The government is mapping all laboratories in the country in a bid to plug the critical gaps and modernise them to make India a quality-conscious country, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.
State-run Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has already mapped 3,000-odd NABL-accredited non-diagnostic laboratories in the country. It is mulling how to map the non-accredited non-diagnostic labs set up by PSUs, industries and education institutes like IITs.
Addressing a day-long seminar on 'Emerging global trends in laboratories for self-reliant India', Goyal said: "Unless we are leaders in quality, we will not be able to become a developed nation and leverage the fruits of international engagement that we are trying to expand."
The time is right to engage with the private sector to build a roadmap to make India a "quality-conscious country" by strengthening infrastructure, adopting modern technology and focusing on sustainability.
"We have started the process of