CII quality awards for seven firms

The Confederation of Indian Industry's "Commendation for Significant Achievement in 2005" have been bagged by seven companies "" Alexandria Carbon Black Co., Egypt, Birla Cellulosic, Bharuch, BHEL, Bhopal, BHEL, Hardwar, BHEL, Trichy, Tata Motors (Commercial Vehicles Business Unit), Mumbai and Titan Industries, Hosur.

The awards were presented by Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro Ltd and K N Shenoy, chairman, CII Institute of Quality at 12th CII-Quality Summit, in Bangalore on Thursday.

The Kotdwara and Panchkula Units of premier defence PSU, Bharat Electronics Limited, bagged the commendation for "Strong Commitment to Excel".

BEL's Kotdwara Unit bagged the Commendation Certificate last year also. The two units of BEL, along with 20 other companies bagged the commendation for "Strong Commitment to Excel".

While there was an increased awareness about quality as was seen in the number of applicants during this year, none of the companies managed to bag the all-important "CII-EXIM Bank Award for Business Excellence 2005".

This award was jointly instituted in 1994 by CII and EXIM Bank to promote business excellence and competitiveness in Indian industry. The award is decided by a jury of eminent top executives from the Indian industry after a rigorous scrutiny by a group of professional assessors appointed by the CII.

This particular award is given a company that demonstrates excellence in results on a sustained basis, pertaining to its various stakeholders, through robust process management.

The award is based on the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Model for Business Excellence. It is administered by CII with the technical support from EFQM, Brussels.

This year, the jury conducted site visits to 43 companies who had applied for the awards. This is a four-fold increase when compared to last year, according to Surinder Kapur, chairman, CII National Committee on Quality and managing director, Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd.