November 12, 2001
'39' BEST OF ALL’ AWARDS TO AMUL AND TATA CUMMINSRAJIV GANDHI NATIONAL QUALITY AWARDS PRESENTED
Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited, Anand (Amul) and Tata Cummins Limited, Jameshedpur bagged the Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award, 1999 under the Best of All category. The quality award for large scale manufacturing industry went to Lakshmi Machine Works Limited (Textile Machinery Division), Coimbatore while the Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award for service sector was given to Honeywell India Software Operation Private Limited, Bangalore. The awards were distributed by Shri Shanta Kumar, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution at a function organised by the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) here today.
The quality award for Small Scale Manufacturing Industry was shared by John’s Umbrella Mart and Popy Umbrealla Mart, Alleppey. Commendation certificates were also issued on the occasion under categories of large and small scale-chemical industry; electrical and electronic industry; engineering industry; food and drug industry; metallurgical industry; textile industry. Under service sector the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd. (HUDCO), New Delhi won the award for the year 1999.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Shanta Kumar expressed concern over the result of a recent survey conducted by BIS on the purity of gold jewellry in certain selected shops at Delhi, Jaipur and Hyderabad where the items were not conforming to the declared purity. In some cases it was found to be short by almost 30 per cent. The total consumption of gold in India is estimated at 800 tonne annually and misdeclaration of purity could lead to considerable loss to the consumers; the Minister pointed out.
Shri V. Sreenivasa Prasad, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, who is also the Vice President of BIS emphasised the need for producing quality goods as there is greater awareness of quality among consumers in the country. Therefore organisations should institute an ongoing assessment of their quality for greater customer satisfaction, he suggested.
The Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Awards have been designed by BIS to be in line with similar awards of advanced countries, like the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards, USA; Deming Prize in Japan and the European Quality Award. It is based on the Total Quality Management model. The winners are selected by the National Awards Committee chaired by the Secreatry, Department of Consumer Affairs.