India’s accreditation system ranked 5th globally; overall quality infrastructure system in Top 10

Source: The post is based on the article “India’s accreditation system ranked 5th globally; overall quality infrastructure system in Top 10” published in PIB on 10th February 2023

What is the News?

According to the Global Quality Infrastructure Index(GQII) 2021, India has been ranked as the 5th best country in the world when it comes to its accreditation system.

What is the Global Quality Infrastructure Index(GQII)?

GQII ranks the 184 economies in the world on the basis of quality infrastructure (QI). 

A formula calculates a score for each country based on its position in the sub-rankings for metrology, standards and accreditation.

The index is supported by Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany.

What is India’s ranking in GQII 2021?

India’s overall ranking is still 10th in the GQII index.

In terms of metrology and standardization, India was ranked 21st and 9th respectively, in the world.

Note: In India, the Quality Council of India(QCI) is the national body for accreditation, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the main body for the formulation of standards and the Council Of Scientific And Industrial Research – National Physical Laboratory(CSIR-NPL) for the metrology system.

What is Accreditation?

Accreditation helps establish the competence and credibility of conformity assessment bodies (CABs) which perform testing, certification, inspection, etc. 

The National Accreditation System as per international standards in India are established by the Quality Council of India (QCI).

The accreditation is carried out through the constituent Boards of QCI primarily the 1) National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) which provides accreditation to the certification, inspection, and validation/verification bodies and 2) National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories(NABL) which provides accreditation to the testing, calibration and medical laboratories.