside Delhi, you know. Yousee, whenever there is an accident,say in Noida, they all come to myhospital here (in Delhi). They don’tgo there. So we cater to 30 per centmore of the population than we aresupposed to. Our beds have risenfrom 1000- 2000 by several times.Now, today we have 17,000 beds.

How did you get the Bhagidarisystem to work?See in the Bhagidari system, theofficers were involved just as muchas we were. The police, the DistrictDC, the Commissioner, the ChiefSecretary would come, as would theFire Department, WaterDepartment...For two or three dayswhen we had the workshops, theinteraction was there, so the officersalso got to know (what we wanted).

The Commonwealth Games endedand brought in its wake a wholelot of allegations…In the Commonwealth Games, therewas a huge multiplicity. The IndianOlympic Committee, was doing its

work, the various Federations weredoing their’s. We were doing theinfrastructure - at least a part of theinfrastructure was by us, part of theinfrastructure was by the MunicipalCorporation of Delhi, part of it wasby the CPWD (Central Public WorksDepartment), part by the L&DO(Land and Development Office). So,you see it got divided. Now, therewas panic because there wereunusual rains, there were delays.For instance, I can tell you wecouldn’t build two of the mostmodern roads we have done todaythe Barapullah Nallah andSalimgarh because it took monthson end, almost a year, two years,before we got all the clearances. Soyou see it is not that we are living inisolation. I think this hugemultiplicity needs to be removed:the systems of allocation of work toeven a contractor have to becomeless cumbersome.

You seem very disappointed withthe municipal operations in Delhi?It’s very bad, I must tell you.

There is no accountability in them.For instance, they have no systemof accounting for what they havebeen given. They say, ‘Give usmoney for X number of streets’and they go and spend it onsomething else. You give them forlabour, and then they say we spentit on something else. You see thereisn’t that kind of discipline.

How do we change it?Auditing. Absolutely audit themfor quality and delivery of services.

Why don’t you do it?We have. Yes. In our own work,yes we do. Certainly we do. But wehave no hold over all the bodiesincluding the corporation. No, allthat we do is give them funds.Funds are routed through us.That’s about all and as I said, I mayhave given them fund for a chairand they went and bought a horse.

If all agencies are bound togetherit will make for a better deliveryof services?Yes. I think so.



“Gujarat has made systematicefforts to commit to standards”

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CHIEF MINISTER NARENDRA DAMODARDAS MODI OF GUJARAT HAS BEEN HEADING THE STATE SINCEOCTOBER 2001. KNOWN FOR HIS AGGRESSIVE STYLE OF FUNCTIONING, THE CHIEF MINISTER SAYSFRANKLY THAT ALL HE TRIES TO DO IS SOW A NEW DREAM EVERYDAY IN THE EYES OF 55 MILLIONGUJARATIS IN THE STATE. “WE CAN’T WAIT FOR THINGS TO HAPPEN IN 2050. I WANT TO SEE GUJARATAT PAR WITH THE DEVELOPED REGIONS OF THE WORLD; I WANT GUJARAT TO BE THE STRENGTH TO FREEINDIA FROM POVERTY AND ILLITERACY,” HE HAS SAID. IN THIS INTERVIEW WITH QUALITY INDIA, THECHIEF MINISTER OUTLINES HIS PLANS TO USHER IN QUALITY IN THE STATE. EXCERPTS:

It has been recognised the worldover that good governance isessential for sustainabledevelopment, both economic andsocial. The three essential aspectsemphasised in good governanceare transparency, accountabilityand responsiveness of theadministration. How is the stateplanning to take a Citizens’Charter initiative?Gujarat’s quality in public service isfounded on exemplary goodgovernance. Recently, my officewon the United Nations PublicService Award (UNPSA) for‘Improving Transparency,Accountability and Responsivenessin Public Service’. A few countrieswin the UN Public Service Award,yet the Gujarat administration hassuccessfully managed to win thisaward twice in recent years. TheUN award recognises our success inguaranteeing delivery of services tothe people. Gujarat is proactivewith Citizens’ Charters, withsystematic efforts to commit tostandards, information and most ofall a commitment to end outcomesfor the public.

In Gujarat, our approach hasbeen through use of advancedtechnology to revolutionise oursystems. The State Wide Attentionon Grievances by Application ofTechnology (SWAGAT) initiativeconsiders grievance cases ofapplicants directly through multi-video conferencing with all our 26districts and all 225 taluka offices.SWAGAT is outcome-focused andcases are redressed on the same dayor in a time-bound manner.

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SWAGAT has dealt with over100,000 cases and over 90 per centhave been resolved since the facilitywas launched in 2003.

Our plans are to furthersystemise our priority services totransform the lives of the peoplewith the least. Gujarat’s e-Mamtasoftware system registers and trackspregnant women and children 0-6 yrs. We have already registeredover four crore individuals ofwhich, five lakh are expecting to bemothers. Parents of infants will begetting SMS alerts for vaccinations.A similar message is given to localfamily health workers to ensurenecessary healthcare is given.

According to the PlanningCommission, Gujarat has beenadvised to focus on improvingfemale literacy, vocational andhigher education. What are yourviews on that?India will soon become the world’slargest source of employees: thiswill be our nation’s gift to the globe.By investing in our youth we willserve the society of the world withexpertise, intellect and passion for abetter future. Our educationinitiatives are vitalising everyaspect, from primary education toworld-class higher educationinstitutes. Vigorous annual schoolenrolment campaigns known asShala Praveshotsav and KanyaKelavani are reaching 100 per centsuccess to make every child literate,especially girls. Computer literacywill be our next achievement. OurVanche Gujarat campaign waspioneered to inculcate a readinghabit throughout society. Theinitiative led to books beingexchanged, reading competitionsheld and a thriving knowledgesociety is being awakened.

The demands for a world-classeducation are high for today’s jobmarket. In Gujarat, we have focusedon expanding and establishing neweducation institutes to develop ouryouth for the future of the country.Today, people are studying at theonly Forensic Sciences University inIndia, as well as at the new GujaratNational Law University andPandit Deendayal Petroleum

University. The recently-establishedRaksha Shakti University is the firstof its kind in India, conductingdiploma and degree courses inpublic science and internal security.Seats at medical colleges are beingincreased from 1,200 to 4000 peryear to take care of requirement formore doctors.

Education in government schools—both primary and high schools --is often not in the best shape.There is often a shortage ofteachers and many of them areoften negligent. This when the payscale is far superior to the privatesector teachers. How is the stateplanning to tackle the quality ofteachers in the state? How are youalso looking at the virus oftransfers and postings in schoolsthat is the bane of most states inIndia?In 2009, we began the Gunotsavannual quality education campaign,in which the Government including3,000 Ministers and officers spendthree days in villages to raisequality in all areas of schooleducation. After the intensiveassessment, special coaching classeswere given in 23,000 schools. Aftercontinuous efforts across the yearwe have observed the significantimprovement in quality educationafter a second assessment in 2010.

In Gujarat, the Children’sUniversity will be the core researchand training centre to enrichinstitutions, leaders and teachersresponsible for the development ofall our children. The state reformedthe system of postings in schoolssome years ago by introducingtransparency and fairness. We havereduced the volatility andfrequency of transfers and balancedthe staffing in schools across the state.

The Quality Council of India hasan accreditation programme forschools. Is the state thinking ofasking the Quality Council ofIndia to usher in accreditation toschools to enhance the quality ofteaching?The Gujarat government isplanning a Gujarat School Quality

Q uality moves

uality policy

IITT PPoolliiccyy

Teachers participate in theInteractive Training Program and theyget to watch and listen to eminentscholars as well as academicians aswell as interact with them.

EEdduuccaattiioonn PPoolliiccyy

‘Education for All’ — major projectto promote Literacy, reduce drop outrates, focus on Girl Education,Teachers’ Training.

Vidhya Deep Yojna — thisInsurance scheme is for children wherethe premium is paid by theGovernment to ensure financial assistance to parents in case of untoward incident.

DDiissaasstteerr MMaannaaggeemmeenntt PPoolliiccyy

Establishing necessary systems,structures, programmes, resources,capabilities and guiding principles forreducing disaster risks and preparingfor and responding to disasters andthreats of disasters in the state.

TToouurriissmm PPoolliiccyy

Creating adequate facilities forbudget tourists.

Identifying and developing touristdestination and related activities.

Jyoti Gram Yojana- to provide 3-phase, 24-hour, uninterrupted powersupply to all 18,065 villages and alsoto the 9,680 suburbs attached to thesevillages.

Evening Courts- a system whichenables the common man to seek justice without wasting his workinghours during the day.

Nari Adalat- informal judicialforums in order to redress the griev-ances and cases of women throughconsultation and negotiation

State-Wide Attention on PublicGrievance by Application ofTechnology (SWAGAT)- innovativeconcept that enables direct communi-cation between the citizens and thechief minister.

Chiranjeevi Yojana - a novelscheme involving private gynaecolo-gists in providing services related tosafe delivery of pregnant women.

Q


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Accreditation Council (GSQAC), abody that will rate schools based ona streamlined procedure and willprovide an accurate assessment ofacademic achievement. GSQAC willevaluate systematically theperformance of schools as well asteachers and will be responsible foraccrediting schools according to theset standards. Our focus will be onmanagement, quality teaching andmaximising achievements.

You have evolved an enhancedhealthcare programme for themasses in collaboration with theQCI. What is you assessment of itsdelivery to the people in terms ofimproved medicare.The Government of Gujarat hassigned an MoU with the QualityCouncil of India (QCI) to improvethe quality of services of 1000primary health centres and about270 community health centresacross the state. We aim to upgradethe standards of the health centresthrough focal points like patient’sclinical safety, rights of the patientsand improving the quality of care.Across the next couple of years weare expecting a robust and completeimprovement in standards ofhealthcare facilities in closestproximity to our rural population.

The Quality Council of India’sNational Accreditation Board forHospitals and Healthcare

Providers (NABH) has been set upunder the national accreditationstructure to establish and operateaccreditation programme forhealthcare organisations. NABH isan institutional member ofInternational Society for Qualityin Health Care (ISQua). Is the stateplanning to tie up with the QualityCouncil of India to bring inhealthcare quality?The Gujarat government is alreadya role model for total qualitymanagement in hospitals. Gujaratwas the first state in the country toregister 24 district-level hospitalsacross the state under the NationalAccreditation Board for Hospitalsand Healthcare Providers (NABH).These accreditation standards havenecessary approvals from theInternational Society for Quality inHealth Care (ISQua) which meansthe NABH-accredited hospitals willhave international recognition.

What are the measures being takenby the Gujarat government to rootout corruption in the state?Our country requires a seriousrevolution to address the vastleakage of Government funds thathas diseased the possibility ofupliftment of the poorest. In 2010,the Government of Gujarat heldGarib Kalyan Melas across the statefor 100 per cent of funds to reach100 per cent of intendedbeneficiaries through an efficientmass-scale system benefitting anestimated 10 million Gujaratis.Through an initial 50 Garib KalyanMelas, `1500 crore of funds weredirectly distributed includingcheques, auto and cycle repairingkits, sewing machines, cycles for thedisabled, etc. A second round of292 Garib Kalyan Melas was held inall districts, nagarpalikas andtalukas where over `1995 crore ofbenefits were distributed.

Gujarat has emerged as a globalinvestment destination over theyears. In your opinion, what arethe key areas that would bebenefitted by the investments andhow can it lead to povertyalleviation in the state? Our development model has been

PPRROOJJEECCTTIINNGG GGRROOWWTTHH:: The launch of SwarnimGujarat or Golden Gujarat celebration was also for avision of an even better Gujarat where there will beprosperity, education and health.

NarendraModi

The Gujarat government isalready a role model fortotal quality managementin hospitals. Gujarat wasthe first state in thecountry to register 24district-level hospitalsacross the stateunder the(NABH).


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UUSSHHEERRIINNGG IINN BBUUSSIINNEESSSS:: Gujarat Chief MinisterNarendra Modi at a meeting to project Gujarat as aglobal business hub. Such efforts will bring in its wakeprosperity and well being.

born from our nation’s philosophyof ‘good of all’, sarve bhavantusukhinah. This is the Indian modelof harmonised growth andinclusive development. Ourstupendous success at VibrantGujarat Investor Summits iscreating new employments that willtransform income levels and qualityof life in Gujarat. Already our percapita income levels have increasedphenomenally. Gujarat’s per capitaelectricity consumption is nowalmost twice the country, average,which highlights the quality of lifeour people are enjoying. As weexpand industrial growth andopportunities we are establishingworld-class institutes of learningand training to prepare the newworkforce. Our double platform ofinternational investments andglobal education opportunities willlaunch Gujarat into a new phase offuturistic development.

You recently penned a book onclimate change which details thesteps taken in Gujarat to meetthe challenge. Do you think thatGujarat can set an example forother states to follow when itcomes to mitigate climate changeand if yes, then how?The challenge of climate changewill not remain tied to any onestate in India, or to any onecountry in the world. Our globalrequirement is that we all worktogether to reduce carbonemissions, increase efficiency andtransform our processes for long-term sustainability. Gujarat ispioneering with solar powerparks attractive for investors andfor a greener future. Ahmedabadhas drawn international expertsto study our award-winningJanmarg bus rapid transportsystem, which is reducing carbonemissions as well as increasebusiness efficiency and comfortof our people. By sharing bestpractices across the country andacross the world we candynamically modify damagingpractices and all benefit from theshort-term savings as well asinvest in a beneficial future forthe long-term.

Infrastructure development inGujarat would get a big boost infuture according to the visionstatement released by you. Howwill the people of Gujarat benefitfrom it?The people of Gujarat are alreadybenefitting from exemplaryinfrastructure development. Theaward-winning Jyotigram Yojanahas supplied 24-hr electricity andconnected 100 per cent of ourvillages since 2006. This innovationhas delivered a quantumimprovement in quality of life inrural areas including increasedworking hours for rural industryand increased hours of home studyfor our school children. Gujarat’sradical port development hasmeant that the state now handles35 per cent of the country’s cargo,energising our economy. We alsohave India’s first LNG gasterminals and pipe gas directly tohomes and industries with thecountry’s only gas-grid.

The Quality Council of India hasevolved a set of standards—acitizen’s charter—for the deliveryof public services by thegovernment. Are you workingwith the QCI to evolve thesestandards for your state?We welcome further opportunitiesto work with the QCI to reach evenhigher standards of service for ourpeople.

Interviewed by Lakshmi Singh


“The betterment of the commonman is our prime objective”

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IN HIS SECOND TERM AS CHIEF MINISTER OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, PREM KUMAR DHUMAL HAS BEENINSTRUMENTAL IN FORMULATING INITIATIVES THAT WILL NOT ONLY TAKE THE STATE ON A GROWTHPATH BUT ALSO ENABLE THE CITIZENS TO HAVE A BETTER LIFE. IN THIS INTERVIEW WITH QUALITY INDIA,THE CHIEF MINISTER OUTLINES HIS TOP PRIORITIES. EXCERPTS:

The government has beenconcentrating on six ‘S’— Sadak,Shiksha, Swasthya, Swarojgar,Swablamban and Swabhiman(Roads, Education, Health, Self-employment and Self-reliance).What are the initiatives that youhave undertaken and what arethe targets that you wish thestate to achieve to bring about aqualitative change in the life ofthe people?Yes, you have rightly stated, weare concentrating on six ‘S’.‘Sadak’, ‘Shiksha’ and ‘Swasthya’are the three sectors which havebeen given top priority by ourgovernment while ‘Swarojgar’,‘Swablamban’ and ‘Swabhiman’ isour motto. Roads, Education andHealth, these three sectorsconcern the common man in thestate and the betterment ofcommon man is our primeobjective.

Himachal Pradesh has hillyterrain and roads are the lifelineof the people in the state as othermodes of communication arelimited. We have formulated aplan to provide road connectivityto all the villages in the statehaving a population of 250 andabove in the next two years. Afterthat, we will provide connectivityto the areas we have left outcomprising sub villages, etc.

We have taken various stepsto make Himachal Pradesh an

‘educational hub’ for whicheducational institutions of

par excellence are beingopened. In the last

three years, 11 newuniversities have

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been established including atechnical university. Besides, acentral university was set up inthe state last year along with thesetting-up of Indian Institute ofTechnology (IIT), NationalInstitute of Fashion Technology(NIFT), Food Craft Institute andvarious other educationalintuitions like medical colleges.Engineering colleges are in theprocess. We have set up ‘AtalShiksha Kunj’ in Solan districtwhere renowned houses aresetting up universities and otherprofessional and technicalinstitutions.

Our third priority is Health sothat better healthcare facilities areavailable at the doorsteps of thepeople. We are strengtheningexisting medical colleges andhospitals by introducingspecialised services andeducational programmes andequipping the health intuitions infar-flung areas of the state byproviding men and material. Wehave started ‘Atal Swasthay Sewa’on December 25, 2010 thatenvisages providing of freeambulance services to patients incases of emergency within 35minutes. Free institutionaldeliveries are being done ingovernment hospitals. Besidesthese mothers from urban areasare being provided `600 andthose from rural areas `700 as toand fro expenses.

To achieve the motto of‘Swarojgar Swablamban, andSwabhiman’ we are generatingmaximum employment and self-employment opportunities. Ourendeavour is to make HimachalPradesh self-reliant by harnessingthe natural resourcesexpeditiously. Himachal Pradeshhas immense hydro power,tourism and industrial potential.All these three areas had beengiven added priority to achievethe objective of self-employment,self-reliance and self-respect.Himachal Pradesh has identifiedhydel potential of 23000 MW outof which 6657 had beenharnessed so far. We haveprepared a plan to harness 1700

MW of power by the end of nextfive year plan i.e. 2017.

Similarly, we have takenvarious new initiates to boost upthe tourism developmentactivities in the state. For high-end tourists, we have introducedheli taxies. Adventure, rural,nature and historical tourism hasbeen given big boost. ‘Home Stay’scheme has been introduced lastyear which is gaining popularityday-by-day. We are creatinginfrastructure to facilitate thetourists. New circuits are beingdeveloped for the attraction oftourists. Pollution-free andenvironment-friendly industriesare being encouraged. Peacefulenvironment, best law and ordersituation and abundant supply ofelectricity, these are some of theadvantages which entrepreneursenjoy in the state. To facilitatethem, Single Window Authorityhad been set up under mychairmanship where allclearances are given for setting-up of industrial units.Entrepreneurs had not to go frompillar to post for getting clearances ofvarious kinds.

Healthcare delivery system instate hospitals is far fromsatisfactory across Indiaincluding Himachal Pradesh.The number of beds in thepublic sector is almost fourtimes that in the private sector.What is the state’s healthservices doing in this regard?I do not agree. We are providingthe best healthcare facilities to thepeople in the state. HimachalPradesh had been adjudged theBest state to register maximumBPL families under NationalHealth Insurance Scheme and hasbeen given national award forthis. We have introduced ‘AtalSwasthya Sewa’ scheme underwhich free ambulance services isbeing made available to thepatients in emergency. Similarly,free institutional deliveries arebeing done in the hospitals in thestate, besides they are beingprovided `600 (from urban areas)

uality moves

uality achievements

uality acts

QWith the addition of facilities and

doctors in the last three years, theIndira Gandhi Medical College andHospital, Shimla has emerged as thepremier health institution of thecountry.

Instant ambulance service available (108 ambulances would bepositioned in different parts of thestate) free of cost by dialing toll freenumber 108.

NGOs provided grants to take onSkill Development Initiatives (SDIs)for capacity building of people in ruralareas looking for wage employment ,both in group mode or individually.

State Level Single WindowClearance & Monitoring Authority(SLSWC&MA) under Chairmanshipof Chief Minister grants approval tonew and expansion proposals ofindustrial units generating employ-ment.

Diagnostic Laboratory-Cum-Exhibition Unit of ChaudharySarvan Kumar KrishiVishwavidyalaya, Palampur, in collab-oration with Indian Council ofAgriculture Research to the farmerslaunched.The Mobile Unit wouldsolve the problems of the farmers attheir door steps and provide themexpertise advice.

PDS: Consumers asked to registercomplaints on phone if regular supplyof food items and gas was not beingmade under Public DistributionSystem.

Ban on storage and use of non-biodegradable disposable plasticproducts i.e. plastic cup, plate andglass etc. from August, 15, 2011 in aneffort to make state polythene free.

The government has raised annualincome limit for social security pensionfrom the existing `17,000 to `24,000amending Himachal Pradesh SocialSecurity (Pension/Allowances) Rules,2010.

Himachal Pradesh PrivateEducational Institution (RegulatoryCommission) Act passed in 2010 makingit the first state to pass such an act to reg-ulate quality of private institutions.

Himachal Pradesh Private ClinicEstablishments Registration andRegulation Bill has made registration ofall private medical centres and clinicsmandatory.

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and `700 (from rural areas) as toand fro expenses as stated earlier.We have appointed 600 MBBSdoctors and hundreds of nursesand para-medical staff in lastthree years and posted there infar-flung areas of the state, 85Ayurvedic doctors have also beenappointed and 175 more arebeing appointed soon so as tofacilitate the people in the state.We have strengthened themedical institutions by addingsuper specialties at variouslevels.

Himachal Pradesh has enacted alaw to regulate privateuniversities to maintain qualityand standards, becoming thefirst Indian state to do so. Whatdoes this entail?We want to maintain highstandard of education in the stateso this legislation. HimachalPradesh Private EducationalInstitution (RegulatoryCommission) Act was passed in2010. Himachal Pradesh hasbecome the first Indian state topass such an act to regulatequality of private institutions.The CM said the law “wouldshow the way to the rest of thecountry as it's a landmarklegislation to maintain the qualityand standard of education inprivate institutions”.

The Quality Council of India’sNational Accreditation Board forHospitals and HealthcareProviders (NABH) has been setup under the nationalaccreditation structure toestablish and operateaccreditation programme forhealthcare organisations. Is thestate planning to tie up with theQuality Council of India tobring in healthcare quality?We are looking into it.

Himachal Pradesh was the firststate to launch state Wide AreaNetwork in the entire country.How far has the work on e-governance been done and whathas been its achievements? Whatis your vision for using IT as amedium for growth?Our achievement in e-governancehas been appreciated at nationallevel. This is the reason that thisscheme of the state governmenthas been shortlisted for award atnational level. Our performancein redressal of public grievancesand quick response to problemsand complaints of the people hadbeen very good. I am of the viewthat IT is the most effectivemedium for growth in the presentglobalized and liberalisedscenario. We have been adoptingIT in a big way and also plan toset up an IT park in the statesoon. Most of the public serviceshad been covered under the ITfold to deliver the goods.

Could you elaborate on qualitymoves in the social sector?We have given priority toagriculture and allied sectors inthe state. we have earmarked 12per cent of the total plan budgetof the state for this vital sector,which is perhaps highestpercentage in the country. Wehave started `353 crore ‘Pt. DeenDayal Kisan Bagwan SamridhiYojna’ in the year 2009. Eightyper cent subsidy is beingprovided to the farmers forconstruction of poly houses andfor minor irrigation under thescheme. For BPL families thequantum of subsidy for

GGOOVVEERRNNAANNCCEE FFOORR TTHHEE PPEEOOPPLLEE:: The ChiefMinister hearing public grievance in Kangra as part ofhis Prashashan Janta Ke Dwar move .

Prem KumarDhumal,

We are providing thebest healthcare facilitiesto the people in thestate. Himachal Pradeshhad been adjudged theBest state to registermaximum BPL familiesunder NationalHealth InsuranceScheme.


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constriction of poly houses hadbeen raised to 90 per cent.Diversification of farming andpromoting organic farming hasalso been given added attentionand a project worth `340 crorehad been posed forimplementation with theassistance of Japan InternationalCooperation Agency (JICA).Government is also working on aplan to ensure vermi compostunit for each farmer in the state.3.54 lakh vermi compost unitshad been established so far. 3.17lakh soil-testing cards had beendistributed to the farmers. Thegovernment is also implementingMarket Intervention Scheme forapple, citrus fruits to ensureremunerating prices to thegrowers. The work on mostmodern market yard being set upat a cost of `100 crore had beenstarted in the recent past and onemore such market yard is alsobeing set up. A `85 crore applereplantation scheme had alsobeen stated from this year underwhich quality apple plants arebeing given to the growers toreplace the old ones.

Various surveys haveconsistently given HimachalPradesh high marks in varioussectors. What is the mantra toachieving this?This has been possible due tosincere and consistent effortsmade by the government and thepeople for accelerating the paceof development in the state andimplementing and startingvarious welfare schemes for thebenefit of the people by thegovernment. We will not onlymaintain our achievements buttry to achieve new heights. Notonly ‘State of the States’ awardhas been given by the IndiaToday Group but also the statehas been conferred various otherawards by different agencies forour outstanding achievementslike ‘Diamond State Award’ byOutlook and IBN-7 forEnvironment Conservation,Employment Generation andWomen Empowerment. ‘State

Agriculture Leadership Award2010’ has been given byAgriculture Today Magazine afterhaving been found at number onein a nationwide survey. In thelatest survey by InfrastructureDevelopment Finance Co. Ltd.Himachal Pradesh had beenadjudged as Most DevelopedState.

