more-in It is imperative for the industry to maintain high quality and reduce costs to the minimum to compete in the domestic and international markets, Director (Commercial) of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant P. Ray Chaudhury has said. Annual convention Addressing the inaugural session of a two-day annual convention of the local chapter of the Quality Circles Forum of India (QCFI) here on Thursday, he said quality was not a concept confined to the production processes but encompasses all aspects of the functioning of an industrial unit, or any organisation. “It is in the wider sense that the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant is inculcating quality consciousness among its staff," Mr. Ray Chaudhury said. He said innovation was the key to improving quality and reducing costs and therefore, industry should reward innovations with incentives. Director of the Centre for Policy Studies A. Prasanna Kumar, who was the chief guest, said there was a time during the British era when the colonial rulers scoffed at the Tatas for taking up steel production recalling the sarcastic comment that the steel produced in India could be consumed like biscuits. “But the joke was on them and they were proved wrong. In fact, the British used the steel produced by the Tatas to lay the railway lines," he recalled. He complimented the steel plant not only for producing quality steel but promoting quality consciousness. Prof. Prasanna Kumar lamented that the British rule had proved disastrous for India stating that there was a time in the nineteenth century when India was in the forefront along with China in world trade with its goods qualitatively far superior to those of other countries. Executive Director in the steel plant and Chairman of the QCFI local chapter O.R Ramani and vice-chairman V. Narayana spoke. Secretary M.S. Srinivas said 112 quality circle teams, 35 of them from the steel plant alone, were participating in the convention and presenting case studies. The national convention of the QCFI will be held in Mysuru in December.

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