The National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB), a constituent of the Quality Council of India (QCI), has awarded T?? S?? South Asia with ISO 17020:1998 accreditation, which specifies requirements for the competence of bodies performing inspection and for the impartiality and consistency of their inspection activities.

Under the new accreditation, T?? S?? South Asia would be commissioning inspections across the food (sea food), textile, leather, gas pipeline and infrastructure sectors. The company would also be issuing related inspection reports and/or certificates that would reflect if products/project activities are meeting the various customer and/or legal requirements. The Mumbai, Delhi, Tirupur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad offices of T?? S?? South Asia have been covered under this accreditation. The Type A accreditation of ISO 17020:1998 signifies accreditation to third party inspection service providers. This accreditation would be valid for a period of three years starting from July 2012 until July 2015.

"We are delighted to have been awarded the ISO 17020:1998 accreditation by the NABCB. The accreditation is a clear indication of the fact that our inspectors across India are technically competent to inspect products made by various manufacturers and projects carried in infrastructure industry," said Niranjan Nadkarni, CEO, T?? S?? South Asia.

The ISO 17020:1998 is the general criteria for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection and is an internationally recognized standard. The standard is specific to a large variety of systems beyond quality management systems and requires thorough evaluation of technical competence of the inspecting body.

The National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) undertakes assessment of inspection bodies applying for accreditation as per the predefined criteria in line with international standards and guidelines. The board is a part of the Quality Council of India (QCI), which operates under the aegis of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and was established in 1998, through the joint initiatives of the Government of India and various industry bodies like CII, FICCI and AssoCham. The NABCB was established with the objective to offer accreditation schemes in India, based on internationally accepted standards, for certification bodies and inspection bodies engaged in providing services of system certification (ISO 9001, ISO 14001 etc), product certification and inspection.