Today, many products require testing for conformance with specifications or compliance with safety or other regulations before they can be put on many markets. Even simpler products may require supporting technical documentation that includes test data. With so much trade taking place across borders, it may just not be practical for these activities to be carried out by suppliers and customers, but rather by specialized third parties. In addition, national legislation may require such testing to be carried out by independent bodies, particularly when the products concerned have health or environmental implications. In fact, conformity assessment has become an important component of world trade which is most often carried out by specialist organizations, such as inspection and certification bodies and testing laboratories. QCI coordinates programmes for conformity assessment and related processes.
Certification is the procedure by which a third party gives written assurance that a product, process, system or person conforms to specified requirements.
In India awareness on Quality is still at a nascent state. There is need to propagate concepts of quality within all suppliers of products and services especially on quality standards, quality tools and best practices. Equally consumers must be empowered to demand quality. This can only happen when there is large scale quality campaign across the country. The purpose of National Quality Campaign is to educate both suppliers and consumers on modern concepts of quality.