India moved up four notches in the ranking of accreditation systems for quality standard to bag the fifth position amongst 184 countries, per the latest Global Quality Infrastructure Index (GQII) 2021. 

In overall quality infrastructure (QI), the country’s ranking stayed unchanged in GQII 2021 at tenth, when compared to GQII 2020, but it slipped two places in both the GQI for metrology to the 21st position and GQI for standardisation to the ninth position.

“Geographically, the top 25 are mainly located in Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific, with some exceptions, such as India (10th), Brazil (13th), Australia (14th), Turkey (16th), Mexico (18th) and South Africa (20th),” the report noted.

The GQII ranks 184 countries according to the relative development of their QI. A formula calculates a score for each country based on its position in the sub-rankings for metrology, standards and accreditation. GQII 2021 was released in December 2022.

“We are proud that India is rated among the top five accrediting systems in the world...We anticipate that India will pave the way for more collaborations aimed at creating resilient systems of high-quality infrastructure,” the Quality Council of India (QCI) said in a tweet

Working on QI policy

To bring about more clarity on the country’s strategy on QIs, the Centre is working on a QI policy which will seek to recognise national accreditation system through a law, increase penetration of accreditation facilities in small cities and towns, and shift to third party inspection from government inspection, senior officials said at a press briefing on Friday.

“QI is the system through which a country assures the world that the system of quality consciousness is firmly in place and working for India’s growth as a strong trading nation. It consists of a body which makes standards (BIS), a body which ensures measurements are standardised (NPL-CSIR) and a body which makes sure that the bodies which do testing & certification have integrity & follow international standards (QCI),” according to a release issued by the DPIIT.