Education in governmentschools-both primary and highschools—is not in the best

shape. There is often a shortageof teachers and many of themare often negligent. How is thestate planning to tackle thequality of teachers in the state?We have given approval forfilling up of more than 19,000post of teaches in last three yearsout of which 12,000 have beenfilled in and the process to fill upthe remaining is going on and allthese posts will be filled verysoon. We are ensuring teachers ineach and every school in thestate.Himachal Pradesh is betterplaced in the country in thisrespect. We have also framedAnti-Ragging Act.

Interviewed by Jasleen Kaur

BBRRIIDDGGIINNGG TTHHEE GGAAPP:: Prem Kumar Dhumal unveiling Diagnostic Laboratory-Cum-Exhibition Unit of Chaudhary Sarvan Kumar Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur.


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What is your own philosophy onquality?At a personal level, quality is theability to reach out for the best inanything that we do. It is to aspirefor a high degree of cleanliness; toaspire for good health; to aspire forgood education; to aspire for ahappy and contended family life.

On a larger plane, in terms ofGovernment, quality would meanproviding services to the people ofthe State in the most efficient andquickest time possible. Let me giveyou an example. If a citizen in anyof our districts falls ill and goes to ahospital and he is treatedimmediately and that helps himrecover in good time, then it wouldmean a good delivery of service bythat state. While health is oneexample, there is a variety of otherservices that citizens require on aday-to-day basis and myphilosophy is that we should beable to provide these servicesefficiently, honestly and in a time-bound manner to the people of the state.

We have ensured that the BPLfamilies get the best of healthservices. In case the kind of medicalattention that is required is notavailable in a government hospital,he could be referred to any referralhospital anywhere and the stategovernment would reimburse allthe expenditure. The governmentalso meets the expenditureinvolved in the travel of the patientalong with an attendant. Therehave been instances when a seniordoctor of a government hospitalhas been punished for not takingproper care of a BPL patient. Theaction was taken on the complaintsmade by the BPL patient.

Do you think that theGovernment has the capacity toprovide quality services?The Government is nothing but acollection of people on behalf of the

“Delivery of services to peoplehas to be streamlined”

RAJASTHAN AS A STATE BELIEVES THAT FORWARD MOVEMENT INQUALITY IS POSSIBLE ON THE BASIS OF QUALITY PARADIGMS AND ITWOULD LIKE TO SET ITS OWN BENCHMARK ACROSS VARIOUS DISCIPLINESIN CREATING A SOUND QUALITY WHILE ENSURING DELIVERY OF SERVICESTO THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE. IT HAS BEEN THE ENDEAVOUR OF CHIEFMINISTER ASHOK GEHLOT THAT DELIVERY OF THE SERVICES TO THEMASSES SHOULD NOT ONLY BE EFFECTIVE, BUT QUALITATIVE TOO.EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH THE CHIEF MINISTER:

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State who have been given theresponsibility of delivering servicesthrough various departments. It’s an“Aam Admi” government and thegovernment is a mere custodian. Ifyou look at the history of the Stateand compare one decade to anotheryou will find that invariably serviceshave improved year after year. Whatit reflects is that the people who areresponsible for providing theseservices are committed and areaware of their unique responsibilityto the people of the State. Theproblem is that sometimes thenumbers are so large and thefacilities are not adequate that onewould expect to provide and then itgets diluted. This is not a problemunique to Rajasthan. These areissues faced by governments theworld over: how to manage themoney available and the servicesthat the people demand? I think herequality plays a vital role in ourability to judiciously identify sectorsthat can provide the highestcommon good like in education,health, rural development,infrastructure, farming, etc.

Bihar and Delhi have adoptedlaws to provide for time-boundservices to people. Are youcontemplating anything alongthose lines?You do not require an Act or aLaw to ensure speedy and time-bound delivery of services. Letme give you an example: We haveexamined the problems that aninvestor faces when heapproaches the government forsetting up an industrial unit. Wehave started a single-windowsystem under which totaltransparency and the commitmentof the official would ensurequality delivery. This qualityservice would make Rajasthan aninvestor’s destination.

However, as a Government,we have stated time and againthat delivery of services to peoplehas to be streamlined andprovided in a time-bound period.Where such services are notavailable, we have tried to findout the reasons and improve thedelivery mechanism.

Women welfare and womenempowerment are at the top ofyour government’s agenda?Rajasthan is a state where womenwere kept under the veil and weredeprived of education forgenerations. It has been theendeavour of all the Congressgovernments in the state toimprove the lot of the women. Yes,it’s true that the women are gettinga lot of attention. Atrocities onwomen, cases related to dowry, oldage and problems of the warwidows have been grave. We haveset up women-controlled policestations in five districts and havelaunched special housing schemesfor war widows. The women whopossess properties in their ownname would pay less by way ofstamp duty on sale or purchase ofland and instead of five per centstamp duty they would pay onlyfour per cent.

Our government hadannounced reservation of 50 percent in the election for local bodiesand for the panchayats. It was thebiggest gift to women relating toempowerment.

The government has launchedschemes to encourage safe deliveryof children in government hospitalsand for the first such delivery, anyBPL woman would be givenincentives. There are also incentivesfor the marriage of the BPLfamilies’ daughters.

Has the reservation of seats forwomen in Panchayati Rajinstitutions (PRIs) led to theoverall empowerment of ruralwomen in Rajasthan?The reservation given to the womenin not only in the Panchayat Rajinstitutions, but in local bodies alsothere is a move to empower womenby urging them to activelyparticipate in development.Reservation would mean thatcontesting an election would behassle free and women would get abetter chance of becomingrepresentatives of the people in thereserved domain for women. Iforesee a qualitative improvement inservices because of the involvementof women in governance.

Q uality moves

uality achievements

Q uality acts

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Aapni Yojana scheme districts ofarid Rajasthan-water and health com-mittee in every village responsible forfair distribution of water, conserva-tion, health education, payment forservices and sanitation

Prashasan Gaon ke Sang cam-paign initiated to offer solutions toproblems faced by the people in vil-lages.

Work on Jaipur metro rail started.

Rajasthan implementsContinuous and ComprehensiveEvaluation (CCE) as a pilot project in60 schools.

Sahbhagita Awas Yojna - afford-able housing policy launched.

Special scheme to promotewomen's participation in agricultureright from their childhood by offeringto incentives during school, collegeand technical education.

Women pursuing doctorate inagricultural studies will get an incen-tive of Rs.10,000 annually for threeyears.

Akshat Yojna for unemployedgraduates provides for grant ofallowances to unemployed graduatestudents of Rajasthan whose familyincome does not exceeded Rs one lakhper year

Release of water policy for betterwater management

Water supply in drought affected21,000 villages through tankers

Initiatives on employment - onelakh jobs created. Of the 67,500 postsalready approved, 50,000 are ofteachers.

e-Governance project in healthsector

Women empowerment:Reservation of seats for women inPanchayati Raj institutions

Special housing schemes for widows

Bill for setting up women's panel "toprotect and promote the interests ofwomen against violence, deprivation anddiscrimination"


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To save the girl child, how hasthe scheme “Beti ek anmolrattan” served its purpose?The declining sex ratio hadbecome a constant concern toeveryone bringing about a changein the demographic profile andthe social consequences thereof.With a majority of interventionsaddressing the female population,in one way or the other, we hopeto somehow make a palpable dentin the gender balance of the totalpopulation. The elimination ofwomen is not entirely new in theIndian socio-cultural context. Theneglect of the girl child in terms ofnutrition, education, healthcare andher overall development is just onefacet; a more cruel practice againstfemales is female infanticide andfemale foeticide. The obvious resultis a sex ratio that is increasinglyadverse to women. Our endeavourwas to see that the girl child alsogets the same importance as a malechild. Several welfare measures likeoffering the girl child incentives ineducation, etc. would bring goodresults.

Why have you paid so muchattention to the BPL sections?It’s because they have been themost deprived class. Qualityapart, they were leading a verypoor life and were distanced fromthe basic facilities that the stateprovides. It was found that theBPL families were not gettingqualitative PDS services. Often,

subsidized food grains were notdelivered to them by the dealer.We have ensured that the dealeropens his shop between the 15thto the 20th of each month and inthe presence of governmentofficials, the BPL families aregiven food grains.

How has the Support to Trainingand Employment Programme forWomen (STEP), promoted womenin Rajasthan?STEP is a programme of trainingfor skill upgradation to poor andasset-less women in traditionalsectors like agriculture, animalhusbandry, dairying, handlooms,handicrafts, khadi and villageindustries. Financial assistance isprovided under this scheme forempowerment of women. Womendairy projects are beingencouraged in the state andunder STEP, we have beenpromoting Women DairyCooperative Societies (WDCSs)and we are very satisfied with theresults. This has gone a long waytowards empowerment of womenand also making them self reliant.

Women are happy with thesebenefits which are reflected inhigher intake of quality food,improved health conditions, betterclothing, enhanced savings andfinally leading to increased status.

Perturbed by the adulteration infood and milk products, youlaunched an anti-adulterationdrive, “Shudh Ke Liye Yudh”,where the district administrationand the civil supply departmentconducted raids and arrestedthose people and milk sellerswho were involved inadulteration.This drive not only createdawareness about adulteration, butalso exposed the people who werecheating people. This campaign ison and has curbed adulterationconsiderably. I want to give anexample: when raids againstadulterators were conducted,people came to know about theadulterated milk products theywere consuming. It was ourendeavour to make people aware

IINNCCLLUUSSIIVVEE GGRROOWWTTHH: Rajasthan C M Ashok Gehlot talking to a woman whileunveiling low floor bus service exclusively for woman.


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about quality food and milkproducts. The result of thecampaign was that during Diwalithe consumption of sweetsreduced considerably. Peopleunderstood that the sweets theywere consuming were adulterated.This was the awareness createdfor quality food.

What is the role of e-Mitra in thedevelopment process in the state?This is an information age andaccess to state governmentdocuments have been made easierand affordable through e-Mitra.Good governance is possible onlythrough e-Mitra. Under the RajivGandhi e-Sewa Kendra scheme,9174 gram panchayats wereconnected. The state governmentrecords and documents that wereavailable only at the tehsil and atthe district headquarters havebeen made available through e-Mitra at the panchayat level. It isan integrated project to facilitatethe urban and the rural masseswith the maximum possibleservices related to different stategovernment departments throughLokmitra-Janmitra Centres. TheLokmitra is a one-stop, citizen-friendly computerized servicedelivery centre that provides awide range of citizen-friendlyservices under one roof so thatcitizens do not have to run aroundvarious departments. It isbasically an urban-centric projectwith more thrust on utilitypayments. e-Mitra has helped inbetter and qualitative delivery.

Healthcare delivery system in thestate hospitals is far fromsatisfactory across Indiaincluding Rajasthan. What is thestate’s health services doing inthis regard?The healthcare service deliverysystem in Rajasthan should becompared at the national level.Rajasthan cannot be a standalonestate and claim that we are thebest, but I would like to say thatwe are trying to evolve a systemby which the rural people wouldreceive medical assistance at theirdoorsteps.

India is at the bottom of thelist even among developingnations in healthcare and withinthe country, Rajasthan is laggingbehind. But in the coming years,you will see the difference. We aretrying to improve the system.Rajasthan was awarded the bestprize under the National RuralHealth Mission for qualitativeservices provided in the ruralsector. The “108” ambulanceservices is efficiently run in thestate. Anybody can dial 108 andsummon an ambulance to take apatient to the hospital.

We have taken the services ofeminent heart surgeon Dr NareshTrehan to provide bypasssurgeries in government hospitalsat Bikaner and at Jodhpur. InJodhpur, Dr Trehan has traineddoctors and the para-medical staffon conducting bypass surgeries.It’s only a beginning. More suchinnovations would improve thehealth services.

How has Swasthya Mitra — atelemedicine network — inextending healthcare services tofar flung areas, benefitted theState?It’s again the use of technology forbetter and qualitative delivery.Swasthya Mitra, a networkconnecting 31 district hospitalsand six medical colleges, is underimplementation with the supportof ISRO. This would pave the wayfor specialised treatment fromspecialists at various districtheadquarters and would be apioneering effort in the healthcare sector.

Several State Governmentsincluding Delhi, Gujarat,Madhya Pradesh are workingwith the Quality Council of Indiato upgrade services in theirhospitals and educationalinstitutions. Is there any suchproposal from Rajasthan?QCI has been doing good workacross various sectors. We shallalso look how to collaborate withthem to improve services acrossvarious sectors.

Interviewed by Prakash Bhandari

AshokGehlot

This is an informationage and access to stategovernmentdocuments have beenmade easier andaffordable through e-Mitra. Goodgovernance ispossible onlythrough e-Mitra.


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“We are committed to ensurebetter education to our people”UTTARAKHAND CHIEF MINISTER RAMESH POKHRIYAL ‘NISHANK’, CONVERTED UTTARAKHAND INTO ONE OF THEBIGGEST REVENUE-GENERATING TOURISM VENUES IN THE COUNTRY. WITH HIS LARGE-SCALE DEVELOPMENTPLANS, HE HAS BROUGHT IN A HIGH RATE OF LITERACY BY CREATING SEVERAL HUBS OF EDUCATION IN THEVALLEY. HE SPOKE ABOUT HIS FUTURE PLANS AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN THE HEALTH SECTOR TO QUALITYINDIA. EXCERPTS:

Tourism remains the biggestrevenue-generating sector of thestate. What steps have been takento further boost the sector andimprove the quality?We are very desperate to promotethe tourism sector. We have madethe tour of Char Dham moreconvenient by connecting it throughair services. When the state wasconstituted, the total investment ontourism sector was only `34.76 crorebut we have increased it to `111.23crore. The impact on IT is reflectedwith the increase in the number oftourists. Domestic tourists in totalityhave increased from 50 lakh to 231lakh in 2010-11 and similarly thenumber of foreign tourists hasincreased from 55,000 in 2001-02 to1.18 lakh in 2010-11. The KumbhMela, an important touristdestination, was also one of ourachievements. We have organised itso well that it turned out to be agreat success. Today, with thisKumbh Mela, we are appreciatedworldwide. Even, the ChicagoBusiness School has called it thebiggest-ever management exercise ofthe world and also decided to doresearch on it. The successfulmanagement of Kumbh hasattracted tourists extensively.

Uttarakhand achieved nearly 100per cent enrollment of students inthe age-group of 6-14 years. Howfar do you think this has benefittedin enhancing the quality ofeducation in the state?Yes, we have achieved the target of100 per cent enrollment of studentsand it is appreciated nation-wide.We have also made it available to thepeople free of cost. We have

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developed several hubs ofeducation. We are also providing theMBBS degree in a nominal fee of`15,000 only.

The Quality Council of India has anaccreditation programme forschools. Is the state thinking ofasking the Quality Council of Indiato usher in accreditation to schoolsto enhance the quality of teaching?We are committed to ensure a bettereducation to our people. If theaccreditation to schools will enhancethe quality of teaching, we willdefinitely think over it.

For empowering women, theUttarakhand government reportedlyincreased the gender budget bynearly `200 crore for 2010. How fardo you think have women beenbenefitted and how far has thestandard of living gone up?We have not only increased thebudget, but also prepared somepolicies and projects to benefit MatriShakti. Nanda Devi Kanya Yojna andGaura Devi Kanyadhan Yojana arefew of them. We have also ensuredtheir 50 per cent participation in thegovernance at panchayat level.

Healthcare delivery system in thestate hospitals is far fromsatisfactory across India includingUttarakhand. The number of bedsin the public sector is almost fourtimes more than the private sector.There have been numerousinstances of poor care, inadequatefacilities, unnecessary interventionsand insufficient information thathave called for a closer look at the

healthcare delivery system. Whatare the state’s health services doingin this regard?This is not true. In fact, our mostimportant achievement is in thehealth sector where we havesucceeded in establishing ‘108’,medical facility. It has set an examplenot only in our country but also forthe world. It has saved the life ofmore than 1.6 lakh mothers andinfants during a short period of twoyears. It may also create a worldrecord that during these two years,more than 2,000 children have beenborn in a mobile ambulance. Itmeans that their life was so much indanger that if the ‘108’medicalfacility was not there to help; theywould not be able to go to hospital.Along with ‘108’ medical facility, weare also running mobile hospitals.

The Quality Council of India’sNational Accreditation Board forHospitals and Healthcare Providers(NABH) has been set up under thenational accreditation structure toestablish and operate accreditationprogramme for healthcareorganisations. NABH is aninstitutional member ofInternational Society for Quality inHealth Care (ISQua). Is the stateplanning to tie up with the QualityCouncil of India to bring inhealthcare quality?As I have already mentioned it, weare here for the betterment of ourpeople. If any kind of scheme orplanning is meant for theirbetterment, we will definitely plan toadopt that.

Interviewed by Ravi Shankar

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Q uality moves

Q uality acts

Uttarakhand government sets tar-get of creating 50,000 jobs this year.

Launching of the Atal AdarshGram Scheme that has identified 670villages where banks have been direct-ed to provide basic banking services.

Focus on green power throughmicro hydel projects in the wake ofgrowing environmental concerns.

Pahal, an initiative of SarvaShiksha Abhiyan, will provide schooleducation to never enrolled anddropout children in the age-group of6-14 years belonging to vulnerablesections of society living in urbanslums.

Health smart cards to the BelowPoverty Line families of the state, government employees and pensioners for accessing hassle-free medical facilities.

Home Stay Development Schemealong trekking routes in upperHimalayas to promote tourism andprovide employment to local communities in the region.

Adopted Uttar Pradesh Prohibition ofBegging Act, 1972 to end begging.

Uttarakhand Agriculture Produce(Development and Marketing) Act seeksto promote new reforms as well as privateinvestments in the agriculture sector. Itcontains provisions for setting up privatemandis, enabling contract farming andconstitution of regulatory authority toensure a level playing field between thegovernment-controlled and private mandis.

uality achievementsQUttarakhand achieved nearly 100

per cent enrollment of students in theage-group of 6-14.

The service of helpline number108 has saved the lives of more than1.6 lakh mothers and infants during ashort period of two years.

Encouraging sports: Governmentto build a large skiing training centre.

BBEETTTTEERR TTOOUURRIISSMM FFAACCIILLIITTIIEESS FFOORR PPRROOSSPPEERRIITTYY:: Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ atthe inauguration of facilites for the Kumbh Mela.

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qualityQuality professionals gathered just a year ago to discuss ways to empower the masses of the countryat the Fifth National Quality Conclave. Leading from the front was the QCI with a simple message:Quality for National Well Being. Since then, the movement to usher in quality has gained strengthand followers. This year's conclave will discuss key elements of the quality framework that will be

needed to build a quality nation. The meet will challenge old paradigms of quality and stimulate newideas that will emerge in a blueprint for the way forward. Quality India takes pleasure to present

vignettes from the Fifth National Quality Conclave.

Blueprint for a

movement

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Ibelieve that performancemanagement in government is akey determinant of economicsecurity and hence I have decidedto focus on this aspect of economicsecurity. I have also decided on thistopic because improvingperformance of government is oneof the major initiatives of thisgovernment.

The importance of performancemanagement in government is nowtreated as a self-evident truth. Nocivilised society can functioneffectively without an effectivegovernment. This statement was astrue for Chanakya in the 3rdCentury BC and for Sher Shah Suriin the 16th century AD as it is forus today. While talking ofperformance of any entity, be itgovernment or a private enterprise,

we are talking of a dynamicprocess. At no stage can we saythat we have reached the end ofthis process and that we have inplace a system that meets allsituations and all contingencies. Ashistory unfolds, there are newrequirements and new challengesthat emerge. Government has toundergo a process of constantreinvention to meet each situationand each phase in history.

All countries use governmentas a mechanism to provide servicesthat benefit all citizens: police,judicial services, national defence,and municipal services.Government serves as a means ofmaking some of the mostimportant collective decisions:nature of the health system,education system, water andsewage system, roads andhighways system.

Our work on performancemanagement is inspired by ourbelief that returns from improvingeffectiveness of the government areimmense. Further, we believe thatthe majority of these benefits willaccrue to the socially andeconomically weaker sections ofour society. Hence, we do notbelieve that there is a tradeoffbetween efficiency and equity.

Enhanced governmenteffectiveness not only affects thewelfare of citizens in the short runbut also in the long-run. In theincreasingly globalised world,government effectiveness is the keydeterminant of a country'scompetitive advantage. Expertsagree that in the long run, the race

IMPROVINGPERFORMANCE INGOVERNMENT

Movingfrom vision toaction

THE GOVERNMENT'S VISION FOR PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IS TOCREATE A RESULT-ORIENTED MACHINERY THAT DELIVERS WHAT ITPROMISES. IN ENSURING THIS VISION, THE GOVERNMENT IS NOTALONE: IMPROVING GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE IS PART OF A GLOBALTREND. MOST PROGRESSIVE GOVERNMENTS IN THE DEVELOPED ANDDEVELOPING COUNTRIES HAVE BEEN REFORMING, REINVENTING ANDRE-IMAGINING THEIR GOVERNMENT ON A CONTINUOUS BASIS.THE MOVE, THEN, IS TO CREATE A GOVERNMENT THAT NOT ONLY DOESTHE RIGHT THINGS BUT DOES THEM RIGHT THAT IS MORE EFFICIENTLYAND EFFECTIVELY. SPEARHEADED BY CABINET SECRETARY KMCHANDRASEKHAR, THE INITIATIVE HAS STARTED BEARING RESULTS. INTHIS ARTICLE, THE CABINET SECRETARY FOCUSES ON HOWPERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT CAN BE BROUGHT ABOUT IN THECOUNTRY'S ADMINISTRATIVE SET-UP.

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among nations will be won or lostnot on the basis of comparativeadvantage arising from resourceendowment, but by the competitiveadvantage created by effectivegovernments.

Having established theimportance of enhancingperformance of government, I wantto divide the balance of mycomments into four broadcategories: First, I would like toshare our long-term vision in thisarea. Second, I want to discuss thecurrent status of performancemanagement in government andlook at our strengths andweaknesses, our opportunities andthe threats that we face. Third, Iwould like to outline the broadcontours of our emergingperformance management strategy.Finally, I would like to share someimportant initiatives that we havelaunched to implement thisstrategy.

Our vision for performancemanagement is to create a result-oriented government machinerythat delivers what it promises. Weseek to create a government thatnot only does the right things butdoes them right that is moreefficiently and effectively. We wanta government that works betterand cost less. Indeed, I want to seethe day when private sector wouldlook up to our systems to improvetheir performance management.

While I am confident we canrealise this vision in not too distanta future, there is a perception thatthe gap between our vision andcurrent reality is rather wide.

We may not like it, but there isa perception that the governmentat all levels can do better, indeed,do much better. Fortunately, thereis also near unanimity among allsections of our society that thegovernment must do better.

This concern for improvingperformance of government isneither new nor unique. There hasbeen a succession of high-levelcommittees and commission thathave examined the barriers toperformance in the Indiangovernment and recommendedchanges. The latest being the l0th

Report of the SecondAdministrative ReformsCommission. In fact there is afull chapter devoted toperformance management. ThisReport is available on theCabinet Secretariat's websitedealing with PerformanceManagement(www.performance.gov.in).

This preoccupation withimproving governmentperformance is also part of a globaltrend. Most progressivegovernments in the developed anddeveloping countries have beenreforming, reinventing and re-imagining their governments on acontinuous basis.

The idea of reinventing thegovernment may seem audaciousto those who see government assomething fixed, something thatdoes not change. But in factgovernments constantly change. Atone time no one expected thegovernments to take care of thepoor; the welfare state did not existuntil Bismark created the first onein the 1870s. Today not only domost governments in thedeveloped world (and many indeveloping world) take care of thepoor, they pay for their health careand retirement pensions also.

To understand the currentstatus and changes that are needed,we must start by having a sharedunderstanding of the concept ofperformance management ingovernment.

A complete system for

EENNSSUURRIINNGG IINNCCLLUUSSIIVVEE GGRROOWWTTHH:: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh launching the Aadhaar Number underUnique Identification Authority of India, at Tembhli village,Nandurbar, Maharashtra on September 29, 2010. TheGovernor of Maharashtra, K Sankaranarayanan, the ChiefMinister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan and theChairperson, National Advisory Council, Sonia Gandhi arealso seen.


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performance management ingovernment should consist of threeinterrelated systems: (a)Performance Information System;(b) Performance Evaluation Systemand (c) Performance IncentiveSystem. Let me describe each ofthese three subsystems briefly.

