As a nation, we don’t believe quality adds to cost: Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal

India, as a nation, does not believe in quality adding to cost, Piyush Goyal, Union Commerce Minister and Industry, said on Monday at the inauguration of the 89th International Electrotechnical Commission General Meeting in New Delhi.

“We don’t believe quality adds to cost. In fact, quality reduces costs, brings efficiency in operations, and reduces wastage,” Goyal said in his address. He contextualised this by saying standards play an important role in India’s growth journey. “We have thousands of technical bodies and committees setting up standards. Initially, we focused on setting up standards and allowing organisations and institutions to implement them voluntarily. With the passage of time, we realised that we need to have a much stricter focus on the standards. Recently, we have begun introducing quality control orders, primarily as a means to raise awareness about the importance of quality,” Goyal explained.

Goyal said that good, high-quality standards are the need of the hour in a developing country like India, the fastest-growing large economy of the world, “where we hope to contribute much more not only to the nation’s development, but also to international growth and progress. 99% of global electric or electronic trade is based on IC standards,” he explained.

The minister also lauded the IEC for its theme around sustainability. “Fostering a sustainable world is the need of the hour, because India itself is very focused on sustainability as a pillar of growth. All of us in the world decided to address the challenge of climate change. Every Indian intrinsically believes in sustainability. We are born into a culture where we respect nature. We pray to every living and non-living organism. We pray to the sun, the trees, the water. It’s a theme which is non-negotiable in our growth journey,” he said.

He also said that India is focused on meeting its nationally determined contributions. “We laid it out in Paris and subsequently improved upon it through different COP announcements. Not because of force, or someone told us to be a part of the sustainable movement, but because we believe in it,” Goyal said. On a lighter note, he also recounted an incident from childhood where he was reprimanded for wasting electricity. “It inculcated a sense of understanding that natural resources are finite, and it is incumbent upon us to conserve those resources,” he added.

Goyal also averred that developing economies like India learn a lot, particularly from the developed world, and the quality standards that have helped economies grow across the length and breadth of the world. “We believe that such initiatives, such engagements of ideas, systems and methods to decide on standards, when done together with the developed world, with other countries, will not only harmonise standards and bring standards to a minimum threshold of high quality, but also open trade, expand open markets to promote free trade.”