IGMPI courses not approved by QCI: RTI response

NEW DELHI: The Quality Council of India (QCI) does not grant approval to education programmes, the body said in response to a query filed under the Right to Information Act. This throws up questions about the diploma, postgraduate diploma and certificate courses offered by the Institute of Good Manufacturing Practices India (IGMPI) whose website claims they are “approved by the Quality Council of India”.

The IGMPI website states: “Based on the high standard of quality, the training programmes in pharma, healthcare and food GMP, quality assurance and quality control, regulatory affairs, IPR [intellectual property rights], pharma product management, public health, hospital management, clinical research, pharmacovigilance, medical writing, medical coding, nanotechnology, drug design and discovery, food QA & QC, etc areas are approved by Quality Council of India, which is an autonomous body and an accreditation authority for education and vocational training providers under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India”.

The site’s accreditation page also claims that its courses are “duly assessed and approved” by the QCI. However, the QCI’s RTI response says otherwise. Questions sent to its director went unanswered. If they respond, this story will be updated.

The QCI was established as a national body for accreditation and was set up as an autonomous organisation with the support of the Government of India and Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

‘Expired in 2015’

Asked whether the QCI has approved the IGMPI courses and on what basis such approval was granted in the RTI application, the QCI responded writing: “Institute of Good Manufacturing Practices India (IGMPI) courses empanelled with NBQP/ QCI ha[ve] expired in 2015. It may kindly be noted that the aforesaid institute was a Corporate Member of NBQP/ QCI under the Professional Membership Scheme only which was valid till May 2019.” The response further said: “Further, IGMPI had empaneled some courses under [the] Empanelment Scheme between January 2014 and January 2015. However, the Empanelment Scheme was discontinued in May 2015 and as per the policy, the concerned information regarding the approval process is not available with NBQP/ QCI.”

The same RTI response also clarified the QCI and its constituent body, National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies’ (NABCB), role in accreditation, specifically, the areas in which they operate. According to the response, “the broad areas in which accreditation is provided are management systems, product or process certification, certification of persons, inspection, validation and verification across industry sectors”.

The response pointed out that the NABCB is recognized internationally and is a signatory to the Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MRA) which provides equivalence and acceptance of audit reports and certificates.

AICTE role

As per norms, any institute offering technical programmes must be approved by the apex technical education regulator, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). “If any institution is found offering technical programmes (except architecture and pharmacy) without the approval of the Council, it shall be declared as an unapproved Institution,” says AICTE’s policy.

The IGMPI is absent from the list of AICTE-approved institutions on the regulator’s official website.

To confirm, Careers360 sought details on IGMPI’s approval status from AICTE through a separate RTI application which went into appeal. The appellate authority, believing a grievance was being reported, said: “I would like to inform you that RTI is not a platform to resolve a grievance, if you are not satisfied, you may place your Grievance/complaint about AICTE Approved institution to the 'Public Grievances Redressal Cell' as per point 8.17 of Approval Process Handbook 2022-23 (APH) stating the facts with relevant supporting documents, if any.”

Revised annually, the Approval Process Handbook contains AICTE’s policy for approving courses and institutions and also sets out norms and regulations for specific programmes. The body’s response, however, didn’t disclose IGMPI’s recognition or approval status.