PERFORMANCEINFORMATION SYSTEM

Without proper informationregarding the activities of thegovernment departments andagencies, it is impossible to evenbegin to evaluate performance,much less improve performance.However, an adequateperformance Information systemdoes not imply collection of hugeamounts of data. A thoughtfullydesigned information systemallows evaluators timely access tonecessary information in anappropriate format. Often, aproperly designed system reducesthe data overload on agencies.When evaluators are not sure aboutwhat matters most, they tend tocollect as much information as theycan to insure against the risk of nothaving the necessary data whenrequired.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONSYSTEM

Once we have the necessaryinformation, it is possible to designan effective evaluation system.Availability of data, however, does

not automatically guarantee asound evaluation system. As wewill see later, many of the existingevaluation systems in India areconceptually flawed. Hence, noamount of success in gatheringinformation can allow us tomanage performance effectively.

PERFORMANCE INCENTIVESYSTEM

Civil servants, like most otherpeople, respond to incentives. Nomatter how sophisticated aninformation and evaluation systemyou may design, if you do not linkthe evaluation of governmentdepartments to the welfare of thegovernment managers, you cannotexpect to improve the performanceof government departments. Ihasten to add that it is notnecessary for the incentives to bemonetary, but it is necessary tohave incentives. Good performanceor lack thereof must have someconsequences.

While all three subsystems arenecessary for designing an effectiveperformance management system,an evaluation system provides thenecessary platform to design anappropriate incentive system andan adequate information system.The other two systems can bedesigned once the government isclear about what it is that it wantsto achieve. The answer to this isprovided by the evaluation system.

EXISTING PERFORMANCEMANAGEMENT SYSTEMS INGOVERNMENT

Let me now turn to the existingsystems of performancemanagement in Government ofIndia. The major instruments forperformance management in theCentral Government include thefollowing: Outcome Budget,Annual Reports of the Ministries,Performance Appraisal Reports forcivil servants, Performance Auditsby CAG, and Memorandum ofUnderstanding for publicenterprises. Let me describe thembriefly.

OUTCOME BUDGETThe "Outcome Budget" is an

IINNIITTIIAATTIIVVEESS FFOORR GGOOVVEERRNNAANNCCEE:: PresidentPratibha Devisingh Patil inaugurating an 'Exhibition ofInnovations', at Rashtrapati Bhavan recently. TheMinister for Food & Public Distribution, Prof. K.V.Thomas is also seen.


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endeavour of the government toconvert the "outlays" into"outcome" by planning theexpenditure, fixing appropriatetargets, quantifying thedeliverables in each scheme andbring to the knowledge of all, the"outcomes" of the budget outlaysprovided for each scheme/programme.

Outcome budgets have been anintegral part of the budgetingprocess since 2005-06. At theCentre, they have replacedPerformance Budgets that wereintroduced in 1975-76. Similarly,the concept of Zero-BasedBudgeting introduced in the mid-1980s has also been largelyabandoned by most departments.

PERFORMANCE APPRAISALREPORT

Let me now turn to the systemof Performance Appraisal Reportsin the government. While OutcomeBudget focuses on the performanceof the ministry/department, aperformance appraisal system ismeant to evaluate the performanceof individual government officials.

Individual performanceappraisal systems can becategorised into two broadcategories. There is theconventional closed system ofAnnual Confidential Reports withwhich you are familiar and thesignificant feature of which issecrecy both in process and results.Then, there is the more openperformance appraisal system,practised in the frmed forces andmore recently in respect of the AllIndia Services on the basis ofrecommendations of a committeeconstituted under thechairmanship of Lt. General (Retd.)Surinder Nath in 2002. Thisinvolves a numerical gradingsystem, introduction of a pen-picture of the appraised officer andsharing the entire report with theofficer. In my view, we need tofurther redesign our system ofperformance appraisal. Theperformance appraisal format mustbe the foundation on which careerprogression is built. We need tospend far more time on

performance appraisal in order toensure that performance isproperly assessed and rewarded.

ANNUAL REPORTThe other instrument of

performance management is thesystem of producing AnnualReports. All ministries/departmentsare required to publish an annualreport. The annual reports havetwo main objectives:

First to enable the membersof Parliament to evaluateadequately their own performance,besides making debates in theParliament better informed, whichin turn, could help the departmentsin better policy formulation andprogram execution.

Second to serve a widerpurpose of supplying well-arranged information aboutgovernment's activities to thepublic as a whole.

PERFORMANCE AUDITPerformance auditing is an

independent assessment orexamination of the extent to whichan entity, programme ororganisation operates efficientlyand effectively, with due regard toeconomy. CAG India has beencarrying out performance auditsover many years on a variety ofsubjects across all sectors of publicsector programmers in the Centraland the state governments.Performance auditing is anindependent assessment orexamination of the extent to whichan entity, programme ororganisation operates efficientlyand effectively, with due regard toeconomy. Performance audit isconcerned with the audit ofeconomy, efficiency andeffectiveness.

MEMORANDUM OFUNDERSTANDING (MOU)

Finally, let me describe theMoU system. MoU stands forMemorandum of Understanding. Itis the main instrument formanaging performance of publicenterprises. It is essentially anegotiated performance agreementbetween government and the

K MChandrasekhar

Our work on performancemanagement is inspired byour belief that returns fromimproving effectiveness ofthe government areimmense. Further, webelieve that the majority ofthese benefits will accrue to the socially andeconomicallyweaker sectionsof our society .


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management of public enterprises.It specifies the expectations andresponsibilities of both parties andonce the MoU is signed, thegovernment is expected not tointerfere in the day-to-dayoperations of the enterprises. Thissystem improves accountabilityand enhances autonomy. The firstset of MoUs was signed in 1987-88based on the French system, whichonly pointed out whether aparticular target was met or not.Later MoUs adopted the Koreansystem, which is also called theSignalling System. This systemassigned weights to targets toderive composite scores based onthe performance of the enterpriseon a number of parameters.

The current system ofperformance management hasseveral strengths. First, there is anear consensus on the importanceof improving performance ofgovernment ministries anddepartments amongst governmentand non-government observers.Second, there is a strongdetermination to enhancegovernmental performance. In fact,over the years, we haveexperimented with many systemsto achieve this objective, such asZero Based Budgeting,Performance Budgeting and morerecently the institution of theOutcome Budget. Thirdly, since wehave had experience ofimplementing managementinnovations in the Government ofIndia, we are relatively comfortablewith the idea of change.

While the performancemanagement systems inGovernment of India have severalstrengths listed above,unfortunately our systems are notperfect. I now turn to some of theweaknesses of these systems. First,many of the key performancemanagement systems areimplemented as a routineprocedure and consequently do nothave the intended effect. Secondly,there is fragmentation ofinstitutional responsibility withdepartments being required toreport to multiple principals whooften have multiple objectives, not

always consistent with each other.Thirdly, several importantinitiatives have fracturedresponsibilities for implementationand hence accountability for resultsis diluted. Fourth, some of thesystems are selective in theircoverage and report onperformance with a significant timelag, as in the case of PerformanceAudit Reports of the CAG. Fifthly,different systems provideinformation on performance fromparticular points of view ratherthan in a holistic manner. Sixthly,incentives for improvingperformance in Government areweak or non-existent. Finally, as Ihave mentioned earlier, we have aserious problem with theperformance evaluationmethodology. Performance ingovernment is largely undefinedand nebulous. We tend to chase toomany objectives without a clearsense of priorities. We rarely applyourselves to the task of definingour own objectives and the mannerin which we need to apportion ourtime and our resources to achievethe maximum impact.

We need to leverage ourstrengths and eliminate ourweaknesses to achieve success inperformance management. Wehave the well-consideredrecommendations of the SecondAdministrative ReformsCommission with us today whichwe could use effectively to bringabout changes. I may mention thatone of the significantrecommendations of theCommission is to put in place asound performance managementstrategy. We need to ensure clarityregarding the goals and objectivesof Departments. We need to devisea uniform performance evaluationmethodology. We must focus on allthree sub-systems of performancemanagement mentioned earlier -information systems, evaluationsystems, and the incentive system.

The President of India referredto the need for governance reformin her Address to Parliament lastyear (2009). She said, "An area ofmajor focus for my governmentwould be reform of governance for

K MChandrasekhar

There is a strongdetermination to enhancegovernmental performance.In fact, over the years, wehave experimented withmany systems to achievethis objective, such as ZeroBased Budgeting,Performance Budgeting andmore recently theinstitution of theOutcome Budget.


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effective delivery of public services.Reports of the AdministrativeReforms Commission would guidethe effort. Reform of structures inthe higher echelons ofGovernment, increaseddecentralisation, inclusion ofwomen and youth in governance,process reform and publicaccountability would be key areasfor focused action." One importantarea of immediate action that sheidentified was the establishment ofmechanisms for performancemonitoring and performanceevaluation in government onregular basis.

Pursuant to the announcementmade in the President's Address toboth Houses of the Parliament onJune 4, 2009, the Prime Ministerapproved the outline of thePerformance Monitoring andEvaluation System (PMES) forgovernment departments onSeptember 11, 2009. The essence ofPMES is as follows:

Under this system, at thebeginning of each financial year,with the approval of the ministerconcerned, each department willprepare a Results-FrameworkDocument (RFD) consisting of thepriorities set out by the ministryconcerned, and the actionprogramme as defined ingovernment announcementsthrough the President's Address,Budget Speech and policydirections of the Cabinet and thePrime Minister. The minister in-charge will decide the inter-sepriority among the departmentalobjectives.

After six months, theachievements of each Ministry/Department will be reviewed by aCommittee on GovernmentPerformance and the goals reset,taking into account the priorities atthat point of time. This will enableus to factor in unforeseencircumstances such as droughtconditions, natural calamities orepidemics.

At the end of the year, allministries/departments will reviewand prepare a report listing theachievements of theirministry/department against the

agreed results in the prescribedformat. This report will beexpected to be finalised by May 1each year.

The Results-FrameworkDocuments (called RFDs) and thecorresponding performance resultsagainst the commitments made inRFDs will be put on the respectivedepartments' websites.

It was decided that in Phase I ofimplementation 59ministries/departments out of atotal of 84 will be covered underthis system. All 59 ministries anddepartments have prepared aResults-Framework Document forthe remaining last quarter of 2009-2010. These documents reviewedby an independent group ofexperts are available on the web.

The generic name for Results-Framework Document isPerformance Agreement. In the

words of Second AdministrativeReform Commission: "Performanceagreement is the most commonaccountability mechanism in mostcountries that have reformed theirpublic administration systems."

Often, in the government weare so busy doing what we do thatwe never pause to think about thefinal results. That is, we tend tofocus on the "means" and not the"ends". However, the citizens ofIndia are primarily, if notexclusively, interested only in the"end results" and not inintermediate "procedures" and"activities". Thus, it is imperativethat all of us in the governmentbecome more results-oriented both

NNEEEEDD OOFF TTHHEE HHOOUURR:: Proper functioning of gov-ernment departments forms the basis of performancemanagement in India.


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individually as well as collectively.The Performance Monitoring

and Evaluation System seek tofacilitate this transformationtowards a results-orientedgovernment. It builds on ourprevious attempts to enhanceresults-orientation in thegovernment, such as the"performance budget" and the"outcome budget". Like any otherdiscipline, public management isconstantly evolving in response tolessons of experience. Results-Framework Documents (RFDs) arean outcome of this evolutionaryprocess.

I believe that the essence of thissystem is simple. It seeks toaddress three basic questions: (a)What are the main objectives of thegovernment department for theyear? (b) What actions areproposed to achieve theseobjectives? and (c) How would weknow at the end of the year thedegree of progress made inimplementing these actions? Thatis, what are the relevant successindicators to measure progress inimplementation?

While the concept of theResults-Framework Document isindeed simple, its proper executionrequired a rigorous methodologicalapproach. We studied many similarsystems around the world and havecome up with a system that is notonly analytically sound but also

adapted to the Indian context.In launching the Results-

Framework Document, we are notalone. Rather, we are part of adistinct global trend in publicmanagement of a clear movementaway from the so-calledAdministrator Model to theManagement Model. TheManagement Model represents aninternal culture of makingmanagers manage, as opposed tothe Administrative Model whichvalues compliance to pre-determined rules and regulations.It requires the managers to assumegreater responsibility, while, at thesame time, giving them greateroperational freedom and holdingthem accountable for results. Manycountries, including Canada, NewZealand, Australia, Netherlands,Denmark, the United Kingdom, theUnited States and Finland, havemade significant progress usingsuch techniques with New Zealandbeing clearly the leader of thispack.

Now that we have a fair,objective and comprehensive wayto measure performance ofgovernment departments, we areworking on linking it to aperformance-related incentivescheme. As you may be aware, theGovernment of India has alreadyaccepted the Sixth PayCommission recommendation toimplement such a scheme. We are hopeful that this willhappen soon.

Having a way to measureoverall performance of agovernment department will alsoallow us to better align thePerformance Appraisal Reports ofindividuals to departmentalperformance.

All elements of a goodperformance management systemseem to be falling in place. I amvery optimistic and hopeful ofachieving our vision of creating aresult-oriented governmentmachinery that delivers what it promises.

(Extracts from an address by K M Chandrasekhar, Cabinet Secretary,

Government of India, at the NationalDefence College, New Delhi)

BBUULLWWAARRKK OOFF PPEERRFFOORRMMAANNCCEE MMAANN-AAGGEEMMEENNTT:: The Comptroller and AuditorGeneral of India (CAG) continues to drivethe performance management in India.


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What is your definition of quality?Quality is doing everything rightand doing the best you can anddoing it enthusiastically, It’s a

consequence (of your action), notsomething new. So, quality is

in everything you do.

What about quality ingovernance?Well quality ingovernment is allabout delivery and asyou might know thatwe have a policy of

Results-FrameworkDocument knownpopularly as RFD, andquality is an essentialpart of that. These

documents cover 62departments. Every

department commits whatresults they are going to

deliver to the nation in aparticular year. These

documents are expected tocover both the quantitative andwell as qualitative aspects of

promised results.

Is there constant evaluation?Not constant but regularevaluation and it is all on theweb. Now the important thing isthat in government, quality canonly follow quantity. If there is noschool then it is better to haveschool first and then ensure that itruns well. So, our first attempt inthe Results-FrameworkDocuments (RFDs) is to ensurethat quantity is there and then wego to quality. And the way we doquality management is in manyways straightforward. We believethat what gets measured getsdone. To say you must havequality, you must be able tomeasure quality. Otherwise, youwill never know whether you areimproving quality or its becomingworse. So our view is just sayingthat we want quality ingovernment is not enough, unlessyou can measure it. Truly we haveexperienced that what getsmeasured gets done. You can onlyhave quality if you are able to“quantify” quality. And so wehave tried through the Results-Framework Documents (RFDs) to quantify as far aspossible qualitative aspects ofdepartmental performance.

How will you measure that?For each department first we figureout what is it that they are supposedto deliver and then we try to figureout what are the qualitydimensions or aspect of delivery.

“Accountability for results istrickling down”FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY OF INDEPENDENT INDIA, WE HAVE CITIZEN’S CHARTERS THAT DEFINE THEQUALITY OF SERVICE. WHILE THESE CHARTERS WERE THERE EARLIER, THE DIFFERENCE THIS TIME IS THAT THEYWILL BE MEASURED. ALONG WITH CITIZEN’S CHARTERS, DELIVERY OF SERVICE AND GRIEVANCE REDRESSALCOMPRISE A COMPLETE PACKAGE THAT CONSTITUTES QUALITY. ALL THIS, OF COURSE, IS LINKED TOPERFORMANCE. PRAJAPATI TRIVEDI, SECRETARY (PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT), GOVERNMENT OF INDIA,BELIEVES THAT PERFORMANCE HAS DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS AND THERE ARE A NUMBER OF APPROACHES TOMEASURE THE PERFORMANCE OF A GOVERNMENT AGENCY. TO TOP IT ALL, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THECORRECT APPROACH. IN THIS INTERVIEW, HE POINTS OUT THAT QUALITY IN GOVERNMENT IS ALL ABOUT DELIVERYAND DETAILS HOW 62 DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS IN THE GOVERNMENT ARE BEING APPRAISED FOR DELIVERY.

QCI interview (Prajapati Trivedi).qxd 2/21/2011 10:51 AM Page 3

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Have there been obstacles in theroad to quality?Frankly I’m amazed at the lack ofroadblocks. They were conspicuousby their absence. You know thatthese are not technically verydifficult issues. In fact, people whoreach the top echelons ofgovernment are very smart peopleand are fully aware of the value ofquality in government operations.They often wonder how come it isso commonsensical and yet peoplehave not thought of it. There is afallacy of composition. When thesystem tries to do it as a whole —and our approach is indeedsystemic not individualistic— thenit becomes easy. That is what maybe difficult for one individual to dois easy for the group as a whole toimplement. And since thePerformance Monitoring andEvaluation System is initiated bythe Prime Minister and the CabinetSecretary, it was not an issue. MostSecretaries to the government—weonly deal with 62 Secretaries to theGovernment of India — were veryenthusiastic about the proposedchanges in the evaluationmethodology. We have had a veryparticipatory and inclusive process.We have always listened to ourstakeholders to understand theirconcerns about quality in theiroperations. In any event quality can not be separated from the entireoperations. Hence RFDs embodyqualitative dimensins ofperformance.

So, I think the biggest challenge— you could say there was no roadblock but a challenge — in gettingthis policy through was training.Because our approach was(different)… we didn’t have anysingle outside consultants, no high-sounding studies. The basicapproach was to teach them how tofish and then let them fish. We didnot give them the fish. We said hereis the way to ensure quality inoperations, here is what you haveto do. We simply said, these are theprinciples of good management.You figure out what’s relevant foryou. You’ll know it. Most seniorofficers have been in this businessfor 25-30 years. So we provided a

framework for performancemanagement and qualitymanagement and they came upwith the rest. We trained about 900people in 24 workshops in 18months in different departmentsand I think that was the singlebiggest challenge: how do you getyour message across, make surepeople understand you and ensurethere is uniformity in preparingthese documents.

How have the results been?This is the answer everyone iswaiting for. See it started in 2009-10.But that year was an experimentalyear because this is the first yearand we did this exercise only for thelast quarter. And evaluation hastaken place and the resultsindicating overall good performancehave surprised some people but notus. When senior Secretaries to theGovernment of India commit tosomething they tend to do it. It’s justthat often we have such hugeexpectations that we feel thegovernment departments are notdelivering. But given the resources,once they make a commitment,departments tend to deliverpromised results. That explainswhy we had a very high number ofdepartments meeting their targets inRFDs for 2009-2010.

How do you measure it?It is delivery of service and the wayit is delivered and on top of that, theway grievances are handled. In fact,in our view, manner of delivery ofservice is important. I’ll give you anexample. From Delhi to Mumbaiyou have five airlines or more; theyall deliver the same result—theytake you from Delhi to Mumbai. Butyou prefer one airline. Why?Because you have a betterexperience there.

So (it is with) quality — one ofour weaknesses in the governmentis that the interface with thecitizenry is not as good as it shouldbe. Therefore, we are solving thatproblem; for the first time in thehistory of independent India wehave Citizen’s Charters, which willdefine the quality of service. Theywere there previously. The

GoI departmentgets ISO 9001Certification

THE NATIONAL AUTHORITYFOR Chemical WeaponsConvention (NACWC), a part of theCabinet Secretariat, has been com-mended by the premier world body,the Organization for the Prohibitionof Chemical Weapons (OPCW), ongetting ISO 9001:2008 Certificate.The award is in recognition of thehighly successful performance of theNational Authority. India’sAmbassador to the Netherlands Ms.Bhaswati Mukherjee presented acopy of the certificate to the DirectorGeneral of the OPCW at a functionin Hague some time ago. TheDirector General of the OPCW,Ahmad Uzumen, said that theIndian example was a role model forother countries.

The ISO 9001 Certificate makesthe National Authority for ChemicalWeapons Convention (NACWC) thefirst among all 188 member nationsof OPCW to attain this distinction.It is also the first Government ofIndia department to have qualifiedfor ISO 9001:2008 certification.This is part of Prime Minister’sefforts to enhance administrative efficiency and accountability of government departments. TheCabinet Secretary, K MChandrasekhar, who is leading thereform effort in the government, hasasked other government departments to follow the exampleof his department. In fact, theIndian delegation has beenapproached by several countriesincluding Japan, Sri Lanka, Italy,Kenya, Uganda, etc. for information and technical assistance for obtaining similar certification for their respectivenational authorities.


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PrajapatiTrivedi

You can’t do miraclesand you are to workwithin the constraints ofthe Constitution...theSecretaries to theGovernment of India arenot simply officials —they are thechampions of thatsector.

difference this year is that they willbe evaluated and there are specifictargets for that: how many days youwill take to respond to letters andcomplaints and then there is also thegrievance redressal mechanism. So,I think delivery of service alongwith Citizen’s Charters andGrievance Redressal is a completepackage, which constitutes qualityin governance.

Is it the same package for all thedepartments?Every department has a differentpackage. Tourism has differentstakeholders and customers andclients and the Rural Developmentdepartment has different. So whileall departments must specify thethree elements — results, citizen’scharters, grievance redressmechanism,— their specific contentswill be, of course, different. Well, byFebruary, we will have all of them inplace.

How did it really start?First, it derives its legal standingfrom the Prime Minister’s Office. Itstarted with the second UPAgovernment coming to power andthe President, in her openingstatement to the Parliament, saidthat within hundred days thegovernment will have a system tomonitor and evaluate theperformance of the government(departments). So that commitmentwas converted by the PrimeMinister into a PerformanceMonitoring and Evaluation Systemknown as PMES and details of it areavailable on our website. It derivesits sanctity from the PrimeMinister’s order. Under this system,every department is required toprepare a Results-FrameworkDocument explicitly mentioningtheir Vision, Mission, Objectives,Success Indicators and Targets forthe year. The remarkable thing isonce (it was implemented), 100 percent of them are doing it.

Won’t you have an Act for it?We have laws for everything, buthave they worked? I mean law isone thing; in administrative reform,the experience is (that) it (the law)

doesn’t matter, it’s the mechanism.Can you say that I am passing a law(that) everyone has to be efficient?How do you define efficiency, whatdo you do? These things require (amechanism). So what we have doneis not rocket science, but we havesolved that problem. We havecreated the missing bottom-line inthe government. For the first time,we have been able to monitor andevaluate the performance of variousgovernment departments on a scaleof 0-100 and that has been the keycontribution of the new system.

Taking your point about Act, it isindeed one of the plans of thegovernment. It will be codified aspart of the Civil Services law. It hasbeen put into the draft already. ThePrime Minister’s order has been putinto a draft of the civil service law,which is now called Civil ServicesStandards, Performance &Accountability Bill. So, futuregovernments will be obliged by lawto do what we (have started).

What about feedback from thepeople?Well, they should be consulted.DOPT is piloting this Bill and Iwould have hoped that there isnothing secret, and that they shouldput it on the website and invitecomments from people. I think ifthey are not already doing it, I’llsuggest that.

What about the states?Two things. First, you can’t domiracles and you are to work withinthe constraints of the Constitution(many subjects are dealt withseparately by states). Second, theSecretaries to the Government ofIndia are not simply officials — theyare the champions of that sector. So,states in some ways are alsoindependent, autonomous unitswithin the Union and in certainareas they have their state subjects.But it is the duty of the Secretariesto champion those things. And they have.

But you see it being adopted over time?There is a lot the CentralGovernment can do: the vision, the


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making of the framework. So, wedeal with the Central Governmentright now and I think if we havean efficient performancemanagement system in the Centre,it will trickle down to states. Andwe are seeing results:Maharashtra and Punjab havealready decided to adopt thesystem and made some veryimpressive progress. And we’vegot requests from several states(who want to adopt this model).

Is that what you are doing similarto the UK Model?We are doing the same sortof fthing though conceptually thisis ahead of UK. They call it thePublic Service Agreements; we callit the Results-FrameworkDocument (RFD). We believecurrently we are arguably ahead ofany other country in terms of thedesign and implementation of thispolicy.

There are many areas, like thejudiciary, that has been left out?We haven’t left it. To be honest, Ithink, given the time, the staff, onemust do an excellent job of whatone is doing and there are lessonsto be learnt from all sectors.Judiciary, legislature but you can’ttake up everything: it limits yourcapacity to do a quality job.

How long has this been on?It has been on for less than twoyears and we have done a decentenough job. For the first time inthe history of independent Indiathe Cabinet Secretary has writtenindividually to Secretariesoutlining their performance scoreon a scale of 0-100 per cent andindicated wheter theirperformance was below or aboveaverage for all Secretaries. This isa huge beginning.

All this is on the web …It’s a completely transparentsystem, everybody agreed to it.Our job was really to have these 62Secretaries agree to the rules of thegame, play the game and deliverthe results. When the results weredeclared, no one complained...

Does it outline the leadership eachperson provided?Absolutely. That is exactly whatthis is supposed to capture: thequality of management. As I saidthere are some people who justwrite memos. There are others whoactually go out, train, providetechnical assistance, figure out whatare the reasons for the bottlenecksand solve the problem.

