Isi Decries Exclusion From National Quality Council

The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) yesterday decried its exclusion from the quality council set up by government. Though we mooted the idea of quality council during the Narsimha Rao government, ISI was not made a part of it, ISI chairman P N Haksar told a conference on `Statistical Methods for Quality and Productivity Improvement Current Trends.

Haksar said the council, headed by industrialist Ratan Tata, did not have expertise in scientific and technical

matters due to absence of ISI, which has already worked a great deal in total quality management (TQM).

Quality management was a bigger challenge for India than the globalisation, Haksar, a former member of the Planning Commission said.

 

`In a country of social, cultural, political and economic complexities, quality control and management should be a prime focus area, he said.

He rued the incidents of rejection of Indian goods at the international markets on quality grounds that were being disposed off in domestic markets as export rejects.

This is a sheer national wastage. Why do we have to suffer rejection even after 50 years of independence, he wondered.

India has talent in terms of manpower, material and processing of technology. The question is of optimising it, Haksar said.

C R Rao of Pennsylvania State University said, to achieve full benefits of statistical approach, the executives, the statisticians and the data collectors must work as a team and should have the knowledge to communicate with each other.

Rao said India was lagging in areas like research and development to use latest technology and experimenting different designs and to choose best of it.

Although we rely on modern technology, in an era of rapidly changing technology, decision making was extremely important, he said.

The customer is aware of quality but the industry should get feedback from customers, which will help producer to produce quality product, Rao added