Mr. Anil Relia, CEO, NABL is M.Tech. from IIT, New Delhi. He has more than 25 years of experience in laboratory accreditation system and played a pivotal role in the growth of NABL accreditation and its activities.
He was instrumental in the International Recognition of NABL as Signatory Member to Asia pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) Mutual Recognition Arrangement. He has also served APLAC as Member, Board of Management for more than two years.
He is a trained APLAC Evaluator and has evaluated many international accreditation bodies.
NABL-ROLE IN PUBLIC HEALTH AND PATIENT SAFETY
NABL is a constituent board of Quality Council of India. It has been established with an objective of providing Government, Industry Associations and Industry in general with a scheme of Conformity Assessment Body’s accreditation which involves third-party assessment of the technical competence of testing including medical and calibration laboratories, proficiency testing providers and reference material producers.
NABL accreditation is a voluntary program and despite being so, it has gained momentum and acceptance over the years amongst regulators and end users. It has expanded its customer base by providing value added accreditation services. By being a signatory to Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation (APLAC) Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRA) and International Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation (ILAC) MRA since 2000, NABL has worked towards removing the technical barriers to trade. Such international arrangements facilitate acceptance of test / calibration results between countries to which MRA partners represent thereby enhancing our stakeholder’s confidence in their high quality value driven services.
In order to achieve the objective of the acceptance of test/calibration data across the borders, NABL operates and is committed to update its accreditation system as per international norms.
ACCREDITATION SCHEMES: NABL has an evenhanded approach towards grant of accreditation services and is currently giving accreditation in the following fields and disciplines:
VISION: To be the world’s leading accreditation body and to enhance stakeholders’ confidence in its services.
MISSION: To strengthen the accreditation system accepted across the globe by providing high quality, value driven services, fostering APLAC/ILAC MRA, empanelling competent assessors, creating awareness among the stake holders, initiating new programs supporting accreditation activities and pursuing organizational excellence.
BENEFITS OF ACCREDITATION: As a benchmark, laboratory quality is demonstrated by compliance to ISO standards which is enabled in India through NABL accreditation. It gives global equivalence, helps in better control of laboratory operations, improves staff and customers confidence and satisfaction. It emphasizes on the reliability of data for research and development, enhances business, supports in the event of legal cases, cost effective as it saves time and re-testing.
PUBLIC HEALTH & QUALITY OF LIFE largely depends upon few areas of an economy. These areas include healthcare sector, food sector, drinking water & sanitation division, drugs & pharma segment and environment sector. Lately there has been a growing recognition and increased awareness on public health and patient safety which have made quality a critical dimension of universal health coverage.
People of India want quality products whether it is food, water, medicines or medical services. To provide these quality services and products, NABL works extensively with various regulators and government agencies to pursue quality standards at all levels which ensures quality of products, processes and systems not only for domestic consumption but also for trade across borders.
NABL’S CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS GOVERNEMENT SCHEMES
| Drinking Water
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a campaign by the Government of India to clean infrastructure of the country and with an aim to facilitate the scheme, NABL is working closely with Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation. In this context, NABL had conducted awareness programs for the Ministry with an objective to ensure safe and clean drinking water to the citizens. These programs were attended by participants from twenty-five different states comprising of Chief Chemists/Engineers from testing laboratories. NABL has also guided the training institute (CIPET) in conducting training programs on Quality Management systems and Internal audit for Water Quality Testing Laboratories as per ISO 17025:2005 at Chennai, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar and Bhopal. This has helped thirty drinking water testing laboratories in the first phase to gain accreditation. |
| Food
NABL conducted awareness programmes to sensitize the regulator in food sector, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) towards development of a reliable food testing laboratory network in the country. Various awareness programmes throughout the country were organized. |
| Environment
To meet the growing challenges and concerns raised due to pollution, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) monitors the levels of pollution and their effect on environment. With an objective that laboratories under pollution control board attain accreditation as per ISO/IEC 17025 which would ascertain the quality of the data generated for the studies, NABL joined hands with CPCB and organized four awareness programs with Pollution Control Boards and Pollution Control Committees on 10th August 2017, at CPCB Regional Directorate, Nisarga Bhawan, Bengaluru; 24th August 2017 at Hotel Critine, Bhopal; 12th September, 2017 at Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board, Shillong and 18th September, 2017 at Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gandhinagar |
| Durgs & Pharma
With an objective to improve quality of pharmaceutical products and to habituate Drugs & Pharma Sector with quality compliance by self-regulation, NABL in support with IPC/ Drug associations has conducted first awareness program on importance of accreditation and its benefits with a vision to ensure uniform quality standard of pharmaceutical products in the country. High mortality rate caused by the poor quality of drugs due to non compliance to GMP requirements by the pharma industry is a big threat to public health and a minimum benchmark for effectiveness, safety and quality of Drugs need to be defined. With an approach towards self-regulation i.e to have minimum regulation with maximum quality compliance, NABL is working in close nexus with various G\government agencies. |
| Medical Labs
As healthcare sector involves medical testing laboratories which directly affect patient care and line of treatment, these labs are all the more important to deliver quality services. For public health and patient safety, a huge responsibility lies on medical diagnostic laboratories as test results from these labs make a critical difference in diagnosis and line of treatment. Diagnostic laboratories can improve their performance and quality of services by complying with ISO 15189:2012 standard. Such improvement in quality instils confidence in these labs. Government of India through National Health Mission (NHM) is taking measures to enhance confidence of users in the test results generated by public health laboratories thereby improving their image and making it cost effective for the society. To encourage laboratories of health sector at grass root level NABL is working in hand with Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in capacity building for these labs. The journey of NABL in Medical Testing labs since its inception has been very dynamic which is evident from the number of laboratories accredited by NABL within its economy as well as overseas and now with this constant effort by NABL towards increased awareness in the society for Quality, the inflow of application for accreditation of labs is expected to increase at an exponential rate. |
Given below is the growth in number of accredited medical testing laboratories:
Further, the state-wise break up of accredited and applicant laboratories are given below:
NABL has also accredited two laboratories in Medical Testing in Nepal and we are in receipt of many requests for accreditation from other countries.