Another key dimension ofquality consists of taking a longerstrategic view of departmentalperformance and not a short-termview. Thus, developing a long-termstrategy is essential for qualityoperations.

What about the PSUs and otherbodies?The change cannot start at thebottom and that’s why we havestarted with the Secretaries and weare finding that accountability forresults is trickling down. TheSecretaries are holding the JointSecretaries accountable. Now, thisyear, we have asked departments tosign Results-Framework Documentswith the subordinate offices,attached offices and autonomousbodies under them and thus about800 such responsibility centres havebeen covered under this policy.

Will it bring about an attitudinalchange?Absolutely. And we are alreadyseeing it. As I said, thousandorganisations when they change, Ithink you’ll find some impact. Andfurthermore as I said, we arealready focusing on the interfacethrough Citizen’s Charter. So we arenot just focusing on delivery andnot worrying about the interface.The attitude is the thing. TheCitizen’s Charter will change it.

Why call it a Citizen’s Charter?Well, Citizen/Clients Service Charterbecause it deals with the interfacewith the citizens, people. It’s aboutinterface. So, RFD contains thingsthat affect the class of citizens.Citizen/Client Charters affectindividual citizens. It deals withissues such as - ‘My application, mytelephone call didn’t get answered’.

PrajapatiTrivedi

If we have an efficientperformancemanagement system inthe Centre, it will trickledown to states. And weare seeing results:Maharashtra and Punjabhave alreadydecided to adoptthe system


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That attitude has to change. So acombination of these two, webelieve will shape up and webelieve, the perception ofgovernment will dramaticallyimprove.

Where does the QCI come into all this?Well they have been very helpful. Iam also Chairman of NationalAuthority for Chemical WeaponsConvention and we are the onlynational, central government body tohave got full ISO 9000 certificate.Like the International AtomicEnergy Commission, ourcounterpart is the Organisation forthe Prohibition of ChemicalWeapons. They have 188 membercountries and all of them havenational authorities like ours.However, we are the only nationalauthority to have the ISO 9000certification. Recently we presentedour case to the 188 member states inThe Hague. It was the mostgratifying experience whenadvanced countries came to usasking for technical assistance: howdid your national authority get ISO9000? The Quality Council of Indiahelped us a lot. Dr Girdhar J Gyani(QCI Secretary General) was verysupportive. Of course, the CabinetSecretary had wished and wantedthis. But Dr Gyani ensured that wegot the required technical support toachieve this ISO 9001 certification.He provided the technical support toget us there. So that has been ourinterface with QCI and we hope,now that the Cabinet Secretary hasseen the results and he is excitedabout the potential of ISO forreforming government, that throughthe RFDs we will make ISO 9000 arequirement for all governmentdepartments. So that a change inquality consciousness takes place—that you have to do thingssystematically, codify yourprocedures, have standard operatingprocedures, prepare quality manualand follow it—all that is bound tohave an impact on the government.

What about using the QCI for yourprocesses?The QCI has made Sevottam

standard and we are using part ofthose standards already. So, theCitizen’s Charter and GrievanceRedress Mechanism prepared by 62departments of the CentralGovernment have to be Sevottamcompliant.

What is your bottomline?Irrespective of which governmentis there, this is a central issue:improving government efficiencyand performance and my brief isto ensure that we have the bestsystem in place and that thisbecomes part of our standard way of doing business ingovernment. Good managementshould not be an event; it shouldbe a process which we take forgranted and I believe that now thisis not an event any more, it’sbecoming part of our routinebusiness. Good management andgood governance should beroutine. Not a sensational thing,not an exceptional thing. Therevolution is on.

Is this your first time ingovernment?No, no. I was Economic Advisor inthe Government in 1991-94 . In factwe implemented a similar policy inthe government called theMemorandum of Understanding(MoUs) when Dr. Manmohan Singhwas the Finance Minister and Iworked on MoUs in the Departmentof Public Enterprises (DPE) asEconomic Adviser. The MOUsystem has worked beautifully. Infact, if history be told correctly, theimproved performance of publicenterprises via MOU system was akey factor in India’s turnaroundstory in the 90s. Some say it wasonly liberalisation, but informedobservers will tell you that thesurplus profits generated by publicenterprise fuelled and enabled theliberalisation of the country on asustainable basis.

We hope that a few years fromnow we would say the same thingabout RFDs. They will, I believe,play a critical role in taking India tothe next level of growth trajectory.


PrajapatiTrivedi

Irrespective of whichgovernment is there, this is a central issue:improving governmentefficiency andperformance and mybrief is to ensurethat we have thebest system inplace


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How would you define aviation inIndia?I have said this many times and amhappy to repeat myself: morepeople travel by Indian Railways ina day than they do by plane in amonth! At one it was equivalent toa year, but as air travel has grownexponentially, it has come down.But there is still vast scope. If justten per cent of Indians travel by airthat would be close to 13 crorepassengers a year. And we aresome way away from that number.

India’s aviation sector has seenphenomenal growth under yourleadership. How do you ensurethat a 20-30 per cent year-on-yeargrowth in this segment does notsee a drop in quality?Aviation by its very nature has tobe fail-proof, in other words, everyflight that takes off has to landsafely. That means that you requirethe highest standards of safety inplace to ensure that our skies aresafe. And when the goal, day-after-day, month-after-month and year-after-year, is a blemish-free cycle offlying; it has to adhere to thehighest standards of quality to beable to provide these services.Therefore, quality is intrinsic to thebusiness of flying.

How do you make sure they aremonitored regularly and thehighest standards of safety,security and quality ismaintained?I would say that aviation is one ofthe most well-monitored sectors. Atevery stage, you have parametersthat need to be fulfilled. There areseveral aspects to flying and each

“We have set theball in motion fordevelopment”

PRAFUL PATEL HAS BEENARGUABLY INDIA’S MOSTSUCCESSFUL CIVIL AVIATIONMINISTER. SOON AFTER THISINTERVIEW, HE WAS PROMOTEDAS A CABINET MINISTER INCHARGE OF THE DEPARTMENT OFHEAVY INDUSTRIES AND PUBLICENTERPRISE. SOME EXCERPTSFROM AN INTERVIEW ON THETWO SUBJECTS:

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one of these segments has its ownstringent set of standards to ensurequality and, thereby, safety. Themost important of these is theDirectorate General of CivilAviation (DGCA). The DGCA setsthe template for all civil aviationoperations in India. No aircraft canfly in or fly out of the countrywithout being registered with themor their approval. They lay theground rules that govern everyaspect of operations: from theguidelines that governs pilottraining, examination, andcertification, medical to the finallicensing of a commercial pilot.And, mind you, there are noshortcuts or compromises in thisprogramme. In fact, recently theDGCA suspended the licenses ofseveral pilots who had faked theirflying records and police actionwas initiated against the flyingschool that was responsible for thisillegal activity.

Similarly, the DGCA has issuedstringent guidelines against pilotsreporting to work after consumingalcohol. The DGCA has ruled thatif a pilot or a member of the cabincrew is found drunk before a flight— and is a second-time offender —his/her licence will be cancelled forfive years. The first offence wouldmean suspension of the licence forthree months.

Similarly, there are safety auditsfor aircraft and there aremandatory checks that all planeshave do go through after a certainnumber of flying cycles. The DGCAis stringent in its monitoring of allaircraft registered in India to makesure that they are maintained asprescribed in the guidelines. Allairlines have what is known as anair operator’s permit (APO) andunless they fulfill every guidelineof the DGCA including well-defined operating manuals, theyare liable to have their APOsuspended.

Apart from all this, the DGCAalso undertakes safety audits on aregular basis to make sure thatthere have been no lapses infollowing the regulations. We haveset up the Civil Aviation SafetyAdvisory Council to ensure that

there is a continuous process ofsafety in Indian aviation. Thiscommittee meets regularly toreview events and trends andadvise the government withmeaningful suggestions.

What about our airports? Millionsof passengers traverse throughthem every year. How do we makesure they adhere to the higheststandards of quality?Every airport in India is licensedand they cannot operate unlessthey adhere to the stringentguidelines as laid down by theInternational Civil AviationOrganization (ICAO). While theyfollow the guidelines, the airportsare inspected and certified by theDGCA.We have undertaken aremarkable process of modernizingand upgrading our airports toprovide not just for safer and betterflying, but to make the entireexperience enjoyable and hasslefree for the people who really drive

this sector in the end, thepassengers.Could you elaborate?Broadly speaking, if a flight is latethen the passenger is liable to bereimbursed and taken care of.There are considerable details onthis available with the airlines andon the DGCA website. Now one ofthe spinoffs of this directive is thatairlines make sure that they take offand land on time barring weatheror technical issues. So, the on-timeperformance across the aviationsector has gone up remarkably.Airlines are now conscious of their

Praful PatelWe haveundertaken aremarkable

process of modernisingand upgrading our airportsto provide not just forsafer and better flying, butto make the entireexperience enjoyable andhassle-free for the peoplewho really drivethis sector in theend.

FFOORRMMIIDDAABBLLEE FFLLEEEETT:: Planes lined up at IndiraGandhi International Airport.


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BBUUSSYY TTRRAAFFFFIICC:: Number of air travellers inIndia are increasing at a fast pace. A scene atMumbai airport!

On January 12, Indian low-costcarrier (LCC) IndiGo signed a $15billion deal with European aircraftmanufacturer Airbus for buying180 A320 aircraft, the biggest ever

single firm order for large jets inglobal aviation history. The deal isreflective of the sort of steps thatIndian aviation has taken in thelast few years.

From just two carriers — AirIndia for global operations andIndian Airlines for the domestic

segment — Indian aviation hasnow expanded dramatically. Thereare several carriers that vie forpassengers' attention across Indiaincluding high quality low costcarriers that have caught theimagination of the people. Notjust that, the number of destina-tions and connections have morethan quadrupled in the last sixyears and even the interiors arenow connected to major metrosacross India.

It was something that PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh allud-ed to when inaugurating thebrand new T3 terminal at Delhi'sIndira Gandhi InternationalAirport. He said: "An airport isoften the first introduction to thecountry. A good airport would signal a new India, committed tojoin the ranks of modern industrialized nations."

However, one major issuethat could hamper the dramaticgrowth of civil aviation is theshortage of trained manpower. Asmore aircrafts are ordered, moreairports open, the need for morestaff is telling. That is one area we still have to ramp up our efficiencies.

Growing with finesse H

.C. T

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responsibility to their passengers.Similarly, as the process of

improving our airports throughmodernisation and building of newterminals has taken off, the optionsavailable to the passengers in termsof F&B, passenger comfort,amenities have improvedenormously. In fact, some of ourmetro airports are now rankedroutinely in the top ten. This is atestimony to the rapid strides thatthis key area of transportation hastaken in the last few years.

We have set the ball in motionfor the development of the Indianaviation sector and soon we will beranked third or fourth in the world.We are also committed to makeaviation safer and cleaner and areliable transportation mode for thepeople of India.

Your first thoughts on your newportfolio: Heavy Industries andPublic Enterprise?I wonder whether PSUs shouldcontinue with businesses, rangingfrom salt to scooters. Within theMinistry of Heavy Industry,somebody (public sector unit) ismaking tea, somebody is makingsalt and somebody scooters. Shouldwe continue with this business orwe should go for paradigm shift?Also, there are loss-makingcompanies that have closed down.

There is an absolute case for suchcompanies (closed ones) to beprivatised.Within a span of sixmonths to one year, we have tocome out with new guidelines (onall these issues).

On industry and bureaucracyA number of PSUs need to berestructured and very successfulcompanies like BHEL (BharatHeavy Electronic Ltd) need tobecome real global players whileexisting players need new teeth.They need a policy frameworkwithout being shackled withlengthy restrictions. Multipleagencies for heavy industries inIndia has to be reduced.

On personnelThe most qualified and best peopledo not want to join the publicsector and therefore they should beattracted by offering incentivescomparable to the private sector.


CCOONNTTRROOLLLLIINNGG TTRRAAFFFFIICC::Officers managing traffic of flights atAir Traffic Control room.

TTEERRMMIINNAALL 33:: File picture of the state-of-the-art integrated terminal at Indira GandhiInternational Airport symbolises India’s aviation future.


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You said that there are threegeneral principles that anyinstitute of higher educationneeds to embrace: providingeducational access to those whodesire and need it; affordabilityby reducing financial barriers;and, building quality andaccountability. Do you think thatit’s happening?Change cannot happen overnight.It’s a huge task ahead and what isof utmost importance is the need toput systems in place. In the last

sixty years, there is no system inplace. For example, if we pass theAccreditation Authority Bill, everyinstitution will have to beaccredited for quality. Once thatprocess is in place, institutions,which are not quality-conscious,will automatically become quality-conscious because they won’t beaccredited. That’s why there islegislations with the StandingCommittee, which need to bepassed as quickly as possible. Oncethat is done, we have a framework

“We have a framework withinwhich quality can be addressed”UNION HUMAN RESOURCEDEVELOPMENT MINISTER KAPILSIBAL BELIEVES STRONGLY THATATTAINING AND MAINTAININGQUALITY IN THE EDUCATIONSECTOR IS NOT A ONE-TIMETASK, BUT RATHER AN ONGOINGPROCESS. HIS MINISTRY, HETOLD QUALITY INDIA, IS ALL SETTO BRING ABOUT A SEA CHANGEIN ALL FACETS OF EDUCATION —ELEMENTARY, SECONDARY ORHIGHER EDUCATION — AND ISMOVING AHEAD FAST.

Pho

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within which quality can beaddressed. Without thatframework, quality will not beaddressed. In a way, there is a longhaul for things to materialise.

The enrollment is 15 per cent atthe higher educational level. Don’tyou think this is very low?True. It is very low. My dream isthat by 2020, our Gross EnrollmentRatio must move to 30 per cent,though it is a very tall order. But ifpursuant to the Right to EducationAct and if we are able to retainchildren in schools right up toClass XII, then there is scope toautomatically achieve GrossEnrollment Ratio of 30 per cent. Sothe foundation has been laid bypassing the Right to Education Act.So it is all about implementing itproperly and ensure that childrengo to school regularly and thatthere are no dropouts between themiddle school and the secondary school.

In India, we exist in a federalpolity wherein the Centre cannotinterfere with the state affairs. Sohow do you think you are going totranscend that barrier? Since the time I have taken over asthe Education Minister, I have beenmeeting the State EducationMinisters regularly, they will tellyou, never in the history of Indiahas the Central Minster met theState Education Ministers so often.I can honestly tell you, no StateEducation Minister, no matterwhich political party runs the state,has ever said that will notcooperate with me. It’s an amazingsupport system that I havemanaged to develop, just byreaching out to them and sayingthis is a national endeavour; it’s anational commitment. It is aboutyour children and our children andtherefore we cannot destroy thefuture of our children by bringingpolitics into education.

What are your plans for thecurriculum?First of all, I never wanted to havea common interest. What I wanted

was a core curriculum, which hasbeen agreed to both on science andcommerce. And I am thinking of acommon examination based on thecore curriculum, which means eachState Board can be separate. Butthey will teach the core curriculumon the basis of which you can haveone test for children. So we arethinking in terms of doing that by2013-2014.

What about the textbooks?When you say core curriculum, thetextbooks must match thecurriculum. That leeway is given tothe state governments. We are notinterfering in those processes at all.So, to respect the federal structure,bring quality into the federalstructure and persuade the stategovernments to actually movetowards quality through a commoncore curriculum.

While it seems easy to push yourprogressive agenda with schools,there seems to be problems withthe higher education, for instance,the universities seem to be veryreluctant to accept the semestersystem.No, take Delhi for example. Wegot a New Vice Chancellor andeverything is okay in Delhi. Whathas happened is in the olduniversities where the ExecutiveCouncils and the AcademicCouncils, especially ExecutiveCouncils are entrenched withcertain diehards who will not

GGLLOOBBAALL FFOOOOTTPPRRIINNTT:: Union Minister of HumanResource Development and Communications andInformation Technology, Kapil Sibal at the launch ofthe international curriculum of Central Board ofSecondary Education (CBSE), in UAE.


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allow the system to change. It isvery difficult because under thesetup that we have, we can’tinterfere in the universityprocesses. We can’t appointpeople on the Executive Council.

So how do you think change willtake place?That change will come throughpressure from the studentcommunity because when they seeother universities through thesemester system moving forward,the pressure from within willintensify and they will come upwith the stand ‘you change yoursystem, otherwise we’ll go to someother university’. It’s a slow process.It’s going to take its own time. Butfor new universities, it is now partof the statute. All central universitiesmust have a semester system. Sothere is no option for them. Andsemester system means mobility.Mobility means greater flexibility tothe student community, greaterchoice, and so that’s what thestudent community wants.

Politicians control a lot ofacademic institutes in our country.Many of them may not like theradical changes that you arebringing in this system. How doyou cope with that?There is no question of coping. Thefact is that we have to bring-yousee we have to give thatopportunity to our children.Whoever controls these institutions,

must believe that these institutionsare only a vehicle for empoweringour country’s children andtherefore they must come on board.And in any case now theselegislations are in place passed byCabinet and the Group ofMinisters, well we are going tohave them. And once they arepassed, people will have to comeon board.

The government teachers are paidmore than the public schoolteachers. But still the standardsare abysmal.Yes, so that way we need to gothrough a whole new trainingprocess. So our Teacher’s TrainingProgram must be strengthened. Weare trying to spend much moremoney on it. We are also trying tobring the private sector to supportus on that. So let’s see how itmoves but I think that’s the biggestchallenge we have.

How is skill development going tohelp in this? Well you know, for skilleddevelopment, for example, there isa Skill Development Mission,which is now hosted in the FinanceMinistry—they are going to help uson some of this and of course wewant to take our Teacher’s TrainingProgram forward. So we areexpecting some money from theFinance Ministry, let’s see how itworks out.

Don’t you think that the frequenttransfers of teachers wouldhamper the teaching system?Now at least in the CBSE systemand the Kendriya Vidyalayasystem, we have a policy in ourtransfers. See, this again is notunder my control. Like the salaryof teachers too, I can’t do anythingabout it. Transfers and recruitmentare also not under my control.

How can this change happen?That systemic change will onlycome about through pressures fromcivil society and from parents.After all, there is a pressure withinthe state also. If you really look atwhat’s been happening, in the last

SSTTRRAATTEEGGIICC MMOOVVEE:: Union Minister for HumanResource Development and Communications andInformation Technology, Kapil Sibal inaugurating theinformation kiosk on 'Right to Education'. At extremeright is Minister of State for Human ResourceDevelopment, D. Purandeswari.


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Kapil Sibal My biggest

agenda now is NationalVocational QualificationFramework because about150 million students willhave to be given access tovocational training andI’m going to startall that from class9,10,11 &12

six months, you’ll find that stateslike Bihar are moving forward.States like Punjab are movingforward also. Why? Because thereis pressure from within. After all,children, when they grow up, needjobs and if the state is not able togive jobs, what are they going todo? So the pressure is on thepolitical establishment and thatpressure is going to work. We needan environment through which thatpressure can bring quality into thesystem but that pressure is going to come.

There is enormous difference instandards amongst schools andinstitutions across the country.What steps have been taken torectify this?There again, core curriculum is theanswer. State Boards must embracethat core curriculum and throughthe meeting we have anunanimous agreement on that. Sothat’s the only way to moveforward. Now under the Right toEducation Act, the core curriculumand the academic authority isgoing to be under the Right toEducation Act, along with theNCERT. They are the academicauthority. So therefore thosestandards will also be set.

Over a period of time, there seemsto have been some sort of politicshappening in terms of books.What is your agenda on this?We are trying to persuadeeverybody to use the NCERTbooks. Because there are statevariations, diversity, the states areactually using those books, butadding onto them. And I thinksome states have done a good job.But I think that the kind of quality,children deserve is really not beinggiven. Some way but I think thatwe will change. We are alsodiscussing those issues with states.

With the Class X boardexaminations being exempted, doyou think that the people haveaccepted it?Now people have accepted it—people across the country. I mean Iknow when I walk anywhere in

this country who are the peoplewho greet me with a big smile—both the children and the parents.Thank God for it!

As far as education goes, what isyour agenda for 2011?Vocational—that’s my biggestagenda now. National VocationalQualification Framework becauseabout 150 million students willhave to be given access tovocational training and I’m goingto start all that from class 9,10,11&12. And I’m building a whole newnational framework for them andby making a tie-up with AITIs atthe higher level and through theAICTE with the universities cangives enormous flexibility tostudents in the long run. Sochildren must be prepared forskills. So those who don’t want todo a Doctorate or want to go touniversity should be able to get ajob. And if the Prime Minster talksabout $1 trillion in infrastructure,imagine the amount of jobs thatwill be created. We need all kindsof technically skilled personnel. SoI’m having separate meetings withdifferent industries like theautomobile industry, the telecomsector, the construction industry,etc so that they make a syllabiwhich can be incorporated into ourschool syllabus.

How are you going to do this?I intend to prepare a frameworkfirst. Unless you have a standardyou can’t move forward.

Who is going to set the standard?We are doing everything withinthe system. We are preparing itby consulting everybody includingthe states. I’ve called two meetingsalready. That standard will beapplied to every institution andschool. If you want to give creditfor vocational institutes, say 50hours of this particular thing of aparticular discipline and then it’soutcome-based system. Then youget a certificate for that. You get acredit for that. So the employerknows that this is what you have done.



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According to your opinion, whatis the basis of good healthcaresystem in India?The healthcare system in Indiashould be able to provide to thepeople universal access to qualityhealthcare especially by thevulnerable groups like women,children, elderly, socially andeconomically disadvantaged andprotection against financialhardships while accessinghealthcare. There should also beinvolvement and ownership of thecommunities in provision ofhealthcare through participation inall aspects of public health speciallypreventive and promotive.

Public expenditure on health inIndia is still abysmally low ascompared to other countries?Don’t you think that it’s high timethat India should increasefinancial support to the healthsector?We are trying to increase the outlayin the health sector. The Centralgovernment expenditure for healthsector has gone up from `2300crore in 01-02 to nearly `23,000crore now, a tenfold increase. Weshall strive to achieve a publichealth expenditure equivalent to 2-3 per cent of the GDP.

The rural poor in India are stillbeing deprived of qualityhealthcare. What are the stepsbeing taken to improve the accessof quality healthcare especiallywith regard to rural poor?Though health is a State Subject,the government of India launchedthe National Rural Health Missionto support the state governments tostrengthen the public health systemin order to provide qualityhealthcare to the people in ruralareas especially in the remote andinaccessible region. In order toimprove access to health services,several initiatives have beenundertaken. They includeimprovement of healthinfrastructure, augmentation ofhuman resources, ensuring regularsupply of drugs and equipments,maintenance of buildings andequipments, facility-basedmonitoring, involvement ofcommunity, free referral transport,mobile medicare units and so on.The primary healthcare facilities

MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE, GHULAM NABI AZAD, IS CLEAR ABOUT HIS PRIORITIES TOENHANCE THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR IN THE COUNTRY. INITIATING MOVES TO EXPAND THE NATIONALRURAL HEALTH MISSION, THAT HAS MOBILISED HALF A MILLION HEALTH WORKERS ALL ACROSS INDIA,THE MINISTER WANTS TO LAUNCH A SIMILAR NATIONAL URBAN HEALTH MISSION. HIS MISSION: TOBRING ABOUT TOTAL QUALITY HEALTHCARE FOR EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY. IN THIS INTERVIEW WITHQUALITY INDIA, HE OUTLINES HIS PRIORITIES. EXCERPTS:

“There should be involvementof communities in healthcare”

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are available in rural areas to servethe vulnerable section of thesociety, through a network ofnearly 1.46 lakh sub-centres [SCs],23500 Primary Health Centres[PHCs] and 4500 CommunityHealth Centres [CHCs]. In order tofacilitate access to health facilitiesfor institutional deliveries, cashincentives schemes like JananiSuraksha Yojana (JSY) is availablefor the under privileged sections ofthe community. The ministry hasreasserted its commitment toensure free delivery services topregnant women in public healthfacilities so as to curtail any out-of-pocket expense, availability ofreferral transport, goodinfrastructure and consumables aswell as services for new-born careand advised states to ensure this.

In comparison to internationalstandards, India fares very poorlywhen it comes to non-availabilityof skilled and trained humanresources pertaining to healthcare.In your opinion, what stepsshould be taken to improve theskills and training of people?No doubt, the availability of skilledand trained human resources is notto the desired level. We haveinitiated several measures toimprove the position. We haveintroduced several reforms inmedical education to increase theavailability of doctors andspecialists. They includerationalisation of norms for setting-up of new medical colleges andincrease capacities in existingmedical colleges. We have alsoincreased the post-graduate seatsby rationalisation of the teacher-student ratio to ensure availabilityof larger number of specialists. Weare also supporting the statesovernments to improveinfrastructure in the medicalcolleges and increase the admissioncapacity, besides opening newdisciplines. We have also started anew programme to set up 239GNM (General Nursing andMidwifery)/ANM (AuxiliaryNursing and Midwifery) schoolsespecially in backward districtswhere no training schools exist at

present. Multi-skilling of thedoctors by training them in basicemergency obstetric care,comprehensive emergency andobstetric care and life-savinganesthesia skills has also been takenup to overcome the shortage ofspecialists at the sub-district levels.

The Planning Commissionrecently constituted a high-levelexpert group to develop aframework to provide universalhealth coverage to the people inthe 12th Five year Plan. When willit come into effect and whatbenefits will it entail for the poor?I am informed that the High LevelExpert Group set up by PlanningCommission is expected to give itsreport by June 2011. itsrecommendations would definitelybe useful in refining the strategy forhealth sector during the 12th FiveYear Plan. It will also help fine-tunethe current implementation processand improve the healthcaredelivery system so as to benefit thepeople in general and the poor inparticular.

Accreditation programmes forhealthcare organisations in Indianeed a push to improve quality ofhealthcare. Is the Health Ministrytaking any initiative in thisregard?Under the Clinical EstablishmentsAct, there is a provision to registerall private healthcare facilities.Later, this would be extended toprovide for voluntary quality

BBAASSTTIIOONN OOFF HHEEAALLTTHHCCAARREE:: AIIMS attractspatients from every nook and corner of the country.Butshould the institute be dealing with coughs and coldsor be an oasis of specialised treatment?


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accreditation of all healthcareorganisations. In order to ensureuniversal accreditation, states haveto legislate the ClinicalEstablishments Act in their statesbecause such accreditation is underthe purview of the states. Making aminimum level of qualitymandatory for a healthcare facilityis an option for states to considerwhile framing their rules.

The Ministry has issued variousguidelines and standards to meetthe challenges of standardisation ofservice delivery across States/UTs.The States/UTs are encouraged toplan and upgrade health facilitiesto conform to Indian Public HealthStandards. Operational Guidelineson Maternal and Newborn Health,Standard Treatment Protocol are inplace to ensure uniformity in casemanagement and standard servicesacross health facilities. Healthinstitutions are now going foraccreditation by ISO and NABH as well.

Government hospitals are stilllagging behind when it comes toinfrastructure — better equipmentand trained personnel. Are thereany plans to improve thesituation?Yes, under the National RuralHealth Mission (NRHM) we havemade it one of the importantpriorities. States are allowed tospend under NRHM up to 33 percent (in high focus states) and 25per cent (in non-high focus states)of the available resources on health

infrastructure. Most states havecarried out facility surveys, whichidentify gaps in infrastructure,equipment and trained personnel,and initiated measures to closethese gaps under NRHM.Substantial progress has been madeto close such gaps over the last fiveyears. The infrastructure hasimproved, nearly, 100,000contractual healthcare providers,which include doctors, nurses,ANMs and paramedics have beenadded to the system andequipment has been procured forall prioritised facilities.

According to the World HealthOrganisation, more than 1.4 mnIndian babies die annually beforethey complete the first year of lifedue to malnutrition. What are thesteps being taken to fightmalnutrition by the HealthMinistry in India?Malnutrition is not a major cause ofinfant deaths in India. The maincauses of infant deaths areasphyxia, hypothermia, sepsis,congenital anomalies, pre-maturity,diarrhoeal diseases and acuterespiratory infections. The majorgovernment programme to combatmalnutrition is the ICDSprogramme, administered by theMinistry of Women and ChildDevelopment. It providessupplementary nutrition tochildren below five years. It alsoincludes supplementary nutritionto pregnant and lactating mothersuntil the baby is six months and“take home rations” for childrenbetween six months and threeyears. The MoHFW (Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare)ensures the following:

Good antenatal care andcounselling for improvednutrition during pregnancy toreduce the chances of low-birthweight babies. Promotion of early initiation ofbreastfeeding and exclusivebreastfeeding till six monthsthrough the Accredited SocialHealth Activists (ASHAs),Anganwadi Workers andANMs. Prevention of common illness

TTHHEE NNEEXXTT BBIIGG SSTTOOPP:: India has emerged as theMedical tourism hub over the years. It is big business,but requires top quality delivery of medicare.


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Ghulam NabiAzad

Providing financialprotection for illnessshall have to be throughan efficient publichealth system. Insuranceschemes can supplementfor certain types of careand for specificcategories ofpeople.

and prompt care for the sickchildren which is a major causeof malnutrition. This is done atthe community level throughhealth education and home-based newborn care throughthe ASHA, and ensuring fullimmunisation of children. Use of Village Health andNutrition Days under NationalRural Health Mission everymonth to provide nutritionalcounselling and preventativehealth services at theAnganwadi Centres. Setting up NutritionRehabilitation Centres for sickand severely malnourishedbabies.

What are the steps being taken toimprove overall quality ofhealthcare systems in India?The Ministry has notified the IndianPublic Health Standards (IPHS),which define quality of care for alllevels of public health facilities.Under NRHM, funds are providedto the states to upgrade the facilitiesto meet the IPHS standards. UntiedFunds, Annual Maintenance Grantsand Rogi Kalyan Samiti Grants areprovided to the health facilities toimprove quality of services.

We are also encouraging statesto establish Quality AssuranceCommittees at the district levels foroversight and guidance to qualityimprovement in health facilities.

India’s healthcare challenges areexacerbated by lack of overallcoverage of health insuranceservices. What are your views?Providing financial protection forillness shall have to be through anefficient public health system.Insurance schemes can supplementfor certain types of care and forspecific categories of people.Several health insurance schemeshave been launched in the recentpast. Rashtriya Swasthya BimaYojana (RSBY) launched byGovernment of India to providecoverage to workers in the BPLcategory and in the unorganisedsector is the important one. TillDecember 2009, 22 states andUnion Territories have introduced

the scheme across 172 districtscovering 2.98 crore households.

Many state governments havealso initiated health insuranceschemes for the BPL populationlike the Rajiv Arogyasri HealthInsurance Scheme (AndhraPradesh), Kalaignar InsuranceScheme for Life-Saving treatments(Tamil Nadu), Suvarna ArogyaSuraksha Scheme (Karnataka), andMukhya Mantri BPL Jeevan RakshaKosh (Rajasthan). The focus ofthese schemes is to cover diseasesrequiring tertiary care whichinvolves lot of expenses.

The paucity of doctors in ruralareas has long been an area ofconcern. Are there any specialmeasures being taken by theMinistry in this regard?Ministry is addressing this problemthrough following measures:

Augmentation of humanresource is a major thrust areaunder NRHM. States areallowed to engage doctors andspecialists at the Primary HealthCentres and the CommunityHealth Centres on contractualbasis. Nearly 10000 doctors andspecialists have been engaged atPHCs and CHCs on contract bystates under NRHM to fill incritical gaps. We are alsopermitting financial incentivesto encourage doctors to work inrural and difficult areas. Wehave also allowed additionalmarks in post-graduate entranceexaminations for renderingservices in rural areas. Mandatory rural posting offresh MBBS graduates,preference for post-graduatecourse for service in rural areasand other HR incentives arealso introduced by states toimprove availability of doctorsin rural areas.We plan to introduce a Bachelorof Rural Health Care Course tocreate a new cadre of mid-levelservice providers, who wouldbe recruited from rural areasand trained to provide apackage of services that isrequired at sub-center level.

Interviewed by Renu Mittal


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How do we improve the qualityof our health services?I personally feel that we need bigticket reforms in health. Unlessand until there is a huge, reformin health, we would be just fillingup small potholes here and there.We need to redo the entirecarpeting of the roads and thehighways. And to do that youneed huge ideas and I have nohesitation in saying, with thepresent set of system, which weare following, I am afraid, we willnot go anywhere close to any kindof reform in health. This hasnothing to do with people orgovernment, it’s an attitude

Can you elaborate?You see the present system is toofaulty. First of all we’ll have toredefine what health is. We arenot a health ministry — we areinto sickness ministry. Health is atotal package. Health means thatyou ensure people don’t go to thehospital. It is holistic. At themoment what we are addressingis what happens after people getdiarrhea. We are not doinganything to ensure that peopledon’t get diarrhea. There’s a hugedifference between the two. Therewill be drop of 50 per cent of both

“We can show theworld what health is allabout”

MINISTER OF STATE FOR HEALTHDINESH TRIVEDI IS ELOQUENTAND STRAIGHTFORWARD, AS HEOFFERS HIS NARRATIVE ON THEINDIAN HEALTH ENVIRONMENT.IT’S A CONVERSATION THATDOESN’T FOCUS ON THE HEALTHMINISTRY, BUT WHAT HEBELIEVES IN: THE NEED TO LIFTTHE MEDICARE SYSTEM IN INDIAAND TAKE IT TO THE PEOPLEACROSS THE BOARD AND ALLOVER THE COUNTRY. EXCERPTS:

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patients and the need of doctorsor nurses will go down if you talkabout basic. And what is basic?Anything that is life-sustaininglike water, food, environment, etc.If we just address, let’s say onlywater, I can guarantee you thatyou will have surplus capacity ofdoctors. So today what ishappening is (that) a doctor isbusy taking temperature, he ismeasuring your pulse and bloodpressure. That is not the job of adoctor. This is the job of anytechnician with four months andhe’ll do the same thing. So we are,I think, mixed up as to what adoctor is supposed to do andwhat a medical technician issupposed to do. So health in Indiais sickness care and we arecatering to only 20 per cent of therich people in the city. And I haveno hesitation again in sayingalthough health is a state subject— we are just neglecting 70 percent of the population — and ifwe do not have health, then we donot give basic dignity to humanbeings.

How do we change it?We may go to Qutab Minar andsay that our flagship (agenda) ishealth and education. But by(mere) saying, people don’t havegood health. If you want tosustain and I’m going intoeconomics now— a growth rate ofnine per cent — it cannot happenwithout health and education. So,health of the country for economy,you ensure that you have a labourwhich is healthy. If you havemany man hours lost becausepeople are not healthy, if you haveproductivity going down becausepeople are not healthy, you haveschools which are not run becausethe teachers are sick, if you haveschools where students don’tcome because they have diarrhea,what is the future of the country?If I have my say, I’ll spend 30 percent of the budget on water aloneand when I say, water, it is watermanagement. You have drought,you have flood, you have vector-borne (diseases), you have water-

borne (diseases). All requirenothing but water massmanagement. And you needmoney, let’s face it. Less than oneper cent of the budget, of the GDPyou are spending on health — weneed a holistic approach.

It’s a paradox, we are one of thelargest manufacturers ofpharmaceuticals, we havemedical tourism and here we arecrying out for good health?Because we do not have a holisticapproach. In fact, we don’t needbranded medicines. We needgeneric medicine and if you seethe price difference betweengeneric and branded, there is a lotof difference. And if you have aturnover, the advantage of large-scale, the prices of drugs,medicines will still go down. Butpreventive care is just not therewhen we are the best country forthat — you have yoga, meditation,Unani, Ayurveda, everything. Andour system is best suited fortraditional medicine. So let’s havea combination of both.

But it’s for the ministry toaddress it…I think health should be somewhatlike the railways. Why do I saylike railways, because you cannothave a bureaucrat — althoughbureaucrats have good trainingand I am not against them—coming from Sports Ministry toHealth, again going to Commerce

RRAAIISSIINNGG HHEEAALLTTHHCCAARREE SSTTAANNDDAARRDDSS IINNGGOOVVEERRNNMMEENNTT HHOOSSPPIITTAALLSS:: Routine nursing round in the ward at the goverment hospital in Rajpipala in Gujarat.


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then going to Finance. Health isnot just a stop-gap arrangement,health is commitment. Health is24X7, like railways. So anyofficer, right from the beginningof his career, if he likes health, he’sdedicated to health, because thisrequires devotion (and) to the lastday till his retirement, he stays inhealth. So we are talking about adifferent cadre altogether. Likewe have the railway cadre youhave a health cadre.

Are you thinking along thoselines?I am thinking, I have thought of alot of things. I wanted a nationalhealth portal. Nothing ishappening because here peoplewill tell you why it can’t happen.Nobody comes and tells how itcan happen. So that is why youneed committed officers. Why isthere disappointment? BecauseIndia can do it. We have the bestof doctors, best of medical staff,best of pharmaceutical companies,best of research. This is a countrywhich can show the world whathealth is all about, how health canbe taken care of.

We are not doing it?The tragedy is we are notthinking. The doing comes afteryou think. I don’t think we arethinking and I have no hesitationin saying it.

Are you happy with the state ofour hospitals?

Our government hospitals by andlarge have problems and theproblem is demand and supply. Ekanaar, sau bimaar. And to addressthat I think we have to start into aPPP mode and there has to be across subsidy. You cannot have AllIndia Institute of MedicalSciences-like (AIIMS) institution— which is supposed to be areferral — have people withcough and cold going there whichis what is happening. No patientcan be turned out which is theright thing to do but why shouldthe guy living in a remote district,come to the city? You shouldhave the facility there. Everydistrict must have at least threehospitals. Every municipalitymust have about a 70-100-bedded.It need not be five-star, it need notbe air-conditioned, it should befunctional where small surgerycan be done, deliveries can bedone, emergencies taken care of. Ithink we can do it. You look attechnology and this is where Ihave been talking about usingelectronic medical health records.Every child when he’s born shouldbe given an e-health card and thate-health card will have entirehistory and whenever the childgoes to a doctor or gets amedicine, it should beincorporated. So wherever he goeshe doesn’t have to repeat hishistory. You punch a button andthe doctor knows everything andthat could even act as your birthcertificate. And from that you canhave your passport.

Are you happy with privatehospitals?Private hospitals are state-of-theart, many of them. But theproblem with the private hospitalis that they are too commercial. Iam telling you, I am very proud ofAIIMS. Most of my friends, whocan afford any hospital in theworld, come to me and say thatthey want to go to AIIMS. So, ifAIIMS would not have been there,none of these private hospitalswould have been there becauseAIIMS is still the mother of all thehospitals. It’s like if Air India

Dinesh Trivedi Health is not

just a stop-gaparrangement, health iscommitment. Health is24X7, like railways. Soany officer, right fromthe beginning of hiscareer, if he likes health,he’s dedicated tohealth

CCRREEAATTIINNGG AAWWAARREENNEESSSS:: Community health programmes are quite popular and help bring in betterhealthcare standards


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would not have been there, noprivate airline would have come.So, AIIMS is the jewel in thecrown. That is what India is allabout and if you giveencouragement—AIIMS-typeinstitutions are very few in theworld—we can do it.

Any silver lining?I think in the south, whether it isTamil Nadu or Kerala, they aredoing very good work. They arealso integrating Ayurveda and alot of medical tourism is takingplace on Ayurveda itself. So Ithink south is doing very goodwork and their parameters arerelatively better. Kerala is doinggood. But we have to have thisacross the board.

The South and the West havesuch fine medical infrastructurebecause of medical colleges, whynot elsewhere?Now, obviously medical collegesand hospitals go hand in hand.But the fact is why should youwait now? Let’s do it and if I wereto do hospitals, AIIMS-likeinstitution, I would tell the PrimeMinister, let’s not go through thisprocedure of L1 and all thosethings, let’s get the best in theworld, who have got thereputation. have totaltransparency on each and everypenny spent and tell them thisneeds to be done in eighteenmonths. And that’s it. Otherwisewhat will happen is, it will taketen years. . It doesn’t work inhealth. Health has to be priority.We can’t wait. There cannot beright to life without right tohealth. The shame is todaybottled water has standards butordinary tap water has nostandard.

The Quality Council of India hasa standard for hospitals. Yourview on enhancing hospitalquality through standards likethe QCI has done?You know there has to bedefinitely standardization. Therehas to be uniformity, there has tobe protocol. But all these things

have to be very transparent; Itshould be more objective thansubjective. So even givingcertification to medical colleges andhospitals, I think this has to bedone using technology. And that iswhere if you had national healthportal, then sitting at home youwould know, okay, this hospital iscoming up for recognition, theseare the staff, this is the patient-doctor ratio, this is the campus—everything is online. So you cantake a virtual tour of the hospital.You can Google the thing. Unlessand until you have technology, wecannot get into—leave aside secondgeneration reform—not even thefirst generation of reforms.

Is health being a state subject, anissue in providing delivery ofservices?State subject… I tell you, you canget the state around. If the state isnot doing, then you have a PPPmode. My constituency inBarrackpore, although we are notin power in Bengal, but I’m goingto have seven hospitals. I’mgoing to private sectors. Yes,seven municipalities I have, I’llgive it to the private sector. Andwhat I have said is, if there arefifty beds, make it hundred beds.So (for) fifty beds you are goingto charge the same; for the rest ofthe fifty reasonable charge. Sothere is a cross-subsidy. But thequality of service should be thesame for all.


QQUUAALLIITTYY FFOORR NNAATTIIOONNAALL WWEELLLL BBEEIINNGG:: Providingquality healthcare to the people is another facet of governance.


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“I want to open the naadawalifile: let the public see it”

After helping integrate informationtechnology into India’s publichealth, work, justice and otherservices, what is your agenda tobring about quality changes?I agree that the first phase of thetelecom revolution in India isbeginning to end and the second phaseis about to begin. This really relates tohow we use telecom, IT, ITinfrastructure to really democratiseinformation. If you look at the historyof India public information is lockedup in the naadawali file that wasdesigned by the British for a different(purpose) of control and commandand information was power that notmany people wanted to share. Nowthat we have and brilliant connectivityand a million kilometres of opticalfibre in the country, how do we reallyopen that naadawali file and create amovement of that file so that it createsopenness, transparency andaccountability and really democratizesinformation? It’s a complex sort ofprocess

Today, you have the naadawali fileand you have the RTI. Fortunately, wehave RTI; it’s a big big step for India.Though it will take time, it will take abroad ten years to fine tune, it will

have lafda-jhagda — all that all willhappen. So you have RTI, butyou really don’t have theinformation infrastructure inplace to respond to RTI. So, thetask at hand is first reallyconnect

2,50,000 panchayats tooptical fibre, equip thepanchayats with moderninfrastructure and a couple ofyoung people. Train young,

bright, honest, educated andcapable people at every panchayat

and they will begin to change howinformation is used, shared and

distributed to really empower people.Simultaneously, also connect

through optical fibre to 2,500municipalities. Give them hardwareand software , though it will take

time to equip, will take time to trainand assess them—it is all part of theprocess… this is not going to happenovernight, go back and see what wedid in telecom, it took 30 years. Thiswill also take time, but we have to startthe process now.

So, the one piece (of the jigsaw) isto connect to all local governments.

What next?Then get our seven platforms that wereally need to set up - and this is thebroad vision that I have-which is verydifferent from the vision that othercountries have had. With broadbandconnectivity all this 3G, 4G, and all thisis going to be easier with the severalmillion kilometres of fibers, all thegains we have — telecom, software,young talent, economic liberalisation,all of that makes easier to haveefficient systems. So, create abroadband platform, create a UIDplatform, so every citizen has somekind of an ID, electronic ID, but it alsodepends on how we use it. We have tobe conscious of citizen’s rights, privacy,all of that.

Then we have to create GIS(Geographic Information System)platform where we tag the physicalaspects of hospitals, schools, then wecreate a platform for data, there is a lotof government data which is not openon infant mortality, rate of literacy,government spending, governmentprogrammes all of that data should beavailable to public so that they canbegin to understand what it means tobe in a democracy.

Then another platform for paymentand procurement… all procurementshould be on electronic media — so weknow what people want, at what pricethey want, it’s public money. Anotherarea where want to create anotherplatform which is for applications,NREGA, distribution, pensionprogramme, etc. These platforms andthe corresponding portals is part of thevision of the public informationinfrastructure going forward.

SATYANARAYAN GANGARAM(SAM) PITRODA, TELECOM GURUAND ADVISER TO PRIMEMINISTER MANMOHAN SINGH,BELIEVES THAT TRANSPARENCYWILL BE THE KEY INTRANSFORMING GOVERNMENTAND GOVERNANCE. IN THISINTERVIEW WITH QUALITYINDIA, HE ALSO SPEAKS ABOUTHIS VIEWS ON WHAT CHANGESHE WOULD LIKE TO BE BROUGHTIN TO ENSURE BETTER LIVESFOR THE PEOPLE OF THECOUNTRY.

QCI interview (Sam).qxd 2/21/2011 10:54 AM Page 2

What you say is an enormous visionand it will surely take some time toput in place. What I would like toknow from you is that in the shortterm and medium term, whileputting all this in place, how are wegoing to improve delivery ofservices to the people of thiscountry?First of all, you can’t improvedelivery of services without goodinformation infrastructure, which isopen and transparent .You cannotchange the character of the peopleovernight which is what we havegiven (them) — a system wherepeople want to extract from the poorand not add value to the poor.

So from what you say, it is veryclear and apparent that unless wequickly move forward and have anational grid or a national networkof information structure in place,we really will not been able tomake much progress?I wear a set of glasses which onlylook through information andcommunication technology. I look atthis world through my set of glasses.I believe it is very important todemocratise a nation, empowerpeople and open up the system. Iknow how to do that. We arefortunate that the Prime Ministerand the UPA government has put inthe right kind of funding to makethis happen.

First of all we are not going tosolve all problems. If you haveinformation about health at that level— how many TB cases, infantmortality, female literacy,immunisation, etc. — which will beopen, which will be transparent, sowhat we will get is good informationabout public health that we do nothave today. We know how manydoctors are there in the lab, howmany compounders, what kind ofmedication we need, we create somekind of health information gridwhich will allow good people to getgood information to do good forpublic. Today, even if you have goodpeople, you don’t know what to doand where to do becauseinformation is not reliable.

As a Chairman of the Knowledge

Commission, you said that there isa lot that is wrong with highereducation. What do you think is tobe done to improve the quality ofhigher education? Some of therecommendations have beenimplemented.We have already recommended, it’sall documented on the website. Thequestion is: how do we implementit? Who is going to implement it andwhen? We have financial resourcesbut I think we lack men and womenwith courage to implement thesekind of bold initiatives. Everybodywants to fight you, water it down, becareful about this and about that andin the process you loose the realchange that we need to make.

But if we don’t have enough menand women, how are we going toachieve what we want to achieve?That has been the problem. How toachieve what we wanted to achievein atomic energy? Because ofBhabha. In space, because of VikramSarabhai, milk because of VargheseKurien, M S Swaminathan andothers in agriculture, Pitrodas of theworld in telecom, Nandan(Nilekani), N R Narayana Murthy, SRamadorai and others in IT. Youneed thousands and thousands ofpeople like that in water, sanitationin power, roads if you need things toget done.

One of the recommendations hasbeen the setting up of high speeddata communication network toconnect 1500 universities andresearch institutions, which will becompleted by December 2011. Doyou think this is a first step movingtowards a world-class highereducation system in India?That is one piece of the puzzle, notthe only one. By connecting ourinstitutions with broadbanddatabase facility will allow us to usetechnology in a different way. Byconnecting our R&D institutions toour educational institutions willallow us to do distance learningeffectively, video programmingdifferent. That programme is alreadyon, Dr P Chidambaram is headingthe project… he has done a great joband 200 nodes have already been

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Sam PitrodaThe task at

hand is first really connect2,50,000 panchayats tooptical fibre, equip thepanchayats with moderninfrastructure and a coupleof young people. Trainyoung, bright, honest,educated andcapable people atevery panchayat.


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connected. It’s on track. The fact thatthe Government of India and theManmohan Singh cabinet approved$1.5 billion to do this is a greatachievement. They deserve the creditthat they had the vision and they arebacking up this vision with thefunding required. There aren’t manycountries in the world who wouldput that kind of money in IT andconnectivity. We have a great teamright now, little bit of capital in handand the determination to get it done.

One of the key drivers of the Indiangrowth stories has been innovationand entrepreneurship. However tocompete with the world we need topromote quality skills? How do youthink this can be achieved?These things are (part of) longprocesses. The country does notdepart innovating overnight, we haveset up this process now, the fact isthat the Prime Minister of Indiadecided to set up an office ofinnovation, give it a cabinet rank,

implies that there is a focus oninnovation. Now we can’t expect thePM to innovate on everything, wehave to now mobilise humanresource from universities, fromindustries, young talent in our R&Dlabs to solve India’s problem usingthe Indian model and that’s what weare trying to do right now. We wantto mobilise it in innovation —sectoral innovation, venture funds forinnovation, but we want to focus onthe Indian model of innovation — thebottom of the pyramid — affordablesolutions, sustainable solutions, Ithink the process is on but again

don’t expect results in 12 months.

I remember I was talking to theformer Vice Chancellor of the UPTechnical University and he wastelling me that 80 per cent of hisgraduates are unemployable for tworeasons: the teachers are bad, thecurriculum is bad and we are justproducing numbers…

I agree with him. I think there issome truth in it. We have to changeour education system, we have torespond to the new realities of the21st century.

Do you think at any point in timewe will be able to have a very fineand skilled set up of manpowerwhich will make Indian amanufacturing hub or globalmanufacturing powerhouse?India has to focus on manufacturing.A country of 1.2 billion people cannotjust rely on services. At the end of theday, manufacturing of goods createsjobs, whether you manufacture

furniture locally,whether youmanufactureelectronichardware locally,auto parts locally,we cannot relyon importssaying it ischeaper and islittle betterbecause if youlook at it withthose eyessomebody isalways makingsomething better

than we are. Does that mean weshould not do it? I think you have tocreate jobs. One of the problems wehave in US right now is that theyhave got rid of all of theirmanufacturing jobs.

You have been dealing with thebureaucracy in India for a quartercentury now. One of the hardstatements one consistently hearsthat there is no change of attitude,no change of mind. How is it thatthe steel frame of India hasn’tchanged its attitude and how are wegoing to improve this country?

The problem is there are things onwhich I have control and there are afew things on which I have nocontrol. Somebody asked me: what isyour answer to corruption? All I cantell you is that I am not corrupt. Ican’t worry about the bureaucracy tochange, I can do my bit, I can set anexample. I would say that I cannotmake any change on which I have nocontrol. For example, I cannot try tochange the world because I am notcapable. I can only assure that I domy job. I want to do it because itneeds to be done.

Some states in India are nowcreating acts to provide for deliveryof services, they are creating aCitizen’s Charter. Quality Council ofIndia is working on it. What is yourown take on this?Unless and until we look at the largepicture (little is going to change). E-governance is going on for years…ask every citizen what have they gotof e-governance and the answer is:not much. Because everybody isdoing their little thing: hardware,software. Unless and until you have alarger, very well thought-out planwith standards with commonalityfrom the pre-engineering (things willnot move). Lots of these things arereadily available, but how do youstart the conversation? We do reallyneed process re-engineering.Everything we do today is obsolete:how will you get admission inschool? How will you open anaccount in bank? How will we getour pension? Everything is obsolete.So, how do you improve publicservices? And I go back to thenaadawali file: it is a symbol of theIndian management system, Indianinformation system. It is locked up.Symbolically, I want to open that,moving at electronic speed, make itopen, transparent and let the publicsee it. Of course, there is someinformation which is confidential,national security all that weunderstand, but 90 per cent of itshould be available to public.

What is your philosophy of quality? Quality is a way of life. I am fanaticabout it.


BBRRIIDDGGIINNGG CCOOMMMMUUNNIICCAATTIIOONN GGAAPP:: Old rural woman talking on mobile.


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WITH INDIA’S GDP GROWINGSTEADILY, TECHNICAL ANDQUALITATIVE WORKFORCENEEDS TO BE KEPT ABREASTWITH THE CHANGINGTECHNOLOGIES TO BE ON THETOP. QCI WILL PLAY A MAJORROLE IN ENSURING THATACCREDITATION SYSTEM WORKIN A MANNER SO THAT INDIACAN HAVE WORKFORCE OFINTERNATIONAL STANDARD.

India’s GDP is steadilygrowing around nine percent and has becomecynosure of developedeconomies while many of

them have been looking for bail-out to sustain their governments.The assessments of the WorldBank and International MonetaryFund are in consonance with ourgrowth trajectory. Manymandarins in power arepredicting that growth rate mightgo up a tad higher in the coming years.

Broadly speaking, industrialservices and agriculture sectorshave to perform brilliantly,keeping in mind, the cyclical upsand downs in growth. And tosustain that growth, qualitative,skilled and technical workforce isneeded. At the moment, countryhas nearly 2,000 government-runtechnical institutes (ITI) andtechnical centres (ITC) and four-times that number is inprivate sector providingvocational training.

Are the students emerging outof the portals of these myriadinstitutes employed effectivelyand efficiently? The refrain fromindustry captains suggestsotherwise. “We have outdatedteaching techniques, outmodedtools and machinery and aboveall teaching staff who have not

kept abreast with changingtechnologies. So, where is thequality?” the principal of atechnical institute makes a candid remark.

Technical skills are thebackbone of any country’sprogress be it industrial, serviceor agriculture sectors. And thosetechnical skills have to bequalitatively good to sustain thegrowth in a meaningful way. “ThePrime Minister, Dr ManmohanSingh, has stated that by 2012, 15per cent of international technicalwork force should be from India.India is already dominating in ITand IT-enabled services andlikewise in other technical areastoo, India should dominate, is theview of the PM,” said M.Chandra Sekhar, Director,Achievement Lab’s ManagementSystems Institute (MSIN). “Thereis a misplaced notion thattechnical skill means workforceemployable in manufacturingindustry alone. There are severalareas, agriculture or sericulture orhandicrafts, where technical skillsare equally important,”

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Quality initiativetowards technology

QQUUAALLIITTAATTIIVVEE TTRRAAIINNIINNGG:: Technical workforce and qualitative skills are essential inthe industrial services and agricultural sectors.

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mentioned R.K. Chugh, Deputy Director General(training), Directorate General of Employment and Training (DGET).

“Each ITI has specific subjects(or trades) and curriculum tofollow. Since there are so manytrades under vocational trainingprogrammes a single institutecannot have all of them. As forthe training part of it we have notsuffered from either lack of fundsor competent teaching staff,”mentioned Shashi Vasudeva,PArincipal, ITI Arab ki Sarai,New Delhi.

Indu Goyal, Director, ICIIndustrial Training Centre inHabibpur, Greater Noida, said, “Iraised this institute without anyexternal funding. We also have tofollow all the norms underNational Council for VocationalTraining. That said, today aprivate institute, which followsNCVT in letter and spirit, cannotoptimally deliver the desiredskills simply because of funds crunch.”

There are several shades ofviews ranging from governmentfunded institutes to privately runinstitutes. As of date, there are8,486 vocational trainingproviders out of which 1,976 areunder the government. There isno gainsaying that privateinstitutions have come up, due tophilanthropy or altruism. “It is anopen secret that educationalinstitutions are commercialventures. The moot question iswhether these institutions areimparting necessary skills thatmeet international standards?”opined a senior officer in the Ministry.

Skill development is oneveryone’s lips today. The FinanceMinister in his budget speech lastfiscal year mentioned, “There is acompelling need to launch aworld class skill-development,programmed on Mission modethat will address the challenge ofimparting the skills required by agrowing economy. Both thestructure and the leadership ofthe Mission must be such that the

programme can be scaled upquickly to cover the wholecountry.”

The government’s ambitiousplan is to create a skilledworkforce of 500 million by year2022. This resulted in establishingNational Skill DevelopmentCorporation of India (NSDC) withan aim to promote skilldevelopment by catalysingcreation of large, quality, for-profit vocational institutions. Itprovides viability gap funding, tobuild scalable, for-profitvocational training initiatives. Itsmandate is also to enable supportsystems such as qualityassurance, information systemsand train the trainer academieseither directly or throughpartnerships.

Is it possible to achieve thistarget? “Yes, of course. India as afast growing economy should notdepend wholly on governmentfunding. The objective of NSDCto contribute significantly to theoverall target of skilling/up-skilling 500 million people byfostering private sector initiativesin skill development programmesand providing viability gapfunding,” mentioned DilipChenoy, CEO and MD of NSDC.

However noble the plan mightbe, scepticism pervades amongstprivate vocational trainingproviders. “The doubts are notabout intention butimplementation. I am, as well asmany of us, doing this fornational cause. Everyonedemands quality output, it is onlypossible when input too is ofquality,” opined Indu Goyal.

The “input” is euphemism forfee collection, or notorious as`capitation fee’, from students,since those affiliated to NCVThave to follow the norms. “Thereis a reason behind this. Thegovernment’s focus is onproviding skills tounderprivileged sections ofsociety and backward regions ofthe country who cannot afford topay enormous fees toinstitutions,” said Dilip Chenoy.

The government is equally

AustraliaThe Australian system allows transitions between the vocational and tertiaryeducation systems. Employers play a key rolein the management of the vocational system

The Japanese system may have the simplestdesign. Students on completing basic education enter general secondary educationand from there, they either enter firms thatprovide entry-level training or go on to tertiary education.

In French system, students enter vocational courses at the secondary level.Students in vocational courses are prepared for entry into the labour market and those in the humanities/science streams are prepared for higher education.

The German system is based on a long tradi-tion of apprenticeships. In a diminishing levelof secondary school students, instruction con-sists of school-based general instruction andfirm-based occupation-specific training (the"dual" system). The system, regulated byguilds, has a set of qualifications that providesbroad equivalency between graduates of theacademic and the dual subsystems.

The North American system has no "streaming" until after secondary education and it relies on post-secondary education to facilitate transition to work. Students completing sec-ondary education go to community collegesand polytechnic institutes, which provide voca-tional/technical instruction for short courses,and to universities, which provide both generaland professional training.

The Latin American training system is ahybrid of the French and German models. Forstudents completing basic education: (a) itrelies on autonomous vocational training institutes for those proceeding to the labourmarket, (b) on general humanistic/scientificeducation at secondary level for those proceeding to tertiary education, and (c) onschool-based vocational education for others.

(Source: DeFerranti)

Training SystemAround the World

Japan

France

Germany

North America

Latin America


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ShashiVasudeva,

Principal, ITI, Arab KiSarai, New Delhi. Each ITI has specificsubjects and curriculumto follow. In the trainingpart, we have notsuffered either lack offunds orcompetentteaching staff.

concerned with the present stateof affairs. The Directorate Generalof Employment and Training(DGET), under Ministry ofLabour and Employment, throughSkill Development InitiativeScheme (SDIS) is ensuring a levelplaying field both for thoseundergoing formal courses andthose wishing to upgrade skillsthrough part-time attendance. Itis called Modular EmployableSkills (MES).

“The objective is to train twosections of students: First, for theunskilled students, there areformal classes and the trainingranges from one to three years.The second is for those who areskilled but have not comethrough formal training schemesas in ITI or ITC and are notcertified,” mentioned the directorin DGET.

The one fact readers wouldagree is that in India there is lackof skills and millions of themacquired skills through hands-onworking, mostly in family’straditional occupation. Yet, inemployment market their skillsare not recognised since they dopossess certificate that isuniversally recognised oraccepted. This is the largest grouphabiting length and breadth ofthe country. The solution is MESdevised by DGET wherein skilledworkers can undergo training andon successful completion acquirethe certificate.

The Quality Council of India(QCI) has played pivotal role ineducational sector in providingprocesses and systems and moreso in vocational training sector.The foremost is vocationaltraining institutions need to havequality processes and systems tooffer quality training to aspirantsin acquiring skills that isrecognised in the job market. Theassessment and accreditationsystems will ensure quality bothin training methods and testingmethods of candidates by theassessing bodies. Fair play isuppermost in mind and quality isthe cornerstone.

“Which employer does not

want to have a skilled workforce?I agree with you that real estatesector has not covered itself withglory on quality front. Unlike inmanufacturing industry, wherethe entire workforce works withina confined area, it is easy toimplement quality in each step ofproductivity. Infrastructure, perse, is spread across the nation andquality can only be attained if thesupervisors, managers andcontractors are qualityconscious,” opined Dr P.R.Swarup, Director General,Construction IndustryDevelopment Council. Thismalaise is not confined toinfrastructure sector alone, itpervades in many other sectorstoo. As one principal ofvocational training providerstated that the present push ontraining quality skilled workers isaimed at export-orientedindustries.

It is incorrect as NSDC hasformed 21 sectors covering everyaspect and topic from auto andautomotive component industry,to IT and IT-enabled services,electronics and IT hardware,healthcare services industry toeven unorganised sector whereyouth could be skilled and areemployable.

The disagreements are boundto be there. “The handicraft sectormay be clubbed underunorganised sector but let us notforget that under this sectorlargest number of people earn

Levels and Distribution of Educational Attainment (Ages 25 years and above)

Country Average Years of Proportion of Adult Population with:Schooling No Some Some Some

Education Primary Secondary TertiaryIndia 4.90 51.00 31.60 11.70 5.70Argentina 8.50 5.80 49.60 24.90 19.70Brazil 4.60 21.30 56.80 13.50 8.40Chile 7.90 5.30 42.90 36.00 15.80Korea 10.80 8.00 26.60 47.40 25.80Malaysia 7.90 13.90 35.60 43.00 7.50Mexico 6.70 12.40 47.30 29.00 11.30Singapore 8.10 12.60 28.30 48.50 10.60Australia 10.60 1.70 21.10 38.60 29.80Norway 11.90 1.20 11.50 62.50 24.80

(Source: World Bank database)


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their livelihood in our country. Inthe last financial year, handicraftsexport stood at $ 2 billion,notwithstanding economicdownturn in the Westerncountries,” stated R.K.Srivastava,Executive Director, NationalCentre for Design and ProductDevelopment (NCDPS).

Iqbal Perwaiz left his lucrativejob in a multi-national retail chainto work among theunderprivileged. At NCDPS, hewas teaching young women aboutfashion, trends, colour schemesand marketing. “These younggirls have talent and skills, andwhat they need is guidance tounderstand the trend in fashionstreet and most importantly,marketing. I am positive aboutthe fact that their products wouldbe readily accepted by retailchains,” averred Perwaiz. He alsoadded that the present retailbusiness is around $300 billionand these talented women couldhave piece of that pie.

There are severalorganisations such as NCDPSunder different ministriesproviding skills to millions in thecountry though dubbed as‘unorganised’ or ‘informa’ sectorand may not occupy top-of-mindrecall to the planners. Thegovernment, however, has a clear

vision regarding the vocationaleducational training realising thatthe system is outdated andresembles a closed, centrallyplanned system for a centrallyplanned economy.

The World Bank observes,“Government is keen to reformthe system. It is clear that majorreforms are needed before anythoughts are given to expandingthe system. What is needed is thedevelopment of a system wherethe government plays a key rolein policy development, standardssetting, financing and monitoringand evaluation, whileengendering greatercompetitiveness andaccountability by trainingproviders.”

Recently in a joint pressconference in Germany, our PrimeMinister Dr Manmohan Singh,alongside German ChancellorAngela Merkel, emphasised, “In2007, we had identified scienceand technology as a central pillarof our partnership. We haveagreed today to continue toenhance our cooperation in thefields of higher education andrenewable energy and energyefficiency.”

The most notable statement inPrime Minister’s briefing was,“Vocational and skilldevelopment has emerged as ahigh priority for our Government.It is critical for the success of oursocio-economic developmentplans. We have chosen Germanyas our preferred partner in thisfield and I am happy to announcethat we have agreed significantlyto scale up our cooperation in this sector.”

Despite government’senthusiasm and energy inreviving technical education,there are many road blocks thathave to be cleared to trainmillions of skilled people. Someof these are:-

Abysmally low literacy rate.The country has the largestuneducated population in theregion. (See box).Even those entering schoolingstream the dropout rate from

QQUUAALLIITTYY MMOOVVEE:: Young women are trained in fashion designing conducted by NCDPS.

500 ITIs are being upgraded into Centre ofExcellence.1,396 ITIs are being upgraded through pub-lic-private-partnership (PPP). The objectiveof this Scheme is to improve the quality ofvocational training in the country and makeit demand driven so as to ensure betteremployability of the graduates.Each ITI taken up under PPP Scheme willhave an Industry Partner to lead the processof upgradation. An Institute ManagementCommittee (IMC) headed by the IndustryPartner will be constituted and registered asa Society.A Memorandum of Agreement will be signedamong the Central, State and industry part-ner to define the roles and responsibilities ofall stakeholders concerned.An interest-free loan upto Rs 2.50 cr will begiven directly by the Central Governmentdirectly to the IMC on the basis of InstituteDevelopment Plan prepared by it. The loan isrepayable by the IMC in 3 years, with amoratorium of 10 years and thereafter inequal annual instalments over a year periodof 20 years.Under this Scheme, the IMC has been givenfinancial and academic autonomy to managethe affairs of ITI. The IMC is allowed todetermine upto 20 percent of the admissionin the ITI.The industry partner may provide financialassistance as well as machinery and equip-ments to the ITI. It shall arrange to providetraining to instructors and on-job training totrainers. State Governments remain owner of the ITIsand continue to regulate admissions.

Government’s Effortin upgradation


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FFUUTTUURREE AAGGEENNDDAA:: QCI will play a majorrole in ensuring that India can truly have askilled workforce.

primary to secondary totertiary is alarmingly high.The preferred occupation ofeducated Indians, even thosewith middle level education isa non-manual job in theorganised sector. On the other hand, ITI/ITCheads have little freedom tofill student places to capacity,replacing training courseswith new ones, and ensurethat students receive qualitytraining.In ITI/ITC, most courses arelacking basic industrial trades,wherewithal to offer moremarketable industry-orientedsector trades. Lack of coordination orinteraction between vocationaltraining institutions andemployers to upgrade trainingprogrammes due to rigidsyllabus and norms laid, bythe Central and Stategovernments.Vocational education enjoysunfavourable comparisons toacademic qualifications.Poor quality and technicalability of teaching staff.‘Teaching the teachers’ conceptis lacking to upgrade teacher’sknowledge and ability to teach.There is no gainsaying in

pinpointing fingers at variousstakeholders. The onus is onindustry as much as it is with thepolicy makers in thegovernments. The aim is one — tohave 500 million skilled personnelby 2022. The time is too short todevelop and deliver a mechanismto achieve this aim and hence allstakeholders have to collectivelycharter the course and not leave iton a single organisation.

Until recently, it had beenhard to detect the hand ofindustry in the vocationaltraining. It is in the industry’sinterest to have close links withvocational training institutions.As suggested, public-privateparticipation (PPP) is inevitablealbeit it is limited currently. PPParrangement would help everyone from large to microenterprises. The Prime Minister

once again reiterated, “Thoughsome industry associations havepartnered for improving ITIs anddeveloping skills of youth, muchneeds to be done to have a visibleimpact of such efforts.”

Recently at the two-dayinternational conference on SkillDevelopment in the Context of aTechnology-driven Society,organised jointly by the RuralEducation and EconomicDevelopment Society (REEDS) andthe Minister of Labour andEmployment, former PresidentAPJ Abdul Kalam called for newways to harness ruralentrepreneurship and he was clear— Create Job Creators and Not JobSeekers. “Grassroots innovatorscome up with creative solutionsout of experience and necessity.These need to be integrated withappropriate technology to makethem marketable andcompetitive,” he added.

Of course, let us be assured,that we have not reached cul-de-sac. The Prime Minister’s messageis strong and unmistakably clearto all stakeholders to get their acttogether. NSDC will play a crucialrole in future to ensure PPP modelbenefits skills development. Moreimportantly, QCI will have amajor role in ensuring thatassessment and accreditationsystem works in a manner thatIndia can truly have a skilledworkforce of internationalstandard.


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What is your own philosophy onquality? I think my personal philosophy is …quality to me means really strivingfor the best. When I think of theword 'quality' — whether it's aproduct, whether it's an approach tolife, whether it's dealing withrelationship — it's really trying todo your best and that to me is whatimprovement and quality is about.

As an MP that must be yourattitude towards your constituents?Well, that's the way I approach it. Iremember, for example, being abusiness student in the UnitedStates and studying about qualitycontrol and processes relating toquality control and operationalmanagement and things like that. Ithink although that's somethingwhich might be very specific toperhaps workplaces and factoriesand where products are made, Ireally think even in otherprofessions like my own I really tryand apply those principles. When Ithink of quality in my profession, Ithink, for example, listening to myconstituents' problems, the attentionI give them to listen, irrespective ofhow easily I'm able to solve it ornot, how attentive I am hopefullytells them there's quality in theirrepresentative's attentiveness to theproblems.To me quality means: Am I a betterquality candidate than someone elsecontesting against me? That meanswhat is my background, what do Istand for, what do I represent? As aMember of Parliament and apolitician, the biggest part of qualityreally comes in the fact that today,in politics it's very easy to make aheadline and say something verysensational and controversial. But Ithink that is an anti-thesis of whatquality is about, it is exactly theopposite. It's about steering clearfrom distractions, from trends, andstaying very true to a certainphilosophy of consistency and thatis what quality is to me in myprofession.

Health and education are two keyindices of a nation's health. InIndia, both politicians and civil

ONE OF THE YOUNGEST MEMBERS OF THE CURRENT LOK SABHA, SOUTHMUMBAI'S MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT MILIND DEORA BELIEVES INFINDING SOLUTIONS TO POOR GOVERNANCE. THE MILIND DEORAINITIATIVE (MDI), THAT HE HAS SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR HISCONSTITUENCY IS AN EFFORT TO EMPOWER CIVIL SOCIETY ININCLUSIVE WAYS. THE MDI IS PREDICATED ON A SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVEPREMISE — AN EMPOWERED AND INFORMED CITIZENRY CREATES AMORE ACCOUNTABLE AND PARTICIPATIVE DEMOCRACY AND HELPSBRIDGE THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DIVIDE. IN THISCONVERSATION WITH QUALITY INDIA, THE YOUNG MP SPEAKS ABOUTHIS IDEAS OF QUALITY AND HOW TO ACHIEVE. EXCERPTS:

“Quality is aboutstaying true to acertain philosophyof consistency”

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servants have it low down on theirpriority?I don't necessarily agree with that. Ithink health and education are bigpriorities for politicians andbureaucrats because they are veryimportant developmental tools thathave very powerful effects on thevoting, for example.

One is asking this because thedelivery of services in these sectorsis really poor?I think that sometimes in India theamount of political interest an issuegets and the delivery sometimes isnot co-related because you mightgive a lot of attention as a politicalcommunity to an issue, butsometimes delivery fails and thatmay not be our fault.

Civil services too are abysmallypoor in India. Would you agreewith this take and if not what'syour view?You know one is definitelygovernance, at a local level, is not asgood as it is at the federal level. Ithink there is more vigilance andgreater scrutiny at the federal level.So, there's more attention to whathappens in the defence sector thanthere is to what happens inmunicipal and housing corruption inthe states. And as a result, in thestate government, corruptioninvolving land and things like that ismuch greater.

You are an MP, but do you thinkthe political classes as a whole areserious in their intent to deliverservices to the people of thiscountry? Are they quality consciousand committed or is it just anotherclub?I think there are parts that think thatit might be a club like there is inevery sector in the world. You knowgood journalists go to clubs also, so Ithink that is not unusual, there'snothing wrong really. That's theway it works. But I think in the endif you are an elected representative,whether in the State or in Centre oranywhere, in the end the incentive isalready in-built for you to want todeliver to your people. Now whatyou want to deliver differs from

person-to-person, constituency-to-constituenc and region-to-region.And what one person wants todeliver is found irrelevant to theother person. So to a person in somestate maybe he wants to deliver andhe doesn't see some illegalities as abad thing and I see that as a veryweird thing. I have a sort ofinternational level of development asmy agenda. But that person says,what are you talking about? I comefrom a place where they want me toallow illegal things to flourish. So, Ithink that in the end is a reflection ofthe people not of the politicianbecause I think we are ultimately,loved or hated, really a reflection inthe mirror of the people of India. When we talk about corruption,ultimately you can blame politicians,but ultimately, the individual can'tput his or her hand on his/her heartor say that I've not done anythingwrong in my life that has worsenedthis problem. Nobody can do that.Everyone has contributed in someway. I think similarly withpoliticians and elected leaders, I'mnot saying we shouldn't change andshouldn't oppose even if it is apopular trend, but ultimately thereform will have to happen withpeople.

Do you think the people of Indiaare quality conscious?Not really. Sadly, we are not a veryquality conscious nation. I don'tthink even the most affluent,educated sections of society, be it thebiggest businessman, arenecessarily quality conscious tointernational levels. Not only at acorporation level or anorganisational level, but even intheir personal lives. In terms oftheir moral values, in terms oftheir ethics, the people of India interms of what they want, in termsof quality of life, in terms ofquality of environment, I don'tthink they are a very qualityconscious nation, sadly. That's mypersonal view.

We seem to accept mediocrity?In every field we do in someways, yes.


Milind Deora When we

talk about corruption,you can blamepoliticians, butultimately, theindividual can't put hisor her hand on his/herheart or say that I've notdone anything wrong inmy life that hasworsened thisproblem.

SSHHAAPPIINNGG YYOOUUNNGG MMIINNDDSS:: As part of the MDI,Milind Deora has been bringing school and collegestudents from South Mumbai constituency to meetimportant political leaders across the spectrum andappreciate the cut and thrust of policy making at thehighest level. Photo shows students with the Speaker ofthe Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar, and Milind Deora

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“A pizza reaches faster thanan ambulance over here”NEVER THE ONE TO MINCEWORDS, NAVJOT SINGH SIDHUWHO WAS A STALWARTOPENING BATSMAN FOR INDIAIS NOW A MEMBER OFPARLIAMENT FROM AMRITSAR.IN HIS THIRD TERM INPARLIAMENT, SIDHUDISCUSSES HOW QUALITYDRIVES HIM AS A PUBLICSERVANT OF THE PEOPLE OF HISCONSTITUENCY.

