Press & News

Never Mind the Width Feel the Quality

July 1996, Business Eye, UK

Quality Guru Dr Madhav Mehra, president of India's Institute of Directors, and chairman-elect of the World Quality Council, says India is undergoing a revolution in its quality standards, with Britain in a strong position to help

In 1990 just one Indian company had won the universally recognised ISO 9000 quality management standards. By the end of last year 1,200 companies were ISO 9000 accredited, and by the end of this year around 3,000 will have qualified for the standard. It is anticipated that there will be around 15,000 Indian ISO 9000 rated organisations by the new millennium.

This revolution in standards is in some part down to the work of Dr Madhav Mehra, a former Indian government official, who over the past three decades has been involved with quality activities and institutions, and is himself recognised as a pioneer in quality management.

Dr Mehra, who was born in India, and now has homes in both India and the UK, first came to Britain in 1960's, where he studied for a PhD in Management by Objectives at the University of London. He went on to become director in the Ministry of Indian Railways, and taught both quantitive and behavioural management at schools in both India and internationally.

In 1974 he was back in London where he founded Quality Management International, the world's first quality consultancy on Total Quality Management and ISO 9000. Now, after more than 20 years of commitment to quality issues, Dr Mehra sees himself as chairman-elect of the new World Quality Council, which was officially formed at the 50th Annual Quality Congress of the Americann Society for Quality Control held in Chicago in May. full article