The third quality summit of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), held f rom November 2-4 at Bangalore, focussed on several initiatives adopted by India and the European Union to mark a significant difference in the quality movement of business in India.

Emphasizing heavily on quality as a too[ for business excellence, R C Bhargava, managing director of Maruti Udyog, and chairman, Cil National Committee on Quality, said, 'The rules of the game have dramatically changed in the last four years. Indian industry could survive and grow only if it focussed on quality and total customer satisfaction."

One of the most significant initiatives of the summit was the proposal for setting up of a National Quality Council. The council would provide impetus to make quality a national priority.

Roy Peacock, representative, European Foundation for Quality Management, pointed out that business results and societal impacts are essential to draw up a satisfactory link between Total Quality Management and business outputs.

Kozo Kouro f rom Asahi University, Japan, said, "Customer satisfaction comes first and business excellence comes second. Profit is very important but short profit is not good. Customer expectation drives quality and this contributes to long. term profits."

Suresh Rajpal, president HewlettPackard India, provided a significant perspective to the issue insisting that "employee satisfaction drives customer satisfaction".