From the ramparts of the Red Fort in 2014, the Prime Minister had articulated the vision of ‘Zero Defect, Zero Effect’, underscoring the importance of Quality and Environment for Make in India for the World. The vision has since been reiterated, with the Minister for Commerce and Industry also emphasising that quality is the key for India to become globally competitive.

Manufacturing in India and around the world, is redefining itself through a digital transformation; integrating technologies — IoT, AI and advanced robotics — to enable real-time data analysis, automate processes, customise production and improve efficiency across the entire manufacturing lifecycle, from design to production. This allows for greater flexibility and responsiveness to rapidly changing market demands.

India’s manufacturing sector has remained at 15 -17 per cent of GDP for decades with an ambitious target of 25 per cent. Back of the envelope calculations indicate that, with a GDP of $4 trillion in 2024-25 and manufacturing at 15 per cent of GDP, the absolute contribution of manufacturing will be $0.6 trillion. The corresponding numbers for 2030-31 could be $6 trillion, 20 per cent and $1.2 trillion.

In effect a doubling of the dollar value in 5-6 years to stay on course. And for 2047-48: $30 trillion, 25 per cent and $7.5 trillion respectively.

The government has launched several initiatives — Make in India, Atmanirbhar Bharat and PLI schemes — to drive industrial growth. However, for India to compete with powerhouses like Germany, Japan, Korea and China, a fundamental pillar must be strengthened — quality. The National Manufacturing Mission (NMM) announced recently in the Budget, rightly identifies Quality as one of its core pillars.

The Need for a Unified Quality Interface (UQI) with a vast and diverse industrial landscape— home to thousands of MSMEs — ensuring quality consistency remains a challenge. While Quality Gurus like Deming and Juran did not explicitly mention a Unified Quality Interface, their principles emphasised integration, standardisation and proactive quality management.

UNIDO defines a Quality Infrastructure (QI) System as a network of institutions, regulations, service providers, enterprises and consumers ensuring Quality across industries.

However, India’s quality assurance is fragmented across multiple regulatory bodies, standards and certifications, leading to inefficiencies, inconsistencies, rework costs and frequent quality disputes, resulting in a perception of unreliability, especially among global buyers.

Key Challenges

Currently, there is information asymmetry, i.e. participants in the QI have no real-time mechanism to verify compliance of materials, processes and final products with national and international standards.

There is also a lack of digital linkage, i.e. a regulator does not have direct, digital access to real-time production quality data, forcing manufacturers to undergo repetitive, time-consuming testing cycles.

Further, since conformity assessment and accreditation processes are manual and fragmented, regulatory approvals take longer, slowing down market entry for Indian manufacturers.

Finally, market surveillance mechanisms are post-facto and reactive, rather than real-time, which is essential for precision industries.

Despite having agencies like the BIS, FSSAI, NABL, NABH, ARAI, line ministries and regulators etc. India lacks a centralised framework to unify the efforts of each one.

The UQI can be a comprehensive, modular, and scalable digital ecosystem built on open-standards by leveraging the Digital Public Infrastructure.

It can serve as the foundational infrastructure for quality assurance, ensuring real-time data access, automated workflows and transparency.

At its heart lie two fundamental pillars: Core Infrastructure Primitives and Elemental Services. It can provide a single-window approach to quality management, ensuring that Indian products meet international standards like ISO, ASTM, CE and FDA.

Benefits of a UQI

Ensuring transparency and trust in quality assurance: A UQI will eliminate information asymmetry by ensuring real-time access to standards, testing, accreditation, certification and market surveillance records. It will create a single source of truth for registries with robust data governance.

AI driven anomaly detection systems can flag suspicious supply-chain activity or certification patterns, letting regulators act decisively to protect citizens and businesses.

Streamlining regulatory compliance and future proofing: As policies or compliance requirements change, the governance and policy enforcement engine can be updated or replaced. New enforcement rules can get propagated through well-defined APIs, sparing the agencies from a major monolithic overhaul.

Strengthening India’s trade competitiveness: A UQI will enable a National Trade Network (NTN) for seamless digital filing of export-import compliances. Tokenization of compliance will allow manufacturers to receive compliance tokens exchangeable for incentives like reduced transaction fees or faster government approvals.

Driving digital adoption across MSMEs: Most MSMEs struggle with fragmented quality standards and costly compliance processes. A UQI-based digital infrastructure will make quality compliance affordable and accessible, helping MSMEs integrate into global supply chains.

Real-time anomaly detection and faster grievance redressal: A UQI can flag unusual patterns like supply-chain risks, fraudulent certifications and potential product safety standards. This will help regulators intervene more swiftly. It will also help in faster grievance redressal of citizens’ concerns.

In conclusion, as India aspires to become the third largest economy with a GDP of $6 trillion by 2030, of which the manufacturing sector’s contribution should be at least 20 per cent or $1.2 trillion, a Unified Quality Interface must be institutionalised as the central digital infrastructure for quality assurance.

India can then leapfrog traditional quality bottlenecks and inconsistencies, ensure regulatory harmonisation and emerge as a trusted, high quality global manufacturing powerhouse; where precision, compliance and innovation are seamlessly integrated. This is a prerequisite to attracting more and more high value investments in semiconductors, electric vehicles and in the advanced manufacturing industries.

By embracing a UQI, India can transform compliance into a competitive advantage, ensuring that ‘Make in India’ is globally recognised, respected and trusted for its Quality. This will indeed be a defining step in India’s journey to a Viksit Bharat by 2047.

A Unified Quality Interface is not just a technological intervention; it is a strategic imperative for India to become a global manufacturing powerhouse.