Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Monday, May 1, has said that India should take lead in making quality products available to the world at an affordable price.
Inaugurating the 4th National Standards Conclave organised by the Department of Commerce in association with CII, BIS, EIC, FSSAI, APEDA and NABCB she emphasised while standards as signifying quality are important but they also need to be affordable for manufacturers to comply and consumers to buy.
She also said that the Prime Minister’s Zero Effect Zero Defect idea aims at exactly this. She cited The Mangalyan launch costing and world-class quality is a prime example of quality with affordability.
The Minister appreciated that a ‘standards strategy document’ is going to be the possible outcome of this conclave, however, she emphasised that long-term strategy should not lose sight of immediate challenges. stating that any national strategy for standards should be able to factor in technology to disseminate any change in import requirements in foreign countries so that our exporters are well prepared to overcome those barriers.