FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT
RAJIV GANDHI NATIONAL QUALITY AWARD (RGNQA)
Q. 1 What is Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award?
Rajiv Gandhi National Quality
Award was instituted by the Bureau of Indian Standards in 1991, with a view to
encouraging Indian manufacturing and service organizations to strive for
excellence and giving special recognition to those who are considered to be the
leaders of quality movement in
Q.2 How this award
helps in improving Quality?
Rajiv Gandhi National Quality
Award would help Indian Industry to improve quality by:
a)
Encouraging
Indian Industry to make significant improvements in quality for maximizing
consumer satisfaction and for successfully facing competition in the global
market as well;
b)
Recognizing
the achievements of those organizations which have improved the quality of
their products and services and thereby set an example for others;
c)
Establishing
guidelines and criteria that can be used by industry in evaluating their own
quality improvement efforts; and
d)
Providing
specific guidance to other organizations that wish to learn how to achieve
excellence in quality, by making available detailed information on the `Quality
Management Approach' adopted by award winning organizations to change their
culture and achieve eminence.
Q.3 What are the various
awards and commendation certificates?
There are five awards consisting of one for
large scale manufacturing organizations, one for small scale manufacturing
organizations, one for large scale service sector organizations, one for small
scale service sector organizations and one for BEST OF ALL. In addition, there are eight commendation
certificates each for large scale and small scale manufacturing organizations
as per industrial sectors given below:
a)
Bio-technology;
b)
Chemical
industry;
c)
Electrical
and electronic industry;
d)
Food
and drug industry;
e)
Gems,
jewellary and allied industry;
f)
Metallurgical
industry;
g)
Textile
industry; and
h)
Engineering
industry and others.
Further,
there are six commendation certificates each for large scale and small scale
service organizations in the following sectors:
a)
Education
b)
Finance,
c)
Health Care,
d)
Information Technology,
e)
Utilities, and
f)
Others.
Q.4 What
is eligibility to compete for his award?
An
organization is eligible to compete for the award, if it satisfies all the
following conditions:
a)
Applicant organization is located in
b)
Applicant organization has been in
existence for at least three years as on last date of the application.
c)
Applicant organization is situated at one
place or a unit of an organization housed at one location,
d)
Applicant organization has never been
convicted by any court for deficiency in product or service and/or found guilty
of financial irregularities by any regulatory authority or court. An undertaking to this effect will have to be
submitted.
e)
Applicant organization is not
manufacturing products, like tobacco and liquor etc which are injurious to
health.
A Sub-unit which performs only support functions for the parent
organization such as, sales, marketing, distribution, finance, human resources
and health are not eligible. [A Sub-unit is a Unit or Division of a larger
organization (Parent organization) which owns or has organizational and/ or
financial control of sub-unit]
Further, if
an applicant organization has earlier received an award, it is not eligible to
apply for an award for next three awards. However, this condition will not
apply to those applicant organizations which have received commendation
certificate.
Q.5 What is the
fee for applying this award?
Application Fee
For large scale organizations (manufacturing or service) Rs. 5 000
For small scale organizations (manufacturing or service) Rs. 1 500
The
application fee includes the cost of preliminary screening of the application,
and shall be payable along with the application form. In case application form,
downloaded from BIS website, is used for applying for the award, an additional
amount of Rs 200/- is required to be submitted along
with the application fee.
Assessment Fee
The
applicant organization, which after preliminary screening is selected for
fact-finding and evaluation visits, will have to pay the assessment fee as
under:
For large
scale organizations (manufacturing or service) (two-days visit) Rs. 40
000
For small
scale organizations (manufacturing or
service) (one-day
visit) Rs. 10 000
In addition to the above assessment fee,
the applicant organizations will also have to bear to-and-fro travel and local
hospitality expenses for evaluation committee members visiting their
organizations.
Q.6 What
is the assessment process?
All the applications received shall be screened
as per the criteria laid down on the basis of information provided by the
applicant organization. Applicants selected in preliminary screening will
become eligible for fact-finding and evaluation visits. A team of experts appointed for this purpose
would visit the applicant organization for on-the-spot study and evaluation.
Q.7 How
are the awardees selected?
The assessment for large scale organization will
be made on the basis of nine parameters, namely, Leadership; Policies,
Objectives and strategies; Human resource management;
Resources; Processes; Customer focused results; Employees’ satisfaction, Impact
on environment and society; and Business results.
The assessment for small
scale organization will be made on the basis of six parameters, namely,
Leadership; Human resource management; Processes; Customer focused results;
Impact on environment and society; and Business results.
Q.8 What
are benefits to the applicant organizations?
¬
It
will enable the organization to assess its own level of commitment to
quality. It will also indicate the
extent to which this commitment is being deployed through every level of the
organization and in all areas of activities.
¬
Further,
after the process of self assessment is completed, the organization will be in
a position to analyze its strengths and weaknesses.
Q.9 What
are the benefits to the award winners/recipients of commendation certificates?
¬
Award
winning organization(s) will be reckoned as champions of quality movement in
¬
Award
winners can publicize their achievements on their printed and publicity
material. However, if a unit of an
organization is selected for the award, it will be permitted to publicize its
achievements on the printed and publicity material of that unit only, and not
that of entire corporate body.
¬
Awards will be presented in a glittering
ceremony in presence of top ranking personalities from government, professional
bodies, industry, and consumer associations.
¬
Award winners may have leverage in
business on being recognized as the best.
¬
In
addition to the above, the following financial incentives in the form of cash
awards will also be given:
|
TYPE OF THE AWARD |
NUMBER |
CASH AWARD/ INCENTIVE |
|
BEST OF ALL |
1 |
Rs. 500 000 |
|
Category awards (1 each for Large Scale and Small Scale
Manufacturing organizations and Service Organizations) |
4 |
Rs. 100 000 |
|
Commendation Certificate (8 each for Large Scale and Small Scale
Manufacturing Organizations and 5 each for Large Scale and Small Scale
Service Organizations) |
28 |
Rs. 50 000 |
Q.10 Does
the award amount to a product or service endorsement for the recipients?
No.
The award is given because an organization has shown it has an outstanding
system for managing its products, services, human resources, customer
relationships etc. As part of the evaluation, an organization is asked to
describe its system for assuring the quality of its goods and services. It also
must supply information on quality improvement and customer satisfaction
efforts and results. That does not mean that a recipient’s products or services
are endorsed.
Q.11 Are RGNQA recipients asked
to share their successful strategy?
One
of the main purposes of the award is to pass on information about the
recipient’s performance excellence strategies that other organizations can
tailor for their own needs. Representatives from the award recipients willingly
have shared their organizations’ performance strategies and methods through
seminars organized by BIS.
Q.12 Is RGNQA similar with other
awards in developing countries?
The award has been designed in line with similar
awards in other developed countries, like Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award in