Your personal philosophy on quality? A drop of honey catches more flies thana gallon of vinegar. Quality and notquantity is my measure. You see if youare always adhering in giving quality topeople, it enhances your reputation, itenhances your credibility and ultimatelyit restores the faith of the masses in yourability. That, to me, is the biggesttreasure anybody can cherish for: thefaith of the people, because ultimatelythe charter says, a government by thepeople, for the people, and if the peoplebelieve in you, you immediately becomean achiever and the image of the uglypolitician has to be encountered byrestoring their faith in the system andthat can come with quality.

How are you imparting quality in yourendeavour as a MP from Amritsar?I have won the Amritsar seat three timesin five years. The first time you win wasas a celebrity. I went there, 11 days Icampaigned and I became an MP. With

15 lakh people in yourconstituency, it is not easy tosustain that name: I was thefirst MP in Amritsar’shistory to ask for ablueprint for Amritsar.That blueprint hasfinally come intoproper perspective andthen there were somany things thatneeded to be settled inAmritsar as far asdevelopment wasconcerned. The

infrastructure, a properplan and side-by-side

development. The four-laneroad from Delhi has been

built till Atari. I got about `200crore from the government byselling a very prime piece ofland in Amritsar, got all theroads properly made, got asolid waste management plantto Amritsar. Those thingspeople sit up and watch andthen say: this is something for

the people. And you know a goodexample is the best sermon that you canpreach and it was a startling example ofhow someone did not make too manypromises but whatever he said, hefulfilled. I have seen people go gagawith their golden drums. They make alot of noise, promise 250 things andthen they fall like Humpty Dumpty andyou can’t put Humpty together again.So I think basically any MP who willgive the people development and makea difference in their lives is living up toquality.

Civic services throughout the countryare abysmal. Would you agree withthat if your city were to be a referencepoint?Totally right. They are bad because theyare not self-sufficient and because mostof the governments in today’s Indiawork on populist politics. They don’tput enough of user charges, they wantfree services, they want everything freeand don’t want people paying foranything and because of that economicpolicies suffer. Every corporation inIndia has to be self-sufficient and it hasto work on good economics.

How are you doing it in Amritsar?In Amritsar, we’ve put in a lot of usercharges. When I took over as MP, ourMunicipal Corporation was totallybankrupt. Now we are self-sufficient,we are collecting taxes. You know it’slike a rain-bearing cloud. It takes waterfrom the sea but it returns manifold tothe creatures of the world. So, we arereturning those taxes manifold to thepeople of Amritsar and people can seeall that.

Are they happy to pay for it?Oh yes. If you provide them with theservices, they are happy to pay for it butif you don’t provide them with servicesand you tax them, then that overburdenwill always be telling. Janata se sarkar kobhawrey ki tarah hona chaiye, woh phool karaas bhi le le aur phool ko kuchch ho bhi na(the government should be like a bee

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when dealing with people, it shouldsuck the honey and yet the flowershould bloom). All the taxes should beexacted like that.

Even the delivery of services likehealth is believed to be bad to poorin many areas of India. Would you agree?Absolutely right. See in Punjab, 99per cent of the students are dropoutsafter (Class) XI. Only 0.3 per cent goto technical colleges. People like ourPrime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh,who came from a middle-class family,studied in these DAV Colleges andthen acquired jobs. That was qualityeducation. Today, we have no skilldevelopment plans …there are somepoor who have skills but they don’tget jobs out of those skills. Skilldevelopment is the most importantthing as far as I am concerned. Morethan education, it is that skilldevelopment, which will take Indiaforward. That skill development hasto be the pivot around which alldevelopments take place as far aseducation is concerned.

Are you doing something about it?I have asked almost 4000-5000 youth -- the government of India gives`10,000 for employing one youth afterdeveloping his skills. We have takenpeople past Class VIII , Class X, ClassXII, got their skills developed--invarious fields—in a three-monthtraining course and then you knowcorporate job melas have (have hired)about 3000 boys who have beenemployed by developing their skillswhich the government of Indiaadheres to.

What about health?The delivery of health services is verypoor. I think it will take a long, longtime for us to really provide properhealth services. When I look atAmerica, when I look at all the foreigncountries, the basic influx is on health.A pizza reaches faster than anambulance over here. If that wouldhappen in America, they would suethem for millions of dollars. Nothingis more important than saving a lifeand quality hospitals are only therefor the rich. Health has become a bigbusiness in India but it does not cater

to the genuine people. The bane ofIndian society is that merit is ignored.Those who are rich go to the bighospitals and that includes me also,but those who are poor and thatincludes about 60 per cent of India, donot get quality service. I’ve seenpeople not get good, potable water inthe entire country. Now we need tosupply safe, drinking water andalmost 30 per cent of India is lyingwith GI tract diseases, which comefrom impure water. So, you knowthese are the basic facilities that wehave to provide to our country: onesquare meal a day, drinking water, a‘chhaat’, which we have failed toprovide.

How do we upgrade it and givebetter quality?We’ve done so much in Amritsar toimprove. The Health Minister is alsovery, very stringent. She has takenvery tough measures and is punishingthose who will put chemicals in milkand lot of other adulteration. She’s(Ms Lakshmi Kant Chawla, HealthMinister, Punjab) gone on thatcampaign.

Are the hospitals getting better inquality and delivery of services?They are improving, yes. And youknow I feel there is an economiccrisis when it comes to making newquality hospitals but the oldhospitals are being revamped. Idon’t think the poor are getting theproper facilities that they need toget but it’s improving. And thebiggest room in this world is theroom for improvement

Many states in this country havenow set up delivery of publicservices Act. Why not such an Actfor Punjab?Good intentions die unless they areexecuted. The biggest Act that camemy way in the last one or two yearsis NREGA, which guaranteesemployment to the poor and it’scome a cropper because people,who want that job, are not gettingthe money … today, thegovernment cannot turn aroundand say it is demand driven…jitnidemand hai poori kar denge, becausethe money fails to come. Demand is

Navjot SinghSidhu

Quality and not quantity ismy measure. You see if youare always adhering ingiving quality to people, itenhances your reputation, itenhances your credibilityand ultimately it restores the faith of themasses in yourability.

far more and the money is almost 30-40 per cent of the demand. So where isthe guarantee?

So, Acts won’t work unlessimplemented?Absolutely. Good intentions die unlessthey are executed. That’s what I sayand more important you know, whenyou look at the poverty line -- theArjun Sengupta Committee Reportsays that 79 per cent of the peopleliving in rural India, are earning belowRs 20 a day and the Kelkar CommitteeReport says that almost 40 per centliving in urban India, are living below`50 a day. My question is: If `50 isbelow poverty line, then what aboutthose who are earning `16, 17,18,19 or 20?

Do you think we are qualityconscious as a nation?Not really. That is one thing that we’llhave to inculcate in our system. Sixty-seventy per cent of the people in Indiado not have the basic facilities. Thereis no drinking water. So what do youtalk of quality? How can you talk ofquality? When you talk of education,can you tell me one district where youcan get quality education for the poor?There is no point in harping aboutquality until and unless we canexecute good intentions.


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“Benchmark of a MP’s qualityis delivering development”MANISH TIWARI, MP AND OFFICIALSPOKESPERSON OF THE INDIANNATIONAL CONGRESS, ISOUTSPOKEN. TRAINED AS ALAWYER, HE DOES NOT MINCE HISWORDS. IN THIS CONVERSATIONWITH QUALITY INDIA, HE SPEAKSABOUT WHAT CONSTITUTESQUALITY FOR A MEMBER OFPARLIAMENT. EXCERPTS:

What is your idea of quality?My own philosophy about quality isthat you should, in a very commercialsense of the word, get value for money.If you were to extend that argumentinto the government or the publicdomain, it is tantamount to the efficientdelivery of goods and services in theminimal possible time, which bringssatisfaction to the person to whom theservices have been delivered andeventually plays a role in maximisinghappiness.

As a Parliamentarian, how would youbring in quality?Well, I think as a lawmaker, essentiallyyou have two or three very clearlydelineated functions. The first functionis that you are supposed to make betterlaws but unfortunately because thewhole process of lawmaking is still avery bureaucratic exercise, and giventhe rigours of the Tenth Schedule, youdo not find very much participation byParliamentarians, in the lawmakingprocess. So, therefore, I thinkParliament as a whole really fails todeliver on quality lawmaking: theinputs, the best practices, the research

which should go in to make betterlaws for people of this country. I

think that is an area whichneeds a huge amount of working

upon and the greatest evidence ofthis is that whenever government

Bills are debated, it is at 2 o’ clock inthe afternoon when you find hardly 50MPs on an average, present. Therefore,there is a problem of quality out there.As far as your responsibility to yourconstituency is concerned, I think theability not only to address personalgrievances, which, of course, occupiesmost of your time, but on a macro levelto be able to deliver development toyour constituency, I think that shouldbe the benchmark of what aParliamentarian’s test of quality is.

Therefore, would you say that MPsare not totally aware of their duties… Well, yes in the sense that Members of

Parliament are not conscious of theresponsibility which their electorateputs on them, would be an incorrectstatement to make. They are consciousbut how much of that consciousnessgets translated into actual action is anarea of concern.

How does one make MPs aware?Well, I think the responsibility is bothways: To say that it is because of thesystemic structure that you are not ableto deliver would be oversimplifying it.To some extent it has to be personalitydriven also. It depends upon yourdrive and to a larger extent it dependsupon your ability to work within thesystem and see how you can get thebest out of it.

You see the real problem ofgovernance in this country — andwhen you talk about quality — is thatthe last-mile governance is missing:Whether it is in the delivery of law andorder, whether it is in the delivery ofjustice, whether it is in the delivery ofpublic distribution system, or whetherit is in the delivery of even socialdevelopment schemes. The time whena scheme or the time when an initiativeleaves the door of the government andgoes to the people — somewhere inthat gap — you know the entire effortjust disappears. And till the time we donot reform our last-mile linkages on thedelivery of governance and services,I’m afraid we are really not doingjustice to our jobs.

Would you agree that health andeducation remain problem areas inour country?I would tend to disagree with youbecause I was also under thisimpression that the delivery ofeducation and health is abysmal. Onhealth, I would agree with you becauseour primary health centres, to a largeextent, are non-functional. Doctors donot go and attend to those centres. Attimes you are not able to find doctorsready to go the rural areas.

But in education, after the Sarva

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Shiskha Abhiyan and the middaymeals scheme have been launched,even in the government schools therehas been a qualitative change. I see it inmy constituency. You have childrenwho are mostly from scheduled casteand other backward classes (coming toschool). They wear clean uniforms,attendance levels are almost 80-100 percent. The food cooked in the schoolsalong with the participation of thecommunities, is wholesome. Teacherattendance is fairly good. WheneverI’m in my constituency, I make it apoint to go to one or two schools, youknow during the day, and generallychat. Nobody knows when I am goingto come and I have found by and large,contrary to my own perception, thatthe delivery of education it is not thatbad. On health, yes, there is a lot thatneeds to be done.

Even the delivery in the judicialsystem is not up to the mark…Delivery of services is poor in the caseof justice. You see justice is at the heartof democracy. If you cannot givepeople a rule-based judicialdispensation in a certain fixed time-frame, you know you are failing and Ithink that is the biggest failure that wehave that, slowly and gradually, peoplehave completely lost faith in ourjudicial system.

The other area of services whichhas failed completely, I think, is lawand order. Today, an average citizeneven in Delhi, you know which is thenational capital, is scared of enteringinto a thana to register an FIR becauseof the kind of treatment he would get:you know, at times, the victim isturned into an accused. Therefore, Ithink if there is one area which theIndian state needs to concentrate upon,it is the delivery of law and order andit is the delivery of justice. Otherwise,it is going to become a peril fordemocracy.

Do you feel that our bureaucracy is cynical?I think the one thing that you need todo is completely junk the IndianAdministrative system as it standsconstituted. You know it is a totallyarchaic system. Essentially it operateson the Peter Principle that you take oneexam and then rise to the level of your

incompetence. I think there is a need tocompletely and absolutely reform theadministrative structure like you havein the National Defence Academy…the permanence which you have givento your bureaucracy in the name of theso-called steel frame, actually breedsthe worst kind of inertia.

Are we a quality-conscious nation?Well, it depends on which India youare talking about because there is apart of India which lives in the 18thcentury and there is a part of Indiawhich lives in 22nd century. Therefore,it depends upon what you are talkingabout. Yes, that India which lives in the22nd century, you know the so calledmiddle class, is absolutely qualityconscious but in so far as the very poorare concerned, I mean for them thestruggle is still to make two ends meetat the end of the day.

Are your constituents quality-conscious?Well, I have a very affluentconstituency and notwithstanding atthe fact that we have the highestnumber of Mercedes cars, 56 per centof my constituency has no sewagecoverage. So, therefore, you see that isthe paradox and the real challenge liesin not only meeting the aspirations ofthe so-called upwardly mobile butactually trying to reach out to those,you know, who are completelymarginalised and outside themainstream.

Do you feel that the RTI will changethe way we act?Absolutely. I’m a very enthusiasticsupporter of this Act, like the Right toInformation. Split the opaque skull ofthe Indian state open for the people tosee the working of the innards.Similarly, I think a Right to ServicesAct which has a very high premia interms of punishment for non-delivery,is something which this countryrequires.

The very fact that you require aRight to Services Act, essentiallymeans that your state as it standsconstituted is non-functional becauseotherwise you won’t require a right toservice. I think service is theresponsibility of the government.


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Manish TiwariThe real

problem of governance inthis country — and whenyou talk about quality — is that the last-milegovernance is missing:Whether it is in thedelivery of law and order,whether it is in the deliveryof justice, whether it is inthe delivery ofpublicdistribution...

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In a historic steptowards operating anindependent, credible

and transparent regionalaccreditation mechanismfor accreditation ofVocational TrainingProviders (VTPs) inKarnataka, which is bothnationally andinternationallyrecognised, an MoU hasbeen signed betweenDepartment ofEmployment andTraining (DET) andKarnataka VocationalTraining & SkillDevelopment CorporationLtd. (KVTSDC) with itsoffice at Bengaluru andNational AccreditationBoard for Education andTraining (NABET), aconstituent board ofQuality Council of India (QCI), anautonomous body underDepartment of Industrial Policyand Promotion, Ministry ofCommerce and Industry.

The MoU was signed by S RUmashankar, Commissioner, DETand Managing Director, KVTSDC,and Dr Girdhar J Gyani, SecretaryGeneral, Quality Council of India,in the presence of B N Bachegowda,Labour Minister, Government ofKarnataka, Ramesh Zalki, Secretaryto the Government, Department ofLabour, Dr Vishnukanth SChatpalli, Executive Director,KVTSDC and other senior officials.

The MOU is intended toestablish guidelines and principlesof agreement between DET,KVTSDC and QCI for annual

evaluation of Vocational TrainingProviders in Karnataka. This wouldentail the existing and prospectivebodies offering Vocational Trainingservices to undergo an assessmentprocess, thereafter annualsurveillance assessment for seekingaccreditation from NABET.

To mark the signing of aMemorandum of Understanding(MoU) on January, 25, 2011, B NBachegowda, Labour Minister, saidin his address, “As many as 62different trades have been includedin the newly-formed State Councilfor Vocational Training (SCVT),

established on the lines of theNational Council for VocationalTraining, for providing training toall youngsters aged above 14 yearsin different skills and technicalcourses.”

The minister added: “SCVT incollaboration with QCI wouldprovide training to all youth of 14years and above, starting fromSSLC and even those who havefailed for learning new courses andup gradation of their skillsconsisting of different durationsranging from six months to oneyear and upto two years. These

In order to establish a credible and transparent accreditation mechanism for accreditation ofVocational Training Providers in Karnataka, an MoU that will see the opening of the first-everregional chapter of NABET in Bengaluru, has been signed.

QCI’s first-ever regionalendeavour for accreditation

(L-R, on the dais) Dr Vishnukanth S Chatpalli, Executive Director, KVTSDC, H A Keshavmurthy, DeputyGeneral Manager, KVTSDC, Ramesh Zalki, Secretary to the Government, Department of Labour, B NBachegowda, Labour Minister, Government of Karnataka, Vipin Sahni, Director, NABET. The MoU wassigned by Dr Giridhar J Gyani, Secretary General, Quality Council of India and S R Umashankar,Commissioner, Department of Employment and Training & Managing Director, Karnataka VocationalTraining & Skill Development Corporation Ltd.

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training programmes would coverIndustrial Training Institutes (ITIs)and Industrial Training Centres (ITCs).”

Pointing out that the stategovernment would provide officespace and infrastructure facilities tothe first-ever regional chapter ofNABET (QCI) in the city foroperating credible and transparentlocal accreditation mechanism tothe vocational training providers,he said that the state governmentwas very keen on ensuring that theunemployed youth were providedwith adequate job opportunities.

He went on to add: “The B SYeddyurappa regime during the last30 months had organised 22 jobmelas in different districts and hadtaken steps to provide training to asmany as 2,81,868 persons, of whomas many as 1,89,510 had beenprovided jobs so far. We will striveto fulfill the government's target ofcreating 10 lakh jobs over a periodof five years.”

Dr Girdhar J Gyani, QCISecretary-General, in his address,praised the pro-labour attitude andproactive policies of theYeddyurappa regime in comingforward to establish the first-everstate chapter of NABET under theDepartment of Employment andTraining and felt the regional centrein the state would become a rolemodel for all other states in the country.

He underscored the need forrestructuring the industrial traininginstitutes with good curriculum,qualified teachers and otherfacilities. Dr Gyani suggested thatthe state government should adopta similar approach to upgrade andrestructure the schoolinfrastructure in order to improvethe status and standards ofgovernment schools and raise themto the level of Kendriya Vidyalayas.

As per the provision of theMoU, KVTSDC will announce themandatory accreditation of theprivate Vocational Trainingproviders from July 2011.Thereafter all new VTPs will berequired to first seek NABETaccreditation, before affiliationwith Karnataka government.

NABET to developstandards with SQA In what can be considered an achievement, NABET has signed anMoU with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). The MoUwill enable to develop professional and academic accreditationsand also build mutual partnerships between both the countries.

India has an established andrespected place in training andeducation worldwide and its

emergence as a knowledge-basedeconomy has led to significant andongoing growth in its education andskills sector. Rapid economic growthhas resulted in an increasing demandfor skills development. The gapbetween demand and supply of skilledpersonnel is widening. To bridge thegap, National Accreditation Board forEducation and Training (NABET), aconstituent body of Quality Council ofIndia (QCI), recently, signed amemorandum of understanding (MoU) with the ScottishQualifications Authority (SQA) to develop professional and academicaccreditations and qualifications.

The MoU was signed by VijayThadani, Chairman, NABET, and DrJanet Brown of SQA in the presenceof Kapil Sibal, Minister for HumanResource Development and AlexSalmond, MSP, First Minister ofScotland, to develop professional andacademic accreditations andqualifications. NABET and SQA haverecognised the scope for the twoorganisations to build on theirstrengths and current achievementsby working in partnership for mutual

benefit. The areas of collaboration entail

that both partners exploreopportunities in working together inkey areas of NABET's activities as anaccreditation body. These wouldinclude NABET's responsibility for:

Accrediting qualifications. Accrediting schools.Approving awarding bodies.Auditing awarding bodies.Approving and monitoring theapproved centres of learning. Support, develop and share best

practices and would focus on:The systems, processes andprocedures that supportaccreditation functions.Development of quality assurancesystems and processes.Development of relevant industry specific qualifications.Engagement with key stakeholders. A detailed working plan to

support the areas of collaborationwould be defined in accordancewith ongoing discussions andagreement between NABET andSQA to enable and ensure a clearunderstanding of the scope, priorityand resources required to achievethe aim of the MoU.

Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal (third from right) with Alex Salmon, FirstMinister of Scotland at the MoU meeting where Vijay Thadani, Chairman, NABET, Dr Janet Brown ofSQA were also present and (extreme left) participants attending the meeting.


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An MoU was recently signedbetween the DirectorateGeneral of Employment and

Training (DGET) and Quality Councilof India (QCI). The MoU is intended toestablish guidelines and principles ofagreement between DGET and QCI forannual evaluation of VocationalTraining Providers and assessingbodies, industrial training institutes/centres and DGET FieldInstitutes. This would entail theexisting and prospective bodiesoffering any or both these services toundergo an assessment processthereafter annual surveillanceassessment and thereby seekaccreditation from NationalAccreditation Board for Education andTraining (NABET), a constituent boardof QCI.

By this scope of cooperation, DGETwill direct all existing VocationalTraining Providers (VTPs), AssessingBodies (ABs), Industrial TrainingInstitutes/Centres (ITIs/ITCs) andDGET Field Institutes and newapplicants to apply to NABET for thefollowing processes:

Assessment of VTPs and ABs,ITIs/ITCs and DGET Field Institutes toverify compliance with DGET(National Council for VocationalTraining) and State Governmentrequirements for registration.

Assessment of VTPs and ABs,ITIs/ITCs and DGET Field Institutesfor NABET accreditation coveringrequirements on structure, systems,processes, controls and performancemonitoring.

Assessment of ITIs/ITCs againstparameters set by National Council forVocational Training (NCVT).

QCI, on its operational modalities,will prepare and devise an assessmentchecklist, both for affiliation andaccreditation in conformity with all the requirements

of the current DGET norms as well asother accreditation requirements asapplicable. This checklist would beuseful for inspection, verification andin preparation of assessment report.

The country is woefully short of askilled workforce. Further, thosecoming out of the technical institutionslack the desired skills over theindustries for gainful employment. Onone hand, the teaching staff lacks latest

technical advancements to impart theknowledge to the students and on theother hand, the institutions lacktechnical tools to enable students to learn the desiredknowledge. The government and QCIare seized of the problem. QCI hasdeveloped assessing and accreditationcriteria to establish nationally acceptedbenchmark. QCI by working closelywith DGET is aimed at a structuredprocess wherein all stakeholdersachieve success through competence inskills development.

QCI to evaluatevocational training

Students working on a lathe machine at one of the ITIs.

MoU between DGET and QCI will establish guidelines andprinciples for Industrial Training Institutes/Centres and DGETField Institutes.

Three of Chennai’s hospitals —Apollo Specialty Hospital,Global Hospitals and Frontier

Lifeline — received the NationalAccrediation Board for Hospitalsand Healthcare Providers (NABH)accreditation recently.

On this occasion, Dr Girdhar J

Gyani, Secretary General, QCI,pointed out that every hospitalclaiming to offer world-classhealthcare facilities andinfrastructure should strive to get

Three Chennai hospitals get NABH accreditation

Global Hospitals and Frontier Lifeline receivingthe NABH accreditation from Dr Girdhar J Gyani,Secretary General, QCI.


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NABH accreditation. He added,“Hospitals should not shy awayfrom being assessed for quality. Akind of complacency has set inamong hospitals and they are afraidto undergo quality checks. NABHstandards are not difficult to meetand more hospitals should comeforward and get themselvesaccredited. Accreditation benefitsboth patients and hospitals and

make the hospitals moreaccountable.”

Stressing on the need for a goodperipheral support mechanism, DrGyani stressed that in any hospitalonly 35 per cent of the processeswere clinical while the rest involvednon-clinical and managerialprocesses. “It is important to integrate all the processes and addvalue to the hospital,” he said.

A lot of changes have taken place inthe past one year. How would youlook at the progress?It is like the analogy whether the glassis half full or half empty. Yes, of coursea lot of changes and improvementshave taken place. Again the pace ofimprovements in certain States needsto gather pace. Industries are showinga lot of interest in technical skillsprovided by ITIs (Industrial TrainingInstitutes) and ITCs (IndustrialTraining Centres). This is a good signand industry participation will only getbetter in future. I am aware of caseswhere certain industries have absorbed100 per cent students from a few ITIsand ITCs. Of course, I do admit thisphenomenon is not spread across allthe States but where industrialpresence is strong, for example,Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu andDelhi.

Yet, compared to the Westerncountries our industries have notshown as much interest in skilldevelopment. Why is it so?It is not fair to compare the West withIndia. Industrial revolution in the Weststarted more than 200 years ago andnaturally industries needed skilledworkforce. Historically, most of thesecountries then were ruled by emperors,kings, dukes or princess and for them

pomp and panoply was moreimportant than skill development. Sowhy would they spend money on skilldevelopment? Thus, the onus was onthe industry to spend money to createtechnically skilled workforce to meettheir requirement. Was there industrial revolution in Indiacomparable to that period? It was our

first Prime Minister who had the visionto create institutes to impart technicaleducation for the future. Keeping inview, the extent of industries in thecountry, after the independence, thesetechnical institutes met the demand ofthe industries of that era. Here, I wouldlike to point out the major differences.In India, ITIs are funded by thegovernment whereas in the West it isfunded by the industries.

There is wide disparity in the qualityof technical education imparted fromone State to another. Why?

Earlier all ITIs were under the centralgovernment but this arrangementchanged sometime in the mid-80s.Thereafter it came under the Stategovernments. We do provide fundsand but I will not comment on how thefunds are spent by the States. It is only after liberalisation in 1991, ourindustrial development picked speed.But our ITIs were not attuned to corresponding rapid development.The equipment, machinery, teachingtechniques and above all teachers'proficiency lagged behind to meet thechallenges of 21st Century. We have also introduced public-privatepartnership where government willprovide seed money and the privatepartner will manage the technicalinstitutes. This will be a win-winsituation both for industry as well astechnical institutes, importantly to thestudent who pass out and looking forjobs. In addition, we are taking thehelp from Quality council of India toimprove the present system.

In what way would Quality Councilof India help to revamp technicaleducation?As on date there are 8,687 institutes,out of which 2,189 are government runITIs and the rest in private sector. Weneeded an independent body like theQuality Council of India to assessproficiency of these institutes. In fact, itis a nationwide study to assess theground reality to make an effectivelong term policy.

Sharda Prasad, IAS, Director General Employment and Training(DGET) speaks on skill development

“Accreditation to technicalinstitutes will ensure quality”


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T he National Medicinal PlantsBoard (NMPB), incollaboration with the

Quality Council of India (QCI), haslaunched a voluntary certificationscheme for medicinal plants basedon good agricultural and collectionpractices to enhance confidence inthe quality of India’s medicinalplant produce and make availablegood quality raw material to theAYUSH industry.

EVOLUTION OF THE SCHEME NMPB and QCI will be the jointowners of the scheme. The schemewas finalised in four stages: first,NMPB constituted a Steering

Committee (SC) under thechairmanship of Secretary (AYUSH)to guide the development andoperation of the scheme; second,the actual drafting of the schemewas undertaken by a TechnicalCommittee (TC) set up by NMPBwith secretariat in QCI; third, thestandards for good agriculturalpractices and good collection

practices finalised by the TC wereratified by the SC in January, 2010;and, finally, the certification relateddocuments finalised by the TC inMay, 2010 were ratified by the SC inOctober, 2010, and the schemebecame operational. The finalised

documents have been placed on thewebsites of NMPB(www.nmpb.nic.in) as well as QCI(www.qcin.org).

OPERATION OF THE SCHEMEUnder the scheme, any

In a move that will raise the quality standards of medicinal plants, the Quality Council of Indiaand the National Medicinal Plants Board recently launched a voluntary certification scheme formedicinal plants.

Voluntary Certification formedicinal plants launched

Under the scheme, anyproducer/collector/groupof producers/collectors

can obtain a certificationfrom a designated

certification body (CB)and will be under regular

surveillance of thecertification body.

MMEEDDIICCIINNAALL PPLLAANNTTSS BBEEIINNGG GGRROOWWNN:: QCIand NMPB have worked out a scheme to raisequality standards.

Photo courtesy: www.greenearthgreenpeople.blogspot.com


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producer/collector/group ofproducers/collectors can obtain acertification from a designatedcertification body (CB) and will beunder regular surveillance of thecertification body. An option ofgetting a lot inspected and certifiedhas also been made in the scheme.It also allows certification ofintermediaries like traders whomay source certified medicinalplant material and supply furtherafter. QCI will initiallyprovisionally approve some CBs forthe Scheme but ultimately thetechnical competence of such CBswould be established through the

internationally recognised conceptof accreditation. The NationalAccreditation Board forCertification Bodies (NABCB)under QCI, as the nationalaccreditation body, is alreadyoperating a scheme foraccreditation of ProductCertification Bodies as perapplicable international standard,ISO Guide 65, and will providecertification bodies accreditation asper the applicable internationalstandard and competence tooperate the medicinal plantcertification scheme. Similarly,NABL accredited labs will be used

under the Scheme. Thesemeasures are designed tofacilitate acceptance ofthe Scheme ininternational market inthe future. Thecertification process ingeneral would coverfollowing steps:Registration ofapplication; evaluation(s)at the site; testing ofsample(s); grant ofcertificate; periodicsurveillance evaluation;market sampling andrenewal of certificate.

WHO WILL BEBENEFITED? Medicinal plantsproducer/ collector/groupof producers/collectors,societies, traders,manufacturers of herbalmedicines, AYUSHoperators, andpharmaceutical industryand AYUSH consumerswill get benefit due to theassured quality of themedicinal plants/ herbs.Medicinal plantsproducer/collector/groupof producers/collectorscan get certified theirproduce and will be ableto sell their produce at

premium price to national orinternational buyers. The otherbenefits are: reduced risk ofrecall/rejection; assured legalcompliance and assured sustainablecollection.LAND OF HERBSAccording to the website of NMPB,India has 15 agro-climatic zonesand 17000-18000 species offlowering plants of which 6000-7000are estimated to have medicinalusage in folk and documentedsystems of medicine, like Ayurveda,Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy.About 960 species of medicinalplants are estimated to be in tradeof which 178 species have annualconsumption levels in excess of 100metric tonnes.

Medicinal plants are not only amajor resource base for thetraditional medicine and herbalindustry but also providelivelihood and health security to alarge segment of Indian population.The domestic trade of the AYUSHindustry is of the order of `80 to 90billion. Indian medicinal plants and

their products also account forexports in the range of `10 billion,the website reckons.

The website also states thatthere is global resurgence intraditional and alternative healthcare systems resulting in growingworld herbal trade which stands at$120 billion and is expected toreach $7 trillion by 2050. Indianshare in the world trade, at present,however, is quite low.

Medicinal plantsproducer/ collector/groupof producers/collectors,

societies, traders,manufacturers of herbal

medicines, AYUSHoperators, and

pharmaceutical industryand AYUSH consumers

will get benefit due to theassured quality of the

medicinal plants/ herbs.


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It was for the first time in India thatQCI has taken up a project toupgrade Ayurveda Hospitals as

per standards. Under QualityAssurance Programme QAPprogramme, QCI is in process ofpreparing around 100 public allopathyhospitals in India as per NABHstandards. It is a step towardsimproving the quality of public health services provided to thecommon man.

Under the Quality AssuranceProgramme (QAP) for PublicHospitals, QCI signed a MoU with theCentral Council for Research inAyurveda and Siddha (CCRAS) to doGap Study in five Ayurveda Hospitalson October 6, 2010. This will enablethe existing level of healthcaredelivery with reference to NABHaccreditation standards for AYUSHHospitals and to indicate the gap inthe terms of manpower, equipmentand facilities. The MoU was signed byDr. Girdhar J Gyani, SecretaryGeneral, QCI and Dr. Ramesh Babu,Director General, CCRAS from CCRSin the presence of Dr. Bhawna Gulati,Assistant Director NABH and Dr. Paddhi, Deputy Director, CCRAS.

The five Ayurveda Hospitals are:Ayurveda Mental Health

Research Institute (20 beds -- locatedat Nandanwan, Nagpur).

Advanced Centre for Ayurveda inMental Health and Neuro Sciences(20 beds — located at NIMHANSCampus, Bengaluru)Ayurveda Regional ResearchInstitute (25 beds — located inJammu Tawi).National Research Institute forPanchakarma (63 beds — locatedin Thrissur district, Kerala).National Research Institute forAyurveda-Siddha ResourceDevelopment(located in Government AyurvedicHospital, Gwalior).

Ayurveda is a tried and time-tested ancient medical system of Indiaand, perhaps, the world. Around 2,500BC two schools emerged: Atreya, theSchool of Physicians, andDhanvantari, the School of Surgeons.Two millennia ago, Sushruta not onlywrote a treatise on surgery but

performed as well. However, theknowledge was passed on fromgeneration to generation by word ofmouth, unlike the documented formas in the Western world and it lost outto the more precise Western medical system.

A course correction, however, isunderway through intensive efforts bythe Department of AYUSH —Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha andHomeopathy — under the Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare. This willhelp in reviving the ancient holistictreatment system.

Ayurveda and other traditionalsystems did not vanish but lacked

official patronage. Now the system isbeing institutionalised in a morescientific and documented form sincethere is a growing tendency amongpeople to opt for an alternative systemof therapy.

((TTOOPP)) QQUUAALLIITTYY AAPPPPRREECCIIAATTIIOONN::S Gandhiselvan, Minister of State Health & familyWelfare, S Jalaja, Secretary, Department ofAYUSH and Dr Girdhar J. Gyani, SecretaryGeneral, QCI at the presentation ceremony ofAccreditation Certificate; (Right) S Gandhiselvan,Minister of State Health & Family Welfare inaugurating the first accredited hospital in India.

The laudable efforts of the Ministry of Health and FamilyWelfare, in association with the Quality Council of India, toprovide certification to AYUSH service providers will go a longway to establish confidence in the ancient holistic healingsystems.

A boost for traditional healing methods

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Yoga is already popularin the West. The Westernworld is drawn towardsAyurveda and holisticmedical treatment. The realefficacy and efficiency ofany healthcare provider isthe quality in servicedelivery and patient care.

The results of theinitiatives taken by AYUSHwas evident when theAyurVAID Hospitals,India's largest chain of

inpatient Ayurveda hospitals, receivedNABH (National Accreditation Boardfor Hospitals & Healthcare Providers)certification making it the firstAyurveda hospital in the country. Thehospital at Domlur in Bangalore tookeight months to achieve the qualitystandards defined by the NABH.

The NABH, a constituent board ofQuality Council of India (QCI), hasrecently launched the “Accreditationfor Ayush Hospitals” in associationwith the Dept of Ayush, Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare. TheNABH accreditation is a qualitybenchmark which ensures criticalpatient benefits — essentially, safety,efficacy of outcomes, and informed care.

After the Accreditation, thehospitals focus on all aspects ofservice delivery such as patientrights and education, infectioncontrol practices, trained and

experienced staff, infrastructure andenvironment safety, and are almostidentical with NABH standards ofAllopathy hospitals.

“Accreditation is demonstration tothe patients that healthcareorganisation conforms to globalbenchmarks on patient safety andquality of care”, stated Dr. Girdhar J Gyani, secretary general, QualityCouncil of India at a press conclave here.

According to him, there are 2,400Ayurveda hospitals in India.Currently, another six hospitals ofwhich five in the government spacein the Ayurveda sector have appliedfor NABH accreditation. There arealready 500 hospitals in the modernmedicine space which have baggedNABH certification. In addition,there are an additional 95 hospitalswhich have applied for thecertification. This shows theawareness among the hospitals togear up to certify their qualitypractice adherences, he added.

According to Rajiv Vasudevan,Managing Director, AyurVAIDHospitals, the NABH accreditation isproof that Ayurveda as a medicalscience is capable of meeting therigour, standardisation, and patientsafety expectations of the 21stcentury.

AyurVAID Hospitals focus mainlyon chronic diseases, classicalAyurveda para-surgical proceduressuch as Kshara Karma, Kshara Sutra,Agni Karma, Rakta Mokshana areperformed under strict protocols. Thehospital spread over Cochin,Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, andHubli offers insurance by ThirdParty Administrators enablingcashless facility for inpatientAyurveda medical care.

Programme in ManilaOne-day Awareness Workshops

for Accreditation Programme forWellness Centres and AccreditationProgramme for Hospitals were heldrecently under the aegis of NABHInternational. The workshops werelaunched in Manila, the capital of thePhilippines. This was the first overseaslaunch of an awareness programmesby the recently launched NABHInternational.

(Top) A patient receiving holistic medicaltreatment. Standing from left to right with theAccreditation Certificate are Dr Bhawna Gulati,Assistant Director, NABH,QCI, Dr Ramesh Babu,Director General CCRAS, Dr Girdhar J Gyani,Secretary General, QCI, Dr Paddhi, DeputyDirector, CCRAS.

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The second Thursday ofNovember every year iscelebrated as World QualityDay throughout the world. In

India too, it is celebrated at various centres. In Delhi,the Indian Science CongressAssociation along with the IndianAssociation for Productivity, Qualityand Reliability organised a seminar onthree important principles of quality,productivity and reliability where DrGirdhar J Gyani, Secretary General,Quality Council of India, was the chiefguest.

Dr Gyani started with a statementthat quality is driven by passion andnot by education alone. Quality, hepointed out, is a continuous journeyand not a destination.

It was in 1996 that a decision by theGovernment of India was taken to setup an organisation to promote andpropagate quality nationally. Thus theQuality Council of India (QCI) wasborn. A fully autonomous body, it hasthree major industry bodies CII, FICCIand ASSOCHAM partnering it. QCIalso has a 17-member governing body,basically for setting policies. TheChairman of the Council is appointedby the Prime Minister with the currentChairman being Arun Maira, Member,Planning Commission.

The objectives in forming the QCIwere:

The international message at thattime was that each country was tohave a body to conduct anaccreditation programme for theconformity assessment agencies.The conformity assessmentagencies are basically either testingagencies, inspection bodies oraccreditation bodies. These have animportant role in internationaltrade, as their assessments areaccepted the world over. And QCI oversees the competence of these assessing bodies and subsequentlyaccrediting them.Another impetus was the NationalQuality Campaign mooted at thattime with the objective ofpromoting quality in all walks oflife. Thus, the role of QCI is twofold:

Awarding accreditation, in consonancewith world standards, and promotionof quality.

For the first role QCI has thefollowing boards namely:

(a) National Accreditation Boardfor Certification Bodies (NABCB):Accreditation awarded by NABCB isglobally accepted.

(b) National Accreditation Boardfor Education and Training (NABET):The Board works closely with theMinistry of Human ResourceDevelopment (HRD) and Ministry ofLabour. Based on the inputs given byNABET, Ministry of HRD will implement the governance modelin all schools following CBSCstandards. Likewise, Ministry ofLabour will upgrade competence ofITIs/ITCs and this includes students aswell as teachers.

(c) National Accreditation Boardfor Hospitals and HealthcareProviders (NABH): This Boardassesses and accredits hospital andhealthcare providers and so far only 60hospitals, in a country, of our size,have been given accreditation. Thisincludes an Ayurveda hospital inBengaluru.

One may ask, why accredit acertification body? Take the example ofISO 9000; it is neither driven by aregulator or the government.Importers, mostly in the West, insistedon ISO 9000 certification for entry of

The Quality Council of India has been entrusted by the Government to bring in quality in our lives. Dr Girdhar J Gyani, Secretary General, QCI, highlighted the moves the Council has taken to spreadquality in the country.

Strategies to usher in quality

T K Sahu, Prof. S PMukherjee, and Dr Girdhar J Gyani at the World Quality Day.

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products and services. As a result, alarge number of manufacturers andservic providers opted for thiscertification since it was a goodbusiness opportunity. Two decadesago, India did not have qualifiedcertifying bodies; hence, many foreigncertifying agencies set up offices in thecountry since it was a big businessopportunity for them too. They evenoffered franchises.

It is little wonder then thatcertification bodies mushroomed allover the country. These were not underany supervision and conjoined withintense competition the true spirit of

certification was lost. So did thequality. It was then that thegovernment realised that thisunfettered operation by certificationagencies did more harm than goodand needed a national accreditationbody to check this malaise. ThusNABCB came into being.

It is often said that quality is drivenby market forces. In other words,consumers need to be empowered.This will only happen if consumers areaware of quality requirements forproducts and services. However,considering the low literacy level inthe country it is unrealistic to expect

that consumers would force either themanufacturers or service providers toenhance the quality in products orservices.

In the absence of empoweredconsumers the onus falls on thegovernment and the regulators, moreso in the developing countries, to takethe quality initiative. This happenseven in developed countries to ensurequality in areas like health, food safetyand education as these three help inwellbeing of the citizens.

Many major and large companieshave realised that quality improvestheir economics, bottom line onbalance sheet. This is a recentphenomenon. There is a perceptionthat private and corporate sectorsinitiated the quality movement in thecountry. Dr Gyani reminded theaudience that on the contrary it wasthe government’s organisations thatinitiated quality movement way aheadof others. Indian Space ResearchOrganisation and Bhabha AtomicResearch Centre started qualitymovement way back in 1960s. Close onheels were Steel Authority of IndiaLimited and Bharat Heavy ElectricalsLimited. Many such governmentorganisations were contended withtheir achievements rather thanblowing trumpet in public.

It is unimportant whether one publicises it or not but quality can beattained by travelling on the qualitypath continuously.

“It is good to listen to peoplewho know about quality”

”Prof SP Mukherjee, an experienced quality professional, believes that we cover up ourdeficiencies rather than correcting them.

My feeling has been one has to be sincere in whatever one isattempting to raise the quality of products, the services rendered orthe processes carried out. An important aspect in achieving qualitystarts with owning up of deficiencies, listening to the advices fromthe peers to improve the quality.

In India, we still have to go a long way. One of the reasons Ifound has been covering up the deficiencies rather thancorrecting. It is always good to listen to people knowledgeable in

the field of quality and to others who have been practicing the same. The otheraspect is that people are guided by immediate short-term benefits and give quality a go-by.

The approach is to start from the shop floor; the workforce has to be educated onthe quality and its benefits and long-term benefits. On the other side, students inengineering and management schools have to have quality as one of the subjects sincethey would be leading after leaving their studies. The teachers who teach thesestudents have to be trained and only then would they be able to impart properly.

(From left) T K Sahu, Prof. S P Mukherjee, Dr G J Gyani and Harish Banga.

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Solar energy standards promoted in IndiaThe Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has signed up with the Quality Council of India to designstandards certification and testing framework for solarenergy applications.

The Ministry of New andRenewable Energy (MNRE) hassigned up with the Quality

Council of India (QCI) to design acomprehensive standards, certificationand testing framework for solar energyapplications in a bid to ensure qualityin its ambitious drive to promote theuse of solar energy under the NationalSolar Mission.

The project envisages thatstandards for products, systems andinstallation practices would be laiddown by MNRE keeping in view theinternational best practices customisedto Indian environment which wouldthen be available for the industry for

implementation and certification.MNRE has already set up technicalcommittees for the solar thermal andphotovoltaic areas to identify and/orframe the standards for itsprogrammes.

Under the proposed system, the certification would be undertaken by certification bodies duly accredited asper international standards by theNational Accreditation Board forCertification Bodies (NABCB), aconstituent of the QCI and part of theinternational system operated underthe aegis of the InternationalAccreditation Forum. Already, over

half a dozen certification bodies,mainly with international linkagesand experience, have approachedQCI to be part of the system.

The project also envisagesidentification and upgradation oflaboratories in India to equip them totest as per the standards finalised byMNRE and get them accredited asper international standard, ISO 17025.

MNRE has embarked on anambitious mission to promote off-grid applications of solar energy(both SPV and Solar Thermal) tomeet the targets set in the NationalSolar Mission for Phase-I. Thesewould include hybrid systems to

meet lighting and power,heating and cooling energyrequirements currentlybeing met or to bepotentially met by use ofdiesel and other fossil fuels.It is aiming to create aparadigm shift needed forcommoditisation of off-gridsolar applications. This isnecessary since the upscaling can only be reachedthrough market mode.Further, the

commoditisation can only happen ifthe approach of delivery becomesservice-oriented and there is roomfor competitive forces to drive downcost and promote innovation. Theproject would assure quality of solarsystems available to the commonman for domestic use.

QCI has already assisted theDepartment of AYUSH in launchinga voluntary certification scheme forAYUSH products and the FoodSafety and Standards Authority ofIndia in designing a restaurantgrading and certification systembased on food safety.

Dr Thuppil Venkatesh,Principal Advisor, QualityCouncil of India (QCI),

heads the National Referral Centrefor Led Poisoning in India (NRCLPI)became the first Indian to win theprestigious “Science, Honor andTruth” award recently conferred bythe Zubeita University, Lapaz,Bolivia. Zubeita University, in orderto spread its belief and practicingprinciples every year, recognise and honour distinguished scientistsand educationists with thisprestigious award.

Dr Venkatesh led a team fromQCI and the NRCLPI that wasinvited to present a paper on the“Comparative study on creativity inhuman population (High Landers)living under chronic hypoxicconditions in Tibet and Bolivia andexposed to lead”. He also delivereda talk on the effect of lead on thecreativity of millionsliving in high-altitude conditions,that he co-authoredwith Professor NShashidhara,Advisor, NRCLPI.

Often referred asthe “Lead Man ofIndia”, Dr ThuppilVenkatesh hasdone pioneering work in the area oflead poisoning in India. Along withthe Quality Council of India,NRCLPI has been instrumental increating lead awarenessprogrammes in schools and colleges.

Rare honour for Dr Thuppil Venkatesh

SOOLLAARR CCEELLLLSS TTAAPPPPIINNGG SSOOLLAARR EENNEERRGGYY:: QCI will be promoting standards for the solar industry with the Ministry ofNew and Renewable Energy.

Dr Thuppil Venkateshreceiving the award.


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In order to facilitate certification tothe internationally acceptedGlobalGap standards for good

agricultural practices in India, theQuality Council of India (QCI) hasfinalised an Indian nationalinterpretation of GlobalGap standardsfor crops which are being forwarded tothe GlobalGap secretariat in Germanyfor their endorsement. Once endorsed,the document would become arequirement for GlobalGap certificationin India and facilitate certification inIndian conditions.

GlobalGap (earlier EurepGap) is avoluntary initiative which has gainedworldwide acceptance and manyIndian exporters are facing a demandfor GobalGap certification. It isnecessary that India gives a suitableresponse to this initiative .EurepGaphas changed its name to GlobalGap(the Global Partnership for GoodAgricultural Practices. Think Global -Act Local) keeping in view the presentsituation, where EurepGap is no morelimited to European countries butextended to over 80 countries coveringabout 80,000 certification worldwide.

GlobalGap sets out voluntarystandards for the certification ofagricultural products. It establishes andharmonises standards for GoodAgricultural Practices around the globe.Since in each country the culturalpractices may differ, GlobalGap hasprovided in its regulations forestablishment of what is called theNational Technical Working Group(NTWG) in each country to align thecountry-specific practices with theGlobalGap.

GlobalGap seeks to gain qualifiedinputs from National Experts in theirown language. The establishment ofNTWG is an important step towardsthis goal. Any interpretation guidelinesas applicable in their respectivecountries developed by NTWG are

placed before GlobalGap for approval.Already over 17 countries includingArgentina, Brazil, China, Japan, Kenya,Thailand etc. have established theirNTWGs and benchmarked theirrespective countries’ GAP’s to newGlobalGap.

India has as much as 16, 20,388 sqkm of agricultural land and has a greatuntapped potential to enterinternational markets in agriculturalproduce sector. India needs to establisha conformity assessment infrastructurealigned with GlobalGap requirements.QCI, through its National AccreditationBoard for Certification Bodies (NABCB)has already put in place a scheme foraccreditation of certification bodies asper ISO Guide 65, which is the basis foraccreditation under GlobalGap and hasalready granted first accreditation toM/s Foodcert India Limited, aHyderabad-based certification body tocertify as per GlobalGap standards.NABCB has three more applicationsfrom certification bodies foraccreditation to ISO Guide 65.

Keeping this in view, QCI hadsigned a MoU with GlobalGap toestablish a NTWG in India in May2008. Dr Mangala Rai, the thensecretary (DARE) & DG ICAR wasappointed to chair the NTWG whichhas various stakeholders like concernedministries, retail chains, industry bodiesand certification bodies as members.

The three Task Forces formed underNTWG are:

TF-01: Interpretation of provisionsof GlobalGap Standards asapplicable under Indian situation(crop domain)TF-02: Identification of legal andregulatory provisions applicable tofarm practices and farm produce inIndia for compliance forimplementation of GlobalGapStandardsTF-03: Interpretation provisions ofGlobalGap Standards as applicableunder Indian situation (animaldomain)NTWG met four times in the last

one-and-a-half years to deliberate onthe national interpretation beforefinalising the draft made by TF-01.

NTWG has finalised the Indiainterpretation document on crop-basedmodules and initiated work on IndiaInterpretation covering animal domain.

At the request of Food Safety andStandards Authority of India (FSSAI)the Committee has initiated thedevelopment of IndiaGap standards intwo modules, these are:

Entry level GAP module coveringminimum base level requirementsfor implementation by smallfarmersIndiaGap module compatible withGlobalGap requirementsThe entry level standard has been

drafted and placed on QCI website forcomments. The second module ofIndiaGap is intended to bebenchmarked with GlobalGapstandards. This will harmoniseindustry-based GAPs being developedin the country.

FSSAI intends to create avoluntary certification framework inpartnership with QCI to enable thefood industry to source its rawmaterials from GAP-certifiedproducers.

Certification by GlobalGap for the agriculture sector in India has become mandatory to ensure goodagricultural practices. QCI has finalised an Indian interpretation of GlobalGap standards for cropsand, once endorsed, will facilitate certification in Indian conditions.

Indian interpretation ofGlobalGap standards initiated

Agricultural exports have to adhere to thestandards set by GlobalGap.


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