The Role of Industry Associations in Enhancing Quality and Capacity Building in India: The Example of the Confederation of Indian Industry

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led, and industry-managed organization founded in 1895, has been involved in leading and participating positions of a broad range of quality improvement activities ever since the start of the quality movement in India. The starting point was Quality Circles organized by CII since the early 1980s, By the early 1990s, CII in co-operation with the EU and the Department of Industrial Promotion developed the blueprint for the Quality Council of India. It supported the introduction of total quality management and organized several related competitions and awards. A cluster approach was especially meant to enhance quality for Indian SMEs. CII led several movements to promote quality management methods, and it is holding the annual CII Quality Summit bringing together hundreds of delegates from all over India and overseas. This contribution further introduces the CII Institute of Quality and concludes with an outlook on next challenges such as “Quality 4.0” referring to the future of quality and organizational excellence within the context of Industry 4.0.