'Tough getting companies to ensure quality': Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal

New Delhi: Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal Wednesday said the government is putting its effort to nudge industry to get into the manufacturing of high quality products as it is a "tough" task to get industry to accept that they should be making quality goods. He also asked industry to focus on making high quality products to tap global markets as export competitiveness will not come from government subsidies or support.

"Our export competitiveness is not going to come from subsidies or government support. It is not going to come from our closing the doors to the rest of the world," Goyal said at an Indian Foundation for Quality Management event.

"If we are looking at self-reliant India, it can only happen when India will be self-confident and that confidence will only come when we all decide that quality is not our job, it is our duty," he said, and added that if the Indian industry is not competitive in any product, that can be imported but the industry has to work towards competitiveness where it has a comparative advantage with other nations.

Noting that till 2014, only 14 quality control orders (QCO) covering 106 products were issued, he said in the last 10 years, the government has issued as many as 174 such orders covering 732 products.

Citing an example of the pharma industry, the minister urged the big industry players to handhold and support MSME units in this area. "We still have a lot of work to do in terms of getting industry aligned with these QCOs," he said.