QCI Hosts III International Convention on Sustainable Trade & Standard

Quality Council of India (QCI), an autonomous organization of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, hosted the ‘International Conference on Sustainable Trade and Standards (ICSTS)’ in New Delhi on 2 November 2023.

• The two-day ICST is organized by the Indian National Forum on Private Sustainability Standards and hosted by QCI in collaboration with the United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS).

A bilateral agreement between QCI and ARSO:

• The conference resulted in a bilateral agreement between QCI and the African Standardization Organization (ARSO) to strengthen trade relations and harmonize standards which will improve the global trade landscape.
• Global GAP through National Technical Working Group (NTWG) arrangement. Benchmarking of Indgy.AP and creation of National Interpretation Guidelines (NIGs) also took place during ICTS which is expected to benefit about 12,000 farmers.
• Continuing our mutual engagement, India has signed agreements with Brazil, Mexico and now the African Regional Standards Organization for cooperation on voluntary sustainability standards.

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) Initiative:

• ONDC's digitization initiative would be as per its commitment to fuel the e-commerce revolution, making trade more accessible and efficient in the digital age.

• Other benefits of ONDC Initiative:

  • This would provide necessary support to IEC/ISO standards regarding materials, product characteristics, methods of calculation, formats of declarations;
  • Confidentiality and reliability will be ensured;
  • This would facilitate decentralized communication between peers for complete data sovereignty of all partners.
• ONDC identified QCI to assess the digital readiness of entities to seamlessly onboard them onto vendor apps in the ONDC network.

Quality Council of India (QCI):

• Establishment: QCI was established as a national body in 1996.
• QCI was established as an independent autonomous organization through PPP model with the support of the Government of India and Indian industry represented by three major industry associations; 
• Which are as follows:
  • ASSOCHAM- Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India
  • Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
  • FICCI (FICCI)
• QCI is a non-profit organization registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of the year 1860.
• The nodal agency for operating the Indian Quality Council is the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Objective of QCI:

• The objective of QCI is to establish a mechanism for independent third-party evaluation of products, services and processes.
• QCI plays a vital role at the national level in promotion, adoption and adherence to quality standards in all significant areas of activities including education, health care, environment protection, governance, infrastructure sector, social sectors, and such other areas of organized activities.

Structure of QCI:

• QCI is governed by a Council of 38 members with equal representation from government, industry and consumers.
• Its Chairman is appointed by the Prime Minister on the basis of recommendations made by the